A free GEO audit is something you can run yourself in about an hour. You test the prompts your buyers actually ask across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Copilot and Claude. Then you record how often each engine mentions or cites your brand compared with your competitors. That number is your citation share, and it is the one metric that tells you whether generative engines see you as a source worth using.
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Most people skip this and go straight to rewriting content. That is backwards. You can't fix what you haven't measured. In this guide I'll show you how generative engines pick their sources, how to test every major engine one by one, and how to turn what you find into a fix list you can work through this month. If you would rather learn the whole method yourself, the AI Profit Boardroom teaches it step by step.
If you'd rather have someone walk through it with you, get a free SEO strategy session and we'll look at your AI visibility together on the call.
What GEO Is and Why the Audit Comes First
GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. The term comes from a 2023 research paper on optimising content for generative search engines. AEO, answer engine optimisation, has the same goal, and people use the two terms interchangeably. Both are about getting your brand cited and recommended inside AI answers.
If you want the straight comparison with traditional search, read my breakdown of GEO vs SEO. The short version: classic SEO still matters underneath, because a lot of what AI engines pull comes from pages that already rank and get crawled.
The audit comes first because GEO is unusually easy to guess wrong about. You might assume ChatGPT ignores you when it actually mentions you, just without a link. Or you might assume Perplexity loves you when it is citing a competitor's comparison page every single time. One hour of testing saves you weeks of fixing the wrong thing.
How Generative Engines Pick Their Sources
You don't need to know the internals of every model. You need to know the patterns that show up again and again when you test. Here is what tends to decide whether you get picked.
- Retrieval first. Engines that search the web before answering, like Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode and Copilot, can only cite pages they can find and crawl. If a page isn't indexed, it can't be a source.
- Direct answers. Pages that answer the question in the first sentence, then back it up with lists, tables and FAQs, are easy to lift into an answer.
- Entity clarity. Engines need to know who you are. A consistent brand name, a clear about page, author bios and schema such as Organization, Article and FAQ all help.
- Third-party mentions. AI answers lean heavily on review sites, roundups, forums and "best X" lists. If you're not on the sites the engine cites, you're often not in the answer.
- Consistency across the web. When many independent sources describe you the same way, the engine has more confidence repeating it.
Every check in a free GEO audit maps back to one of these. That's what makes the results useful instead of just interesting.
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How to Run a Free GEO Audit on Citation Share
Here's the process I'd follow. It costs nothing but time and a spreadsheet.
- Write 20 to 30 real buyer prompts. Mix "best X for Y", "X vs Y", "how do I fix Z" and "who is the top X in [city]". Use the words your customers use on sales calls, not your internal jargon.
- Pick three to five competitors. Use the ones you actually lose deals to.
- Run every prompt in every engine. Use a fresh or logged-out session where you can, so personal history doesn't skew the answer.
- Record mentions and citations separately. A mention is your brand named in the answer. A citation is your URL shown as a source. They are different wins.
- Work out citation share. For each engine, count the prompts where you're cited, and divide by the total prompts. Do the same for each competitor.
- Repeat monthly. AI answers shift. One snapshot is a starting point, not a verdict.
Want a head start on the prompt list? My 200+ AI SEO Prompts include buyer-research prompts you can adapt in a few minutes.
If you want to learn this alongside people running the same tests every week, the AI Profit Boardroom is $69/mo and covers AI search workflows step by step.
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Engine-by-Engine Checks
Each engine behaves differently, so test them separately. Here's what to do in each one and what to write down.
| Engine | How to test | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Run each prompt with web search on, then again with it off | Brand mentioned yes or no, cited URLs, competitors named, how you're described |
| Perplexity | Run each prompt and open the sources panel | Every cited URL, whether it's yours, which third-party sites keep appearing |
| Gemini | Run each prompt and check any linked sources | Mentions, linked sources, whether facts about you are accurate |
| Google AI Overviews | Search each prompt in Google and expand the AI Overview | Whether an Overview shows, cited links, whether your page ranks below it |
| Google AI Mode | Run the same prompts in AI Mode | Cited links, follow-up suggestions, competitors recommended |
| Copilot | Run each prompt and check the footnoted sources | Cited URLs, mentions, which review or list sites it relies on |
| Claude | Run each prompt, with web search on where available | Mentions, cited sources, how it summarises your brand |
Two columns matter most when you're done: your citation share per engine, and the list of third-party URLs that get cited for your prompts but don't mention you. That second list is pure gold. It tells you exactly where you need to show up.
