GEO Guides
How to run a free GEO audit, even if you’re not an expert
A free GEO audit tells you in a few minutes whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini or Google AI Overviews mention your brand when your customers ask a question. You don’t need to be a GEO expert to start. All you need is your brand name, what you sell and your main competitors.
That is exactly what the VizibAI free AI visibility check does: no signup, no commitment, and no sales rep calling you the next day.
How do you run a free GEO audit? The short answer
List 5 to 10 questions your buyers actually ask AI (“best [category] for [use case] in [country]”).
Ask them to at least one AI assistant: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini or Google.
Note whether your brand appears, in what position, with what tone, and which sources are cited.
Compare with 1 to 3 direct competitors.
Calculate your share of voice to get a first AI visibility score.
Key takeaway: A GEO audit starts by observing AI answers, not by running a technical scan of your site. The free VizibAI tool automates steps 1 to 5 in about 5 minutes.
Why we built a truly free GEO audit
Most “free AI audits” work the same way: you paste your website URL, leave your email, and a sales rep contacts you to walk you through the report. The audit is mostly a lead form.
This model has three problems:
You can’t see the method. The score comes out of a black box, without the questions tested or the AI’s answers.
You don’t learn anything. You get a number, not the logic you need to improve it.
You wait. The result arrives after a call, not when you actually need the answer.
We took the opposite approach. The VizibAI AI visibility check is free, requires no signup, and your answers are stored only in your browser. You see every question, every AI answer and every calculation.
Key takeaway: A good free GEO audit gives you an immediate snapshot and teaches you the method. If it asks for your URL and a meeting first, it’s a contact form, not an audit.
The GEO logic behind the tool: observe the AI SERP
We built the tool to mirror the core reasoning behind any serious GEO strategy. Before optimizing anything, you look at what AI actually tells your customers. It’s the equivalent of SERP analysis in SEO, applied to generated answers.
A raw GEO strategy always follows the same sequence:
Start from buyer questions, phrased the way buyers ask them, in their language and for their market.
Observe the AI SERP: which brands are mentioned, in what order, with what tone.
Identify the sources: which pages AI cites or reads to build its answer.
Understand why those pages get picked up: structure, H tags, brand mentions, freshness, authority.
Build your strategy around those gaps: content to create, pages to restructure, third-party sites to target.
The free check covers steps 1 and 2, and opens step 3 by checking whether your own site is cited. The VizibAI platform takes over for steps 3 to 5. To dig into the role of sources, read our article on the sources and citations that shape ChatGPT’s answers.
Key takeaway: GEO doesn’t start with a technical site audit. It starts with the AI’s answer, which shows who wins and which sources put them there.
How to use the free GEO audit tool, step by step
The flow fits on three screens: set up, test on AI, read your results. Expect about 3 minutes in Express mode and 5 minutes for the full audit.
Step 1: describe your brand the way a buyer would
Your brand: the name as your customers write it.
What you sell: in customer language, not internal jargon (“payroll software for small businesses”, not “modular HCM solution”).
Question language: 7 languages available, including English, French, Spanish and German.
Market: your buyers’ country, added automatically to the questions.
Competitors: up to 3, to calculate your share of voice.
Step 2: choose the level of detail
Mode | What it measures | Time |
|---|---|---|
Express | Brand presence and position in the answer | ≈ 3 min |
Full audit | Presence, position, tone of the answer and whether your site is cited as a source | ≈ 5 min |
Step 3: choose which AI to test
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode or AI Overviews. The tool writes 5 buyer questions and opens them in one click in the assistant you chose. On Gemini, the question is copied so you can paste it.
Step 4: score each answer
For each question, note whether your brand and your competitors are mentioned, and in what position. In the full audit, add the tone and whether the AI cites your site. If Google shows no AI Overview, tick “No AI Overview” and the question isn’t counted.
Tip: AI answers vary by day, account and model. Test in a private browsing window and repeat on a second assistant to confirm the trend. Our guide to measuring your visibility in ChatGPT details this protocol.
