How to Conduct an AI Visibility Audit with Semrush One

An AI visibility audit reveals whether aliases not your marque is recommended successful applicable AI-generated answers astir your category. 

It answers questions like:

• When personification asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, aliases Google AI astir our category, does our marque show up?
• What topics is our marque getting recommended on, and wherever are we missing?
• Is our existent website wellness and contented strategy group up to thief america win successful AI search?

This guideline shows you really to usage Semrush to reply these questions pinch an AI visibility audit. You'll measurement wherever the marque appears crossed AI platforms, which contented gets cited, and wherever topical gaps exist.

Don't person Semrush yet? Try our free AI visibility checker to get started without a commitment.

What to Include successful an AI Visibility Audit

Focus your audit connected these six signals:

• Overall Visibility & Share of Voice – How often your marque appears vs. competitors crossed AI platforms
• Brand Mentions – Frequency your marque sanction shows up successful AI-generated answers
• Website Citations – Which circumstantial pages AI pulls from erstwhile forming responses
• Topical & Sentiment Gaps – Topics wherever competitors are framed much favorably aliases clearly
• Content Opportunities – Questions AI already answers, but without mentioning your brand
• Technical Readiness – Whether AI crawlers tin entree and construe your content

These metrics found clear benchmarks and constituent toward high-priority adjacent steps

Step 1: Establish Your Baseline for AI Visibility

Start by measuring really your marque presently appears successful AI-generated answers utilizing Visibility Overview successful the Semrush AI Visibility toolkit.

This dashboard shows mention counts, cited pages, and distribution crossed AI platforms (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini).

Take note: Write down your brand’s AI Visibility score, mentions, and cited pages. These high-level metrics tin beryllium utilized to benchmark against competitors to spot if AI systems reference your marque sanction aliases mention your contented arsenic a root much than competitors.

For Allbirds, we spot 7.4K mentions and 581 cited pages.

This baseline now tin beryllium compared against different competing brands to spot if you person a visibility problem worthy solving.

Step 2: Identify Your Citation-Worthy Content 

Next, cheque which pages AI systems really mention erstwhile generating answers. Navigate to the "Cited Pages" conception successful Visibility Overview.

This shows which URLs from the domain are referenced successful AI responses and really galore prompts from the Semrush database each page presently gets cited for. 

Educational and comparison pages gain much citations than merchandise aliases class pages. 

For Allbirds, their homepage is cited astir (90 prompts), but circumstantial how-to contented (like recreation footwear guides, stepping vs. moving communal questions, and footwear care) besides get cited often.

Expand a page to spot the prompts and whether the marque sanction is "Mentioned" aliases "Missed" wrong those answers that mention the page. 

• 

  Cited and mentioned: this is simply a visibility win
• Cited but not mentioned: this could beryllium an opportunity to update the page and get mentioned for this punctual (as agelong arsenic different brands are getting mentioned)

Compare AI Cited Pages to SEO Top Pages 

You tin usage the Top Pages report to comparison this to the pages that pull the astir SEO traffic. Notice successful the lawsuit of Allbirds, the integrated postulation is mostly driven by postulation and class pages. 

These pages already rank good successful accepted search. Now optimize them for AI retrieval—add clear structure, usage question-and-answer formats, and concise summaries that AI systems tin extract and cite.

Step 3: Find Topics and Prompts Where Your Brand Is Missing

Topic gaps uncover wherever AI recommends your competitors and omits your marque successful a response. 

In Visibility Overview, scroll to "Topics & Sources" and prime "Topic Opportunities."

Each taxable shows wherever AI-generated answers beryllium and pull demand. Expanding a taxable reveals the circumstantial prompts producing those answers.

For Allbirds, high-volume topics for illustration "Running Shoes" and "Diabetic and Neuropathy Shoes" show 3 competitors mentioned—but not Allbirds. Each taxable tin beryllium expanded to uncover the circumstantial prompts generating those answers. 

Action: Take statement of the missed prompts to place questions that your existing contented doesn't answer, past create contented that addresses those questions intelligibly and directly.

Step 4. Analyze Brand Sentiment and the AI Narrative

Unlike hunt results, AI doesn’t rank brands by their URL. It can, however, picture a marque arsenic an action pinch pros and cons alongside different options. 

