Welcome to the LLM Visibility Audit
This audit helps you uncover how easily your website can be found, accessed, and understood by AI-powered tools like GPT-4, Bing Chat, Claude, and Perplexity.
These systems don’t just browse the web like Google once did. They depend on:
- Real-time signals (like IndexNow)
- Structured content (schema, semantic layout)
- Clean metadata
- Crawlable, accessible site architecture
This checklist walks you through a full technical self-assessment — from indexing setup to meta tags and schema markup — to help you see what the bots see.
🔍 Why It Matters
If your content isn’t structured for AI, it won’t be surfaced in answers — no matter how great it is. LLMs don’t guess. They need clarity, access, and context. Visibility isn’t just SEO anymore — it’s AEO: Answer Engine Optimization.
✅ How to Use This
- Be honest — this isn’t about getting a perfect score. It’s about identifying where you are today so you know what to fix.
- Complete the checklist with your web or marketing team.
- Use it as a diagnostic before writing new content, running paid media, or optimizing for organic traffic.
What You’ll Discover
By completing this audit, you’ll know:
- Whether search engines and AI tools are being notified when your site changes
- If bots can crawl and access all your core pages
- Whether your content is structured in a way LLMs can understand
- If your metadata and schema are helping — or hurting — visibility
- What’s missing that could keep your content from showing up in AI-powered tools
INDEXING SETUP
1. Do you currently notify search engines or AI-indexing tools when your site content changes (published, updated, deleted)?
☐ No — we don’t do this at all
☐ Not sure — we rely on search engines to figure it out
☐ Yes — we manually submit changes (sitemaps or individual URLs)
☐ Yes — we use automated tools like IndexNow or APIs
☐ Yes — we have full automation across all content changes
2: What methods do you use to notify indexing systems?
(Select all that apply)
☐ Sitemap submission (manual or via CMS)
☐ Google Search Console ping
☐ Bing Webmaster Tools
☐ IndexNow integration (manual or partial)
☐ Fully automated IndexNow + sitemap submission
☐ None — we wait for crawlers to visit on their own
3: Do you have a sitemap.xml file for your website?
☐ No — we don’t have one
☐ Yes — but I’m not sure if it’s valid or up to date
☐ Yes — it exists and updates automatically
☐ Yes — and it’s optimized, clean, and well-structured
4: Is your sitemap.xml properly referenced and submitted?
☐ No — it’s not linked anywhere
☐ It’s referenced in robots.txt but not submitted to tools
☐ It’s submitted to Google but not Bing
☐ It’s submitted to both Google and Bing (or via IndexNow)
☐ It’s automatically submitted via our CMS or deployment process
5. Have you generated and uploaded your IndexNow API key file?
☐ No — I haven’t done this yet
☐ I generated the key but haven’t hosted the file
☐ I uploaded the file but I’m not sure it’s working
☐ Yes — it’s verified and the file is hosted correctly
☐ Yes — and it’s automatically updated as part of our site process
6. How are you currently using IndexNow?
☐ We’re not using it yet
☐ We submit URLs manually
☐ It’s connected via a plugin or tool (like WordPress, Cloudflare, Framer)
☐ It’s fully automated to submit on publish/update/delete
☐ It’s integrated into our deployment or CMS pipeline
CRAWLABILITY CHECKS
7. Can search engines and AI bots crawl all of your important pages?
☐ I’m not sure — we haven’t checked
☐ Many pages are blocked, broken, or not visible to bots (e.g., via robots.txt, noindex, or JS rendering)
☐ Some pages are crawlable, but others are restricted
☐ Most pages appear crawlable, but we haven’t formally validated
☐ All key pages are crawlable and verified in Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools
8: Do you have a robots.txt file, and is it configured for visibility?
☐ No — we don’t have one
☐ Yes, but I’m not sure what it allows or blocks
☐ Yes — but we haven’t updated it recently
☐ Yes — it’s configured to allow AI crawlers like GPTBot and BingBot
☐ Yes — and it includes sitemap + AI-specific directives for full access
9: Do you use canonical tags correctly on your pages?
☐ We don’t use canonical tags
☐ They’re present but inconsistent or unclear
☐ Used only on a few templates or blog pages
☐ Most pages include clear, self-referencing canonicals
☐ All pages are canonicalized correctly to avoid duplication and confusion
SEMANTIC OPTIMIZATION & META TAG AUDIT
10. Are your H1s and subheaders structured for clarity?
☐ There’s no consistent structure
☐ Headers are used inconsistently or just for visual formatting
☐ Some pages follow proper heading hierarchy
☐ Most follow H1 > H2 > H3 format
☐ All pages follow semantic structure optimized for LLM parsing
11. How clearly do your pages explain who they’re for and what they do?
☐ They don’t
☐ Some pages hint at this
☐ It’s somewhat clear in the body copy
☐ It’s stated near the top of each page
☐ It’s clearly stated in meta, headers, and intro — on every page
12. What best describes your meta tag hygiene?
☐ I don’t use meta tags
☐ We have generic or missing tags
☐ Tags exist but are not optimized
☐ Tags are optimized for search engines
☐ Tags are structured for LLM previews, snippets, and semantic clarity
13. Do your pages use Open Graph and AI-summary tags?
☐ No
☐ Some OG tags only
☐ OG tags on most pages
☐ OG + AI-summary tags (like data-ai-summary) on some pages
☐ All pages include OG and LLM-optimized summary tags
SCHEMA MARKUP & TRUST SIGNALS
14. Which types of schema do you currently use?
(Check all that apply)
☐ We don’t use structured data
☐ Only basic WebPage or Article schema
☐ FAQ or HowTo schema on a few pages
☐ Product or Service schema on key pages
☐ Organization, FAQ, Product, and other advanced types across the site
15. How aligned is your schema with your page content?
☐ No schema or mismatched types
☐ Schema is generic or templated
☐ Some schema is page-specific
☐ Most schema types match the page’s purpose
☐ All schema is contextually aligned and validated for each page
16. How complete, readable, and valid is your structured data?
☐ No schema or broken markup
☐ Auto-generated schema, mostly unedited
☐ Mostly valid but messy or hard to read
☐ Fully valid and mostly readable
☐ Clean, readable, and LLM-friendly — uses plain language, validated regularly
17. Have you tested whether your schema improves retrieval or citations in AI tools?
☐ No — haven’t tested this
☐ I’ve checked rich results, not AI behavior
☐ I’ve run some prompt tests
☐ I test schema performance in GPT/Claude regularly
☐ Schema QA includes LLM prompt testing, visibility tracking, and updates
Footer Note
Tip: Print this checklist and review it with your marketing or technical team. It’s your diagnostic baseline for LLM discoverability and AI visibility.