AI Visibility Checklist:
20 Things to Check Right Now
By Lesli Rose · April 12, 2026 · 12 min read
This is the checklist I use as the starting point for every AI visibility audit. Twenty items, five categories, under an hour. You can run through this yourself and know exactly where your AI visibility stands. Grab a notebook, open your website in one tab, and let's go.
Category 1: Technical Infrastructure
These are the foundation. If AI crawlers cannot access your site, nothing else matters.
1. Robots.txt AI Crawler Access
How to check: Go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Look for GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended.
What good looks like: Search-oriented crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended) are either not mentioned (allowed by default) or explicitly allowed.
2. Security Plugin Bot Blocks
How to check: If you use WordPress, check Wordfence, Sucuri, or your security plugin's bot/firewall settings. Look for blocked AI user-agents or blanket "block unknown bots" settings.
What good looks like: AI crawler user-agents are whitelisted. No blanket bot blocking that catches AI crawlers.
3. CDN/WAF Firewall Rules
How to check: If you use Cloudflare, Sucuri CDN, or another WAF, check the firewall and bot management settings for AI bot blocks.
What good looks like: No firewall rules blocking AI crawler user-agents. AI bots are not categorized as threats.
4. XML Sitemap
How to check: Go to yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Verify it exists, loads properly, and includes all your important pages.
What good looks like: Valid XML sitemap with all service pages, location pages, blog posts, and key content pages listed. Referenced in your robots.txt.
Category 2: Content and Schema
This is how AI understands what your business is and what you offer.
5. Organization Schema
How to check: Use Google's Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results) on your homepage. Look for Organization or LocalBusiness schema with name, logo, URL, contactPoint, and sameAs.
What good looks like: Complete Organization schema with all fields filled in, including sameAs links to your social profiles and directory listings.
6. LocalBusiness Schema (if applicable)
How to check: Same tool as above. Look for LocalBusiness schema with address, geo coordinates, openingHours, and priceRange.
What good looks like: Complete LocalBusiness schema with accurate address, hours, and service area. Matches your Google Business Profile exactly.
7. Service/Product Schema
How to check: Run the Rich Results Test on each of your main service or product pages. Look for Service or Product schema.
What good looks like: Every service page has Service schema with name, description, provider, and areaServed. Every product page has Product schema with name, description, and offers.
8. FAQ Schema
How to check: Run the Rich Results Test on pages that have Q&A content. Look for FAQPage schema.
What good looks like: Every page with FAQ content has matching FAQPage schema. Questions match how real customers ask about your services.
9. Content Depth on Service Pages
How to check: Read your main service pages. Do they explain what you do in specific, plain language? Or are they vague marketing copy?
What good looks like: Service pages with 500+ words of specific, extractable content. Answers the questions someone would ask AI about your service. Not just "we provide excellent solutions."
10. About Page with Person Schema
How to check: Visit your About page. Is there a real person identified with their credentials, role, and expertise? Check for Person schema.
What good looks like: About page with named individuals, their roles, credentials, and Person schema connecting them to the business entity.
Category 3: Earned Visibility
AI trusts what others say about you more than what you say about yourself.
11. Google Business Profile
How to check: Search your business name on Google. Click your Google Business Profile. Verify name, address, phone, hours, categories, and description are accurate and complete.
What good looks like: Fully completed profile with accurate info that matches your website exactly. Primary and secondary categories set. Description filled in. Photos uploaded. Posts active.
12. Review Volume and Recency
How to check: Check your Google, Yelp, and industry-specific review counts. When was your most recent review?
What good looks like: 20+ Google reviews with a 4.0+ average. At least one review in the last 30 days. Active review profiles on relevant platforms for your industry.
13. Third-Party Directory Listings
How to check: Search your business name in quotes on Google. See which directories list you. Check that your name, address, and phone match everywhere.
What good looks like: Consistent NAP (name, address, phone) across all directories. Listed on the major ones: Yelp, BBB, industry-specific directories, local chamber of commerce.
