More of your customers are asking AI. You should know what it’s telling them.
A 10-business-day diagnostic across the six areas that decide whether your business gets cited when a customer asks AI for a recommendation.
Scored against 30 named criteria, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Gemini. A custom analysis with a review call included.
Request your auditThe search habit is changing faster than most businesses realize.
- Ask ChatGPT who does sod installation in Apex.
- Ask Perplexity for the best periodontist in your city.
- Ask Google AI Overviews which commercial roofer handles hail damage.
- Ask Google AI Mode which real estate team handles relocations.
The answers come fast, specific, and confident. They name real businesses. They cite sources. They’re already shaping decisions.
Most of the businesses showing up in those answers aren’t there by accident. They’re chosen by a system that reads websites, schema, reviews, directories, and third-party mentions in a specific way. Most of the businesses not showing up can’t tell you why.
This audit helps close that gap.
AI visibility is the frequency and prominence of your business in AI-generated answers.
When a customer asks AI for a recommendation, the engine searches, but it doesn’t weigh the web evenly. It leans on a pool of sources it has learned to trust: your website, your Google Business Profile, directories, reviews, and third-party mentions. It names the businesses those sources describe most clearly and consistently.
Five factors determine whether your business is in that pool.
Citation frequency
How often your business is named across the sources AI platforms read. Reviews, directories, press, partner sites, and your own pages all count.
Entity clarity
Whether AI can identify who you are, what you do, and where, without ambiguity. Same name, address, and services, repeated across sources.
Content extractability
Whether the information on your site is structured so AI can pull it cleanly. Schema, semantic markup, specific service descriptions, answers written for retrieval.
Source corroboration
Whether the facts about your business agree across the sources AI checks. A site that contradicts the directories gets discounted.
Local relevance
Whether AI can connect your business to the place a customer is asking about. Service area, geographic mentions, and local authority signals.
Where do you actually stand?
The AI Visibility Audit is a diagnostic consulting engagement, completed within 10 business days. You submit a short intake, we confirm fit and send the agreement and invoice, and the work begins once the contract is signed and payment is made. We work through six sections of your digital presence, score each against a named rubric, and walk you through what we found together on a 30-minute review call.
By the end of the call, you know exactly where you stand, which gaps are costing you, what to fix first, and whether the right next step is handling it in-house or handing it off.
What do you get?
A custom analysis and a conversation.
The scored diagnosis
Your AI visibility scored out of 100 across six sections, with all 30 criteria rated Met, Partial, or Not Met and the evidence behind every call.
The first reading
A monitored prompt set in AI visibility tracking software, running for seven days across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. You get the visibility score, share of voice, the domains being cited instead of you, and the raw answers. Keep the tracking on afterward and this snapshot becomes your baseline.
The priority order and plan
What to fix first, second, and third, with an action plan per section built so your team or a partner can execute it.
The analysis and review call
Your analysis, walked through together on a 30-minute call so you can ask anything.
The recommendation
One of four named paths forward, chosen specifically for your situation.
Ready within 10 business days of payment.
Read a sample audit before you spend a dollar.
Here’s a sample of what type of analysis the engagement produces: the score, the evidence behind every rating, and the recommendation prepared for an actual business.
Know exactly where you stand.
Most local businesses can’t tell whether AI is citing them, or why. The audit gives you the answer: a scored read on where you stand, the gaps holding you back, and the order to close them in.
The audit is $1,000, ready in 10 business days.
Request your auditAI platforms cite sources, not websites. The two aren’t the same, and the businesses that get cited know the difference.
You could ask ChatGPT to grade your own site. Here’s what it can’t tell you.
A prompt gives you an opinion that changes with the wording. The audit gives you scored evidence, a priority order, and a plan your team can act on.
Ask the AI yourself
- ×An answer that shifts every time you reword the question
- ×No evidence trail you can hand a developer or a partner
- ×No read on how five platforms actually cite you today
- ×No order of operations, so every fix looks equally urgent
Run the audit
- ✓A score against 30 named criteria, with evidence for every rating
- ✓Your real standing across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini
- ✓A priority order telling you what to fix first and why
- ✓A plan written so your team or a partner can execute it
30 named criteria. Six sections. 100 points.
The AI Visibility Framework is a scored model of the six dimensions AI platforms use to decide which local businesses to cite. Each section is rated against five named criteria, with specific evidence documented for every rating.
