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AI SEO audit checklist: 12 checks for AI search

An AI SEO audit asks one question: can AI crawlers and answer engines read your site, and do they have a reason to quote it? A normal SEO audit covers part of that. This checklist covers the rest in 12 checks you can run in an afternoon.

Work top to bottom. The first checks decide if a bot can reach your pages at all. The last ones decide if it trusts what it finds.

Access checks

1. robots.txt lets the AI crawlers you want. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. Look for rules that name GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended. A blanket Disallow: / under User-agent: * blocks all of them. Our guide to AI crawlers in robots.txt lists each bot and what it does.

2. Your firewall does not block them. Some CDN bot settings return a 403 to AI crawlers when robots.txt says yes. Ask your host which bot rules are on.

3. Pages render without JavaScript. Many AI crawlers read the raw HTML. If your product copy loads after scripts run, the bot sees an empty shell. View the page source and search for a sentence from the page.

4. A sitemap lists every page you want found. The sitemap should sit at /sitemap.xml or be named in robots.txt, and it should follow the sitemap protocol. Drop redirects and 404s from it.

Structure checks

5. An llms.txt file sits at the root. The llms.txt format gives models a short map of your site in Markdown: a title, a one line summary, and links to your key pages. See our llms.txt example for a copy-ready file.

6. Schema matches the page. Use Organization on the home page, Product or SoftwareApplication on product pages, and FAQPage where you answer questions. Schema should describe what a reader can see on the page, not add claims.

7. Each page has one clear title and H1. Answer engines lift headings into summaries. A vague H1 such as "Welcome" gives them nothing to work with.

8. Facts sit in plain text. Prices, plan limits, hours, and service areas belong in HTML text, not in images or PDFs.

Trust checks

9. Pages name a source for each claim. A stat with a link is easier to quote than a stat without one.

10. Your brand facts match across the web. Name, address, and what you sell should read the same on your site, your profiles, and directory listings.

11. Google Search basics pass. Google says pages need to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to show in its AI features, and that it sets no extra technical rules beyond that (Google AI features guide). Fix crawl errors in Search Console first.

12. You test what AI tools say about you. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google the questions your buyers ask. Note who gets cited. Our guide on how to show up in ChatGPT search covers this step.

Free check vs a full audit

Checks 1, 4, 5, and 6 take seconds with the free AI Ready Check. It reads your homepage, robots.txt, llms.txt, schema, and sitemap.

A homepage check misses problems deeper in the site: a blog section blocked by robots.txt, product pages with no schema, or pages missing from the sitemap. The $19 deep report crawls up to 25 pages from your sitemap and links, tests 18 AI crawlers, and lists copy-paste fixes in the order to make them. It is a one-time payment for one domain, and pricing lists a $29 a month monitor that re-runs it each week.

FAQ

What is an AI SEO audit? A review of whether AI crawlers can reach your pages and whether answer engines can read and quote them. It covers robots.txt, firewall rules, rendering, sitemaps, llms.txt, schema, and how facts are written.

Can I get a free AI SEO audit tool? Yes. The AI Ready Check homepage tool is free and checks llms.txt, AI crawler rules, schema, and your sitemap.

When should I run an AI SEO audit? After each site redesign, CMS change, or CDN change, since those are when crawler rules and rendering break. Monthly is a good default for a busy site.

Does schema help with AI search? Schema helps machines read what a page is about. It does not guarantee a citation. Keep it accurate and matched to visible text.

Run your audit

Start with the free check. If it flags problems, or you want all 25 pages checked, get the $19 deep report. It runs in about a minute and comes with a full refund within 14 days.

Checked 2026-10-23. Prices and policies change. Confirm on the source before you buy.

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