How to Audit Your Website for AI Search Visibility
By ADV Strategy Pro · AEO Research Team · Last updated:
Many businesses have never checked whether Google AI Overviews or Perplexity can read their website. This 7-step checklist gives you a concrete, repeatable process to review your AI search readiness.
The 7-Step AI Visibility Audit Checklist
Check JSON-LD Schema Coverage
JSON-LD structured data is one way to state clearly what you do and who you serve. Without it, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity have less explicit information to work with. Run every page through the Google Rich Results Test to validate your markup.
What to look for:
- Organization schema with name, URL, logo, and sameAs social links
- Product or Service schema on every offering page with price and description
- FAQPage schema matching real questions your customers ask
- BreadcrumbList schema for clear site hierarchy signaling
- Zero validation errors in Google Rich Results Test output
Verify Semantic Triple Density
AI systems parse content as Subject-Predicate-Object statements (semantic triples). "ADV Strategy Pro delivers AEO-optimized landing pages" is a triple. "We offer great services" is not. Pages with high triple density give AI systems clearer statements to quote. No citation result is promised.
What to look for:
- At least 3 clear semantic triples per paragraph of body content
- Named entities (company name, product names, locations) used explicitly
- Active voice with concrete verbs ("delivers", "provides", "solves")
- No vague pronouns ("it", "they", "this") where a named entity should appear
Audit FAQ Coverage
FAQPage schema is one structured signal AI systems can read. It only helps when the questions match real user queries — manufactured FAQs with questions nobody asks provide zero value.
What to look for:
- FAQ questions sourced from Google's "People Also Ask" and search console query data
- Short, self-contained answers that make sense when quoted on their own
- Each answer starts with a direct statement, not a preamble
- At least 3 FAQs per key landing page, 5+ on pillar content pages
Evaluate Content Structure
Pages that state the answer early are easier for AI systems to quote. If your page opens with a brand story, a mission statement, or three paragraphs of context before reaching the point, the answer is harder to extract.
What to look for:
- First 50 words directly answer the target query for that page
- H1 contains the primary keyword or question being targeted
- H2/H3 hierarchy maps to subtopics AI might extract independently
- No walls of text — content broken into scannable sections under 150 words
Analyze Internal Link Architecture
AI crawlers follow links to build entity graphs. A hub-and-spoke topology — where pillar pages link to related content and vice versa — signals topical authority. Orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them) are harder for crawlers to find.
What to look for:
- Every page reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage
- Hub-and-spoke linking between related content clusters
- Zero orphan pages (use Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to verify)
- Descriptive anchor text with entity names, not "click here" or "learn more"
Test Page Speed & Technical Signals
Core Web Vitals are part of Google's page experience signals. A page that cannot be crawled or indexed cannot be surfaced by AI Overviews, so technical health is the foundation layer.
What to look for:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1
- HTTPS enforced sitewide with no mixed-content warnings
- Mobile-first responsive design passing Google Mobile Friendly Test
- Clean robots.txt allowing AI crawler access (no accidental Googlebot blocks)
Benchmark Against Competitors
An audit in isolation tells you where you stand. A competitive benchmark tells you how you compare. Compare your pages against your top 3 competitors to identify where you lead and where you are behind on structured data and content.
What to look for:
- Your pages vs competitors (schema depth, FAQ coverage, triple density)
- Which competitors already appear in Google AI Overviews for your target queries
- Gaps in their schema (missing Product, missing FAQ, broken triples)
- Content topics they cover that you do not
What Happens After the Audit
An audit without action is just a report. ADV Strategy Pro offers two next steps. The Search Opportunity Action Plan ($197, one time) is a diagnostic: a crawlability audit, entity consistency review, competitor gap analysis and a prioritized roadmap with structured data recommendations, with a delivery target of 48 hours after receipt of the onboarding questionnaire and competitor URLs. It does not include site build or page deployment.
The Search-to-Sale Landing Page ($697, exactly one page) is deployed with structured data (JSON-LD), SSL and a global CDN, with a delivery target of 72 hours after approved brief and required assets. The aim is clearer structured data for AI engines. No specific improvement in citations, rankings or leads is promised.
Open the On-Page Readiness Guide — Free
Our free On-Page Readiness Guide walks you through schema coverage, content structure, semantic triple density, and technical signals. It is a guide, not an automated scanner; an automated on-page scanner is in development.