The audit process

Five steps to understanding your AI visibility

No black boxes. Here's exactly what we do, how long it takes, and what you get at the end.

01Day 1

Discovery & scoping

We start with a short intake form asking about your business, your top services, your target geography, and two or three competitors you care about most. No long calls, no lengthy briefs.

You fill in a short intake form (takes 10 minutes)
We review your website, Google Business Profile, and any existing marketing
We identify your core service categories and customer intent patterns
We agree on your primary competitor set (typically 2–3 businesses)

02Day 1–2

Prompt engineering

We write 30–50 prompts that real customers are likely to use when asking AI engines about your category. These aren't generic — they reflect actual search behaviour for your industry and location.

Branded prompts: direct questions mentioning your business by name
Category prompts: 'best [service] in [city]' style queries
Problem-aware prompts: 'I need help with X, who should I use?'
Comparison prompts: 'who is better, X or Y?' type questions

03Day 2–3

AI engine testing

We run every prompt across ChatGPT (GPT-4o), Google Gemini, and Perplexity AI. We record full responses, note every mention of your brand and competitors, and capture the context of each mention.

Each prompt is run fresh to avoid cached personalisation
We capture full verbatim responses, not just tallies
We note positive, neutral, and negative sentiment for each mention
We record ranking position when multiple businesses are listed

04Day 3–4

Competitor benchmarking

We run the same prompt set against your nominated competitors. This gives you a true apples-to-apples comparison — not an abstract score, but a direct read on who is winning the AI conversation in your market.

Same prompts, same engines, same recording methodology
Head-to-head visibility rates for each competitor
Identification of prompts where competitors consistently beat you
Note of any unique strengths or weaknesses surfaced by AI engines

05Day 4–5

Report & recommendations

We compile everything into a clear, human-readable report. You get a headline visibility score, a detailed breakdown, a competitor comparison, and a prioritised list of actions — ordered by likely impact.

An AI Visibility Score (0–100) with engine-by-engine breakdown
Full prompt log with pass/fail/partial results for each engine
Competitor comparison table with gap analysis
3–7 prioritised recommendations tailored to your business
Guidance on which recommendations you can action yourself vs. need specialist help

AI engines we test across

ChatGPT

GPT-4o

The most widely used AI assistant globally. Particularly dominant for conversational queries and direct brand recommendations.

Google Gemini

Gemini 1.5 Pro

Google's AI engine, increasingly integrated into search results and Android. Critical for any business relying on Google traffic.

Perplexity

Perplexity Pro

The fastest-growing AI search engine. Commonly used by professionals and early-adopter buyers to research purchases.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from normal SEO?

Traditional SEO tracks rankings in Google's blue-link results. AI visibility is about whether your business appears in the conversational answers that ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity generate. These are different systems with different inputs — and most SEO tools don't track them at all.

What do I need to provide?

Just a short intake form. We need your business name, website, core services, location, and a couple of competitor names. Everything else we research ourselves.

How long does the audit take?

We deliver within 5 working days of receiving your completed intake form. In practice it's often faster.

Can I act on the recommendations myself?

Yes. We write the recommendations to be actionable by a business owner or their existing marketing team, without needing specialist AI knowledge. For clients who want help implementing, we offer ongoing monthly monitoring which includes hands-on guidance.

Do you cover international AI engines?

Our standard audit covers ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — the three engines driving the most AI-assisted search behaviour in the UK. We can extend to other engines on request.