Short answer
You can audit your AI visibility in 45 minutes with no tools, no budget and no developer: ask five assistants three customer questions, line up your directory listings, count recent reviews, read your own site as a stranger, then check robots.txt for crawler blocks.
Section 01
The audit, minute by minute
No tools, no budget, no developer. A notepad and a bit of courage. Do it now rather than "when things calm down", because things are not going to calm down.
| Minutes | Do this | What you're looking for |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude and Perplexity the same three questions a customer would ask. "Best [service] in [town]?" "Who does [thing] for [type of customer]?" "Is [your business] any good?" | Are you named? Are competitors named? Is anything about you flat-out wrong? Screenshot everything — this is your before photo. |
| 10–20 | Open your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Yelp, Apple Business Connect and any trade directory you're on. Line up name, address, phone, hours, services, categories. | Any mismatch at all. Old mobile numbers, "Ltd" on one and not another, a unit number that moved in 2019. |
| 20–28 | Count your reviews and their dates across every platform, not just Google. | Nothing in the last 60 days is a red flag. Owner replies missing is a red flag. One platform at 4.9 and another at 3.2 is a conversation. |
| 28–36 | Visit your own site as a stranger. Can you find price ranges, service areas, who you serve, and how to book in under 15 seconds? | "Bespoke solutions tailored to you" is not information. If a human can't extract a fact, a model can't quote one. |
| 36–45 | Type yoursite.com/robots.txt into your browser. Then search your site for a page listing your prices or FAQs. | Any line mentioning GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended with "Disallow". That's a locked door somebody installed for you. |
Section 02
Or press one button
If you'd rather not spend your Tuesday reading robots.txt files, the free audit at tools.aeo-rex.com does the whole table above and hands you a prioritised list. It's free because the results usually sell the next bit for us.
Free 60-second check
How might AI see your business? Get a free Snapshot, checked from your website. I don't call you.
Your score across the major engines, whether you're blocking the crawlers, and the three things costing you the most — on screen before you've finished your coffee. If it comes back healthy I'll tell you to spend your money elsewhere.
Free 60-second check✓ No card. No sales call unless you ask for one.
This chapter is part of Get Seen by the Robots, also available as a free PDF: Download the PDF version.
