A free GEO audit is a check of whether generative AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot can find your business, trust what you say and cite you when a buyer asks for advice, and for most businesses it's worth the time.
GEO means generative engine optimisation, which is the work of making your content and your brand more likely to be used in AI-written answers.
The phrase comes from a 2023 research paper called "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", which tested what actually makes content more visible inside those answers.
The reason a free GEO audit is worth doing is simple, because a buyer who asks an AI for three recommendations will usually only contact those three.
This post shows how four different kinds of business use a free GEO audit, which checks matter most for each one and the free routes to getting it done.
If you'd like my team to walk through your AI visibility with you, book a free strategy session and find out why competitors appear more often.
What A Free GEO Audit Is, In Plain English
A free GEO audit looks at three things.
The first is whether AI engines can actually read your website, because a blocked crawler can't cite anything.
The second is whether your key pages contain clear answers, real numbers, credible quotes and links to proper sources.
The third is whether the rest of the web describes your business the same way you do.
Goldie Agency's strategy session page explains why that third part matters so much.
It says AI platforms don't recommend brands simply because those brands publish more on their own websites, and that they look for consistent signals across the wider web.
It names trusted publications, expert articles, independent reviews, comparisons and credible third-party references as the signals that build a clear consensus around who you are.
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What The Original GEO Research Found
The 2023 paper that named GEO was written by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan and Ameet Deshpande, and it was accepted to KDD 2024.
The researchers tested nine ways of rewriting web content across a benchmark of 10,000 queries.
Adding citations to credible sources, adding quotations and adding statistics worked best, with a 30 to 40 percent relative improvement on their main visibility measure.
Keyword stuffing gave little to no improvement.
In the paper's tests, the cite-sources method helped lower-ranked websites far more than top-ranked ones, which is encouraging for smaller businesses.
These were controlled experiments with 2023 models, so I treat them as a sensible direction rather than a promise.
Use Case 1: A Local Business Protecting Its Calls
Think of a dentist, an accountant or a plumber that wins most of its work nearby.
Its buyers ask things like "best emergency plumber near me" or "is [business] open on Saturdays".
The checks that matter most are crawl access, freshness and accuracy, and brand consensus across directories and reviews.
Google's guidance on its AI features tells site owners to keep their Merchant Center and Business Profile information up to date, which is where many wrong local facts begin.
A local business usually gets its fastest win by fixing old hours, old services and mismatched addresses across every listing.
Use Case 2: A B2B Company Trying To Make The Shortlist
A software company or consultancy lives on comparison questions like "best CRM for small agencies".
The checks that matter most are brand consensus and the page-level checks on its comparison and product pages.
If the review sites and comparison articles cited by AI engines don't mention the company, it will struggle to appear in the answer.
The page-level fix is to add real, sourced numbers and named customer quotes, which lines up with what the GEO paper found worked best.
Use Case 3: An Online Shop Checking Its Product Facts
An online shop has a different weak spot, which is product facts going stale.
Prices, stock, delivery times and specs change constantly, and AI answers can repeat the old version.
The checks that matter most are freshness and accuracy, plus structured data that matches the page.
Google says structured data should match the visible text on the page and that Merchant Center information should be kept up to date.
Use Case 4: An Agency Or Consultant Using It As A First Step
An agency or consultant can run a free GEO audit on a prospect before the first call.
It turns a vague conversation about "AI search" into a concrete list of what's blocked, what's thin and what the wider web says.
The honest way to present it is as a snapshot with no guarantees, because nobody can promise what a model will say next month.
I'd never attach a promised result to it, and I'd be wary of any agency that does.
Which Checks Matter Most For Your Business
| Business type | Checks to run first | The question your audit should answer |
|---|---|---|
| Local business | Crawl access, freshness and accuracy, brand consensus | Do AI answers give buyers my correct hours, services and location? |
| B2B company | Brand consensus, statistics, quotations and sources | Do the sites AI engines cite for my category mention me at all? |
| Online shop | Freshness and accuracy, structured data matching the page | Are AI answers repeating old prices, stock or specs? |
| Agency or consultant | All ten checks at a light level | What are the three biggest gaps I can show this prospect? |
📞 Want a strategist to tell you which checks matter for your business? Book a free strategy session with Goldie Agency and leave with a custom visibility plan built around your business and a competitor gap analysis. → Claim your free strategy session
Three Free Ways To Get A GEO Audit Done
Route 1: Run it yourself
The do-it-yourself route takes about 90 minutes and costs nothing but time.
Check robots.txt first, because OpenAI's documentation says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot if you want to appear in its results.
Then ask five real buyer prompts in Perplexity, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode and note which sources each answer cites.
Then review your five most important pages for clear answers, sourced statistics, attributed quotes and links to credible sources.
Finally, compare twenty outside pages that mention your brand with your own description of your business.