Reading your score: a snapshot, not a verdict
Your AI visibility score combines four signals. It uses the same logic as the VizibAI platform, adapted for a manual check.
Signal | What it measures | Effect on the score | Mode |
|---|---|---|---|
Share of voice | How often you’re mentioned in answers that mention at least one brand | Sets the score’s ceiling | Express + full |
Position | Where you appear in the answer | Being mentioned early keeps your score | Express + full |
Tone | Positive, neutral or negative mention | Raises or lowers the score | Full |
Sources | Does the AI cite your own pages? | Raises the score | Full |
The result gives you an overall snapshot: are you absent, mentioned in passing, or recommended first? And against which competitors? That’s the starting point of any GEO effort. To go further on these metrics, see our guide to the GEO KPIs to track.
Key takeaway: A score on its own says little. What matters is the gap with the most-mentioned competitor on the same questions. To measure that gap, read our guide to GEO competitive intelligence.
From free check to platform: understanding why some pages win
The free check tells you who AI recommends. The VizibAI platform tells you why, and what to do next. It goes one level deeper into the AI SERP:
Sources: every page AI cites or reads, yours and your competitors’, grouped by domain and type (media, comparison sites, forums, reviews).
Mentions: how your brand and competitors are described, with which attributes and what tone.
The structure of winning pages: H tags, answer formats, tables, FAQs, content freshness.
The reasons behind the ranking: what those pages have in common, and what yours are missing.
The action plan: recommendations ranked by impact and effort.
Free check | VizibAI platform | |
|---|---|---|
Questions | 5 to 10 | Hundreds, grouped by topic |
AI models | 1 at a time | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews |
Markets and languages | 1 at a time | All languages, all countries |
Frequency | One-off | As often as you need |
Sources | Your site, checked by hand | All sources, yours and your competitors’ |
Next steps | 3 general actions | Prioritized action plan |
To turn this analysis into a roadmap, follow our method to build a GEO strategy.
Key takeaway: Pages don’t get picked up by chance. By analyzing the sources, mentions and H-tag structure of the pages AI cites, you find concrete levers to take their place.
Go further: request your free full AI visibility audit
Once your check is done, you can request a full audit run by our experts on the VizibAI platform. Leave your email and company name at the bottom of the free audit tool page and we’ll come back to you with an analysis of the sources, mentions and pages ranking ahead of you.
The difference with “URL + sales rep” audits: you come to the conversation with your own snapshot. The discussion is about your real gaps, not a product demo.
No commitment.
Your email is only used to reply to you.
You keep your check results, even if you don’t request the audit.
Key takeaways
A free GEO audit doesn’t need to be complicated or reserved for experts. Three lessons to remember:
Observe first: the AI’s answer to your buyers is the only measure that matters at the start.
Compare next: your visibility only means something against your competitors, on the same questions.
Act on sources: cited pages, their mentions and their structure are what explain the recommendations.
Start with the free AI visibility check, then request your full audit. For ongoing tracking, book a platform demo.
FAQ
Is a free GEO audit reliable?
Yes, as long as you read it as a snapshot. AI answers vary by time, account and model. A check on 5 to 10 questions gives a reliable trend; regular tracking across several models gives a measurement.
Do I need to be a GEO expert to run an audit?
No. The tool writes the buyer questions for you and calculates the score. You only need to describe your offer the way a customer would and name your competitors.
How do I get visible on ChatGPT for free?
Start by measuring where you stand with a free check. Then work on three levers that need no budget: clear category and comparison pages, accurate and consistent brand information everywhere, and a presence on the sites and communities AI cites in your industry.
What’s the difference between a GEO audit and an SEO audit?
An SEO audit measures your ranking in Google’s links. A GEO audit measures whether AI assistants mention and recommend your brand in their answers, and based on which sources. The two complement each other.
What happens after the check?
Nothing, if that’s what you want. Your results stay in your browser. You can also request a free full audit from our experts, with no commitment.
How often should I repeat the check?
At least once a month, and after every major publication or PR push. Beyond a few dozen questions, a tracking tool like VizibAI automates the repetition.
