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AI visibility audit: can ChatGPT see your site?

An AI visibility audit answers two questions. Can AI search tools fetch and read your pages? And when a buyer asks a question you can answer, does your site show up as a source?

The first question is technical and you can test it in minutes. The second takes a list of buyer questions and some patience. This guide covers both. For the full 12 point technical list, see our AI SEO audit checklist.

Test 1: are the search crawlers allowed?

OpenAI documents separate crawlers for separate jobs (OpenAI crawler docs). OAI-SearchBot finds pages to show in ChatGPT search. GPTBot collects data for model training. ChatGPT-User fetches a page when a user asks ChatGPT to open it.

Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. If OAI-SearchBot is blocked, your pages can't appear as ChatGPT search results. You can block GPTBot and allow OAI-SearchBot at the same time. Our guide to AI crawlers in robots.txt lists the main bots and their user agents.

Next, ask your host or CDN if a bot firewall is on. A firewall can block a crawler that robots.txt allows.

Test 2: is your main text in the HTML?

View the page source of your home page and one product or service page. Search for a sentence you can see on the page. If it is missing from the source, the text loads with JavaScript, and a crawler that does not run scripts sees a blank page.

Test 3: can the crawler find every page?

Your sitemap should list each page you want found, with no redirects or 404s. Name it in robots.txt so crawlers do not have to guess.

Test 4: llms.txt and schema

An llms.txt file gives models a short Markdown map of your site. Schema (Organization, Product, FAQPage) tells machines what a page is about. Neither guarantees a citation, but both cost little. See our llms.txt example.

Test 5: ask the questions your buyers ask

Write down 10 questions a buyer types before they pick a vendor like you. Ask each one in ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google. Note who gets cited. For Google, its AI features use the same index as Search, and Google says a page needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to show in AI features (Google AI features guide).

Repeat the same 10 questions each month. A change in who gets cited tells you more than any single score.

What the free check covers, and what it doesn't

The free AI Ready Check runs tests 1, 3 and 4 on your home page in seconds. It tests 8 AI crawlers and does not need a signup.

A home page check misses problems deeper in the site, such as a blocked blog folder or product pages with no schema. The $19 deep report reads up to 25 pages, tests 18 AI crawlers per path and ranks the fixes. If you want the audit to repeat each week, the $29 a month monitor re-scans up to 25 pages and keeps a score history.

FAQ

What is an AI visibility audit? A check of whether AI search tools can reach and read your pages, plus a test of whether they cite you for the questions your buyers ask.

How do I check if ChatGPT can see my site? Make sure robots.txt and your firewall allow OAI-SearchBot, confirm your main text is in the HTML, and ask ChatGPT search a question your site answers and see if it cites you.

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

Does blocking GPTBot hide me from ChatGPT search? No. OpenAI lists GPTBot for training and OAI-SearchBot for search as separate crawlers, each with its own robots.txt rule.

Start your audit

Run the free check on your home page. If it finds problems, get the $19 deep report for the full site.

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

Sources

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