Built on local SEO frameworks, rebuilt in 2025 and 2026 to reflect how the AI era has changed citation, retrieval, and trust.
AI Citation Presence
- ChatGPT citation
- Perplexity citation
- Gemini citation
- Google AI Overviews citation
- Google AI Mode citation
Google Business Profile
- Category and service coverage
- Profile completeness and freshness
- Review profile strength
- Active profile engagement
- NAP consistency with website
Website Architecture
- Schema markup coverage
- Semantic page structure
- Service page depth
- AI crawler accessibility
- Technical foundation
Content Depth and Authority
- Cornerstone content
- FAQ content with schema
- Extractable specificity
- Semantic structure
- Content freshness
Local Search Footprint
- Local pack visibility
- Organic rankings for core queries
- Citation coverage and consistency
- Cross-source fact corroboration
- UGC and third-party mentions
Paid Media Baseline
- Keyword intent alignment
- Landing page quality
- Conversion tracking
- Campaign structure
- Attribution clarity
From intake to recommendation in 10 business days.
Intake
A short form about your business and setup. We review it and reply within one business day to confirm fit.
Agreement and payment
The agreement and invoice arrive by email. The work begins once the contract is signed and payment is made.
Tracking starts
We set up your monitored prompt set on day one so it runs seven days while we work.
We audit
Six sections in depth, alongside the tracking data as it comes in.
We walk through it
Your analysis is completed, and we take 30 minutes to walk it together.
Your path forward
A specific recommendation across four named paths, from handle it in-house to hand us the layer.
The audit ends with a recommendation, not a pitch.
Sometimes the recommendation is to handle the fixes in-house with the action plan, and that is a complete outcome. When it isn’t, the natural next step is usually the AI Visibility Partnership: the tracking stays on from $500 a month, with a monthly read on which prompts moved and what to write next, and deeper tiers when you want the work produced or implemented for you.
Your prompt set is already built and running by the end of the audit, so continuing costs no setup and loses no data.
The right audit for some businesses.
Not all.
A few things determine whether this audit is the right call for you right now.
This is right for you if
- ✓You run a local business serving a defined geographic area
- ✓You have a website and a Google Business Profile, even if both need work
- ✓You want a read on where you stand before committing to ongoing investment
- ✓You’ve been investing in marketing and can’t tell if it’s working
- ✓You’re planning to invest more and want to know where the leverage is
- ✓You can act on the recommendations
This isn’t right for you if
- ×You run a pure ecommerce business with no local service component
- ×You operate outside the United States
- ×You need the analysis in less than 10 business days
- ×You want the fixes done as part of the audit fee
- ×You’re looking for a generic SEO audit of rankings and backlinks
Running more than one business or location? Reach out and we’ll scope a custom audit for you.
Not ready for the full audit yet? Start here.
The AI Visibility Self-Audit covers the same ground the paid audit does, free. Download it, work through it at your own pace, and get a first read on where your business stands today.
Download the self-audit
A marketing consultancy for local businesses that want to be cited.
Top of Search is a marketing consultancy in Wilmington, NC that helps owner-operated local businesses get cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Gemini. The practice specializes in AI visibility, AEO, and local SEO, and works most often with home services and real estate businesses. There are four ways to work with Top of Search: the AI Visibility Audit, a 10 business day scored diagnostic and roadmap; the AI Visibility Partnership, ongoing ownership of the answer layer in tiers from $500 a month; Launch and Learn, a 90 day paid media sprint; and Fractional CMO partnerships for businesses ready for long-term strategic leadership. Founded by Anna Curry, who has worked in marketing since 2008. Top of Search publishes Cited, a weekly newsletter on AI visibility for local business owners.
The methodology behind this audit was built on local SEO frameworks, rebuilt in 2025 and 2026 to reflect how the AI era has changed citation, retrieval, and trust.
More about Anna →A few questions, then I take it from here.
The intake takes about five minutes. I review every submission personally and reply within one business day to confirm fit. If it is, the agreement and invoice follow by email, and work begins when both are in.
The more specific your answers, the sharper your audit. The questions about your customers and competitors shape the prompt set we test.
Prefer email? anna@topofsearch.com
What people ask before booking.
How is this different from a regular SEO audit?