14. Third-Party Mentions and Articles
How to check: Search your business name on Google News, industry publications, and local media sites. Have you been mentioned anywhere besides your own site?
What good looks like: At least 2 to 3 mentions on external sites -- news articles, guest posts, industry roundups, podcast appearances, or case study features.
Category 4: Social Presence
AI uses social profiles to verify your entity and build confidence in recommendations.
15. LinkedIn Profile
How to check: Search your business on LinkedIn. Does your company page exist? Is it complete? Does the founder/owner have a personal profile linked to it?
What good looks like: Complete company page with description, logo, URL, and employees linked. Owner/founder has a personal profile with the company listed.
16. Social Profile Links in Schema
How to check: Check your Organization schema for sameAs links. Do they include your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and other active profiles?
What good looks like: All active social profiles listed in sameAs. URLs are correct and point to the right profiles. No dead links or outdated URLs.
17. Consistent Branding Across Platforms
How to check: Visit each of your social profiles. Is your business name, description, and contact info consistent with your website?
What good looks like: Same business name, same description tone, same contact info everywhere. AI uses consistency as a trust signal.
Category 5: Entity Consistency
This is the glue that ties everything together. AI builds an entity profile from every source it can find. Inconsistencies erode trust.
18. NAP Consistency
How to check: Compare your business name, address, and phone number across your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, and any other directory listing.
What good looks like: Exact match everywhere. Not "ABC Company" on your site and "ABC Company LLC" on Yelp. Not a different phone number on your Facebook page.
19. Service Description Consistency
How to check: Read how your services are described on your website, your Google Business Profile, your Yelp page, and your social profiles. Do they match?
What good looks like: Your core services are described the same way everywhere. If you call it "emergency plumbing" on your website, your Google Business Profile also says "emergency plumbing" -- not "24/7 pipe repair."
20. AI Recommendation Test
How to check: Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google (look for AI Overviews) to recommend a business in your category and location. Do you show up?
What good looks like: You are named in at least one AI platform's recommendation. Your description is accurate. If you do not show up in any, that tells you exactly where to start.
How to Score Yourself
Give yourself one point for each item you pass. Here is what your score means:
› 16-20: Strong AI visibility foundation. Focus on refining and expanding.
› 11-15: Gaps that are costing you recommendations. Prioritize the Technical Infrastructure items first.
› 6-10: Significant gaps. AI systems are likely recommending your competitors instead. Start with items 1, 5, and 11.
› 0-5: Your business is essentially invisible to AI. The good news: every fix you make will have outsized impact because you are starting from the ground up.
Most businesses I audit score between 5 and 10. That is not a failure -- it just means there is a lot of room to improve, and each improvement moves the needle.
This checklist finds the problems. The full audit fixes them.
This DIY checklist tells you where your gaps are. A full AI visibility audit goes deeper -- testing actual AI recommendations, analyzing your competitor positioning, reviewing your full schema implementation, and building a prioritized action plan. If you want to skip the guesswork and get it done right, that is what the audit is for.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does this AI visibility checklist take?
Most people get through all 20 items in 45 minutes to an hour. Some items take 30 seconds, others take a few minutes. The goal is identifying your gaps, not fixing everything in one sitting.
What if I fail most of these checks?
That is normal. Most businesses fail 12 to 15 of these 20 checks. AI visibility is a new discipline. Focus on Technical Infrastructure first -- those are the foundation everything else builds on.
Can I do this checklist myself or do I need a developer?
You can do the assessment yourself. Every item can be checked without technical skills. Fixing what you find (especially robots.txt and schema) might need a developer, but identifying the problems is something any business owner can do.
What is the most important item on this checklist?
Item 1 -- robots.txt AI crawler access. If AI crawlers cannot read your site, nothing else matters. After that, Organization schema (item 5) and Google Business Profile accuracy (item 11) are the next highest impact. Start with those three.
Want the Full Audit?
This checklist finds the problems. The full AI visibility audit fixes them -- with a prioritized action plan built for your specific business. AI Visibility Action Plan, no commitment.
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