Halfway through and feeling stuck? Book a free SEO strategy session and we'll go through your spreadsheet with you.
The Technical and Entity Checks Behind the Numbers
Citation share tells you where you stand. These checks tell you why.
- Google Search Console. Confirm your key pages are indexed and see which queries they already get impressions for.
- robots.txt. Make sure you're not blocking crawlers you actually want to reach your pages.
- Schema. Run your important pages through Google's Rich Results Test and check for Organization, Article and FAQ markup.
- About and author pages. Check they exist, say clearly who you are and what you do, and match how you describe yourself everywhere else.
- Page structure. Look at your money pages. Does the first sentence answer the question? Are there tables, lists and an FAQ?
- Off-site footprint. Search your brand name and note which reviews, directories, forums and lists mention you.
For the answer-engine side of this, including how to check how AI describes your brand, see my free AEO audit guide. It pairs well with this one.
Turning Your Results Into a Fix List
An audit only pays off when it becomes a short list of jobs. Sort every finding into one of these buckets, in this order.
- Access problems. Pages not indexed or blocked. Fix these first, because nothing else works until engines can reach you.
- Missing pages. Prompts where nobody on your site answers the question. Create one focused page per prompt cluster, with a direct first sentence.
- Weak pages. You have a page, but it isn't cited. Tighten the opening, add a table, add an FAQ, add schema.
- Third-party gaps. The cited sources that don't mention you. Pitch them, get reviewed, get listed, earn the link.
- Entity cleanup. Inconsistent names, thin about pages, missing author bios.
Give each item an owner and a date. Then re-run the same prompts next month and compare citation share. That's the loop. Not sure what goes first? Get a free SEO strategy session. For the full playbook on doing the work itself, read how to do GEO.
Links still matter a lot here, because the third-party sites AI cites are usually the same sites that carry authority in Google. My free link building book shows how I approach outreach.
If you want to automate parts of the monthly re-test, my Agent OS guide shows how I set up AI agents to handle repeat tasks. And if you're curious how different AI models compare on SEO work, take a look at Goldie Bench.
The Free Expert Option
I've been doing SEO for over 10 years, and I teach AI SEO and AEO daily to more than 430K YouTube subscribers. My agency, Goldie Agency, focuses on link building and AI-first SEO, including visibility in AI answers.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes, book your free strategy session. It's a call, not a written report. We'll look at where you stand in Google and AI answers with you and map out a plan for what to fix first.
You can also book a free SEO strategy session straight into the calendar if that's easier.
Prefer to learn it and do it yourself? The AI Profit Boardroom at $69/mo is where I share the AI search workflows I use.
Get a free SEO strategy session and stop guessing how AI engines see your brand.
FAQ
Is a free GEO audit actually useful, or do I need paid tools?
It's genuinely useful. Running 20 to 30 real prompts across the main engines and recording who gets cited gives you a clear baseline. Paid tools help you track at scale later, but they don't replace knowing your own prompts.
How often should I re-run the audit?
Monthly is a good rhythm. AI answers change as engines update and as new pages get published, so a single snapshot goes stale fast.
What's the difference between a mention and a citation?
A mention is your brand named in the answer text. A citation is your page linked as a source. Track both, because some engines mention brands without linking, and a citation is what sends traffic.
Can you run the audit for me?
We don't send a written audit report. What you can do is book your free strategy session, and we'll look at your AI visibility with you on the call and map out the next steps. That's the fastest way to turn a free GEO audit into a plan.