My operator walkthrough on this network has the full ten-check scorecard if you want every step.
Route 2: Use Bing's free AI citation report
Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report, which Microsoft introduced as a public preview in February 2026.
It shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and select partner integrations, which pages get cited and the grounding queries behind those citations.
Microsoft describes it as an early step toward GEO tooling, and it's the most direct free citation data I've found.
In October 2026 Microsoft added a Topics Portfolio beta that lists queries where other sites appear and yours doesn't.
Route 3: Book a free session with an agency
Goldie Agency's free strategy session is a live call with an experienced strategist, and the page says it's 100% free with no obligation.
It works like a free GEO audit conversation, because you leave with a custom visibility plan, a clear AI visibility roadmap and a competitor gap analysis.
It isn't a written report or an automated tool, so it pairs well with the do-it-yourself checks above.
I also checked Go Fish Digital, which describes itself as a GEO and full-service digital marketing agency and offers a free GEO audit on its homepage.
I haven't used that audit, so I can't tell you what's inside it.
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A Prompt To Speed Up Your Free GEO Audit
This prompt handles the most tedious part of the audit, which is reviewing your key pages.
Business page GEO check:
I run [BUSINESS TYPE] in [LOCATION], and below is the text of one of my most important pages.
Tell me, in plain English, whether the first sentence of each section directly answers a customer's question.
List every number on the page and whether a source is named for it.
List every quote and whether the person or source is named.
List any outdated-looking facts, such as old years, old prices or old team names.
Do not rewrite the page and do not invent anything.
Use the answers as a to-do list for whoever edits your website.
Turning Your Audit Into Business Decisions
| What the audit found | What it usually means | The decision to make |
|---|---|---|
| AI crawlers are blocked | AI engines may not be able to read your pages at all. | Ask your web person to allow the crawlers you want to appear in. |
| You have no AI citations | Engines are using other sources for your category. | Study which sources they cite and earn a place on them. |
| Pages have no sourced numbers or quotes | Your content gives engines little worth quoting. | Add real data, named quotes and links to primary sources. |
| Outside sites contradict you | The web has no clear consensus about your business. | Update listings and earn fresh reviews, comparisons and bylines. |
| Facts are stale | AI answers may repeat old prices, hours or services. | Put a date on key pages and review them every quarter. |
The coverage decisions in that table match the work Goldie Agency's session page describes, which is bylines, reviews, comparisons, research and authority placements.
📞 Found gaps you can't fix in-house? Grab a free strategy session and get a plan for traffic, mentions and leads built around the trusted-source coverage your market needs. → Book your free session
The Honest Limits Of A Free GEO Audit
A free GEO audit shows you what to improve, but it can't tell you exactly how any engine will weigh those improvements.
The GEO paper measured visibility in controlled tests, which is useful evidence, but your market and today's engines are different.
Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode, so be wary of anyone selling a secret GEO file.
Nobody can guarantee what a generative engine will cite, and anyone who promises a fixed AI recommendation is promising something nobody controls.
Related Reading
- My free AEO report guide shows how to measure what AI tools say about your business each month.
- The combined free SEO and GEO audit puts classic SEO checks next to GEO checks.
- How I'd hire an AI SEO optimization agency helps if you'd rather pay someone to fix the gaps.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The 90-minute operator walkthrough for a free GEO audit
- 🌐 Ten GEO audit checks rated by the strength of their evidence
- 🌐 Running a free GEO audit monthly from your Agent OS
- 🌐 How the models behind generative engines score on GoldieBench
FAQ: Free GEO Audit For Business
Is a free GEO audit worth it?
For most businesses it is, because it costs only time and shows whether AI engines can read, trust and cite you.
It gives you a baseline and a short list of fixes, not a guarantee.
What is the difference between GEO and SEO?
SEO works on ranking pages in search results, while GEO works on being used and cited inside AI-written answers.
They overlap heavily, and Google says normal SEO best practices still apply to its AI features.
How can I get a free GEO audit?
You can run one yourself in about 90 minutes, use the free AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools or book a free strategy session with an agency such as Goldie Agency.
Go Fish Digital's homepage also offers a free GEO audit.
Which GEO checks matter most for a local business?
Crawl access, freshness and accuracy, and brand consensus matter most, because local buyers ask about hours, services and reputation.
Google tells site owners to keep their Business Profile information up to date.
Will a GEO audit get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
No audit can guarantee that.
A GEO audit shows what to improve so AI engines have better reasons to use your content, but nobody controls what a model says.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I started Goldie Agency on my own, and it is now a 7-figure SEO and link-building agency with 70+ people.
- I've grown my YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
- My Udemy courses have taught 29,000+ students.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Start with the checks for your business type, book a free strategy session for a clear AI visibility roadmap, and you'll know exactly what your free GEO audit is telling you.