Use the Brand Performance reports to reappraisal sentiment crossed prompts and spot which brands are framed positively, neutrally, aliases negatively.

In this snapshot, Allbirds is usually framed favorably (88%) and holds the largest stock of sound (14%) successful AI answers compared to the competition.

You tin navigate to the Key Sentiment Drivers array successful the Perception Report to reappraisal the marque spot factors and areas for improvement—perfect for including successful your audit. 

The remainder of the widgets successful the Brand Performance conception spell deeper into exploring the factors down a brand’s affirmative sentiment and areas for betterment successful AI answers. 

So beryllium judge to research the remainder of those reports, aliases make a PDF from this instrumentality successful 1 click. 

Step 5. Identify Influential Off-Site Sources Shaping AI Answers

AI-generated answers often mention third-party UGC platforms for illustration Reddit, YouTube, Quora, LinkedIn, and Medium. Back successful the Visibility Overview, cheque "Cited Sources" to spot which outer domains are astir often cited crossed your halfway topics.

The extremity is to measure really overmuch power these platforms person successful your niche. If domains for illustration YouTube and Reddit look repeatedly, they’re shaping really AI systems explicate the class and which brands are referenced.

You tin usage this information to find if its worthwhile to put it increasing your marque connected YouTube aliases managing your estimation connected Reddit.

Step 6: Check Site-Level Issues That Affect AI Access

Use Site Audit to place method problems that make pages harder for AI systems to construe and cite. 

Common issues affecting AI visibility:

• Weak soul context: Links without descriptive anchor matter trim really intelligibly pages are framed for AI systems
• Structurally isolated pages: Pages pinch only 1 incoming soul nexus are little apt to beryllium referenced consistently
• Missing AI guidance file: No llms.txt doesn't artifact access, but removes a clear awesome astir really AI should construe tract content

These issues don't forestall AI crawling, but they explicate why citations travel from a smaller group of clearer pages. Fixing them makes much pages easier for AI systems to usage arsenic sources.

How to Deliver Your AI Visibility Audit

Focus connected presenting findings that are measurable and actionable. 

The astir useful audits uncover patterns: wherever AI consistently includes aliases excludes a brand, which contented types AI relies on, and really akin prompts are handled crossed the category.

Here are 3 options for delivery:

• Document Illustrated pinch Screenshots: Combine cardinal Semrush screenshots pinch little comments of what each study shows and what it implies. Quick to make and easy to stock by email.
• Standardized PDFs pinch Semrush My Reports: Use Semrush's My Reports templates to consolidate metrics successful 1 branded format. With connecting Google Analytics, this tin see widgets for analyzing AI referral traffic. These are perfect for recurring customer reports.
• A Video Walkthrough: Pair a written audit pinch a Loom signaling aliases unrecorded position to explicate really findings connect, item priorities, and explain tradeoffs. Best erstwhile alignment is needed earlier action.

Choose the format based connected really overmuch discourse your recipient needs to determine what to do next.

What to Do After Your AI Visibility Audit

Once you person an audit, you tin determine connected what to do next. The roadmap for improving AI visibility should beryllium unsocial for each business and situation, but here’s a suggested starting point.

Immediate (Week 1): Fix Technical Issues That Limit AI Access
Resolve problems affecting whether AI systems tin access, interpret, aliases property your content. These fixes person site-wide effect and group the instauration for everything that follows.

Near Term (Weeks 2–4): Improve Citation Readiness
Focus connected improving contented that’s not already cited. Make existing pages clearer, much complete, and easier for AI systems to reuse. After a month, you tin re-run your audit to spot really overmuch advancement has been made.

Mid Term (Months 2–3): Expand Topic Coverage
Address the topical gaps by building caller contented successful those areas wherever your marque is missing. 

Turn AI Visibility Audit Findings Into Clear Priorities

As AI systems progressively style really options are compared and recommended, galore brands still deficiency visibility into why their marque appears successful immoderate answers and not others. 

With Semrush, AI hunt patterns go observable signals you tin review, prioritize, and revisit complete time. Start pinch Semrush AI Visibility audit earlier your competitors do and enactment up successful your market. 

Banner: Run Your AI Visibility Audit pinch Semrush