An SEO audit tells you how you rank in Google. This audit tells you how AI platforms are citing you, what content they’re reading, and whether your business is trusted enough to appear in the answer when a customer asks. There’s some overlap in fundamentals like schema and Google Business Profile, but the scoring framework and the interpretation are built for AI visibility, not keyword rankings.
What happens on the review call?
30 minutes. We walk through the findings, the priority order, and the specific recommendation for your situation. You ask what you want to ask.
What’s your refund policy?
You can cancel for a full refund within 24 hours of payment. After that, the fee is non-refundable, because the work begins immediately: your prompt set is designed and tracking starts on the first business day so it can run its full seven days inside the engagement window.
Can you help implement what the audit recommends?
Yes. Implementation work is a separate engagement, scoped to what the audit reveals. Most clients move from the audit into the AI Visibility Partnership, where the tracking stays on and the work gets owned at whichever tier fits: monitoring, monitoring plus the priority plan and a monthly brief, or full ownership with implementation. If paid traffic is the open question, a Launch & Learn sprint is the test. And if implementing it yourself is the right call, the analysis is built so your team or a trusted partner can execute independently.
What if I want monthly oversight after the audit?
That is the AI Visibility Partnership’s Monitor tier: your prompt set stays live, and each month you get a read on which prompts moved, what your changes did, and where the gaps are, for $500 a month. Your team decides and executes. Deeper tiers add the priority plan with a monthly production-ready brief, or full ownership of the work.
How long until I see results after implementing?
Two timelines. Structural fixes like schema, semantic structure, and AI crawler access usually start producing movement within 60 to 90 days. Content-driven recommendations compound over 3 to 6 months. AI citation isn’t deterministic the way a Google ranking is. The same query can return different sources from one request to the next. What an audit does is improve your eligibility to be cited and the consistency with which you appear.
What kinds of businesses do you work with?
Owner-operated local businesses ready to invest in their visibility. What matters more than the industry is that you serve a defined geographic area, you have a website and a Google Business Profile, and you can act on the recommendations. The underlying citation patterns, directory ecosystems, and structured data principles travel well across categories.
We’re B2B, or we serve clients nationwide. Does the audit still fit?
Yes. The six sections and the scoring hold; what changes is the prompt set and one section’s focus. Your prompts are built from the questions your actual buyers ask, without a city attached or across the markets you serve. Take a B2B advisory firm based in one state and serving clients nationally: its buyers ask engines who to trust in its specialty, not who is nearby, so the local footprint section becomes the category footprint, the directories, review platforms, and professional communities the engines lean on for firms like it. The intake is where we set this up, which is one reason it comes first.
Do you take competing clients in the same market?
For the audit, yes. The audit is a diagnostic engagement. It shows a business where it stands and what to fix, without us owning its strategy or doing the execution, and two businesses in the same market can both run that with no conflict. Exclusivity applies to the ongoing engagements, the AI Visibility Partnership’s full ownership tier and Fractional CMO, where we are embedded deeply enough in one business that serving a competitor would be a real conflict. We take one of those clients per vertical per market. If a competitor of yours has also taken the audit, your analysis and recommendations are still entirely your own.
What if I’m not sure I’m ready?
Then let’s just talk. Request a strategy call and we’ll walk through where your business stands and whether the audit is the right next step. No pressure, and you’ll leave with a clearer sense of direction either way.
Do you only work with businesses in your area?
No. We work with local businesses across the United States. The methodology was built and refined with local businesses here in North Carolina, and the audit is delivered remotely, working the same way regardless of where you are.
What you’re agreeing to, before you sign.
The full service agreement arrives by email after your intake, to sign before work begins. Here’s the short version, so there are no surprises.
The service
A diagnostic consulting engagement. Top of Search analyzes your AI visibility across six sections, scored against a named rubric, plus a 30-minute review call to walk through the findings.
What’s included
The scored analysis across all six sections, a seven day tracked prompt run in AI visibility software with the raw answer data, the evidence behind every rating, a prioritized action plan, one clear recommendation, and the review call.
What’s not included
Implementation, a full technical SEO audit, content creation, paid-ads account audit, competitor research beyond directional reference, revisions once the analysis is final, or follow-up beyond the review call. Those are separate engagements.
Timing
Your analysis is ready within 10 business days of payment, and arrives with proposed times for your 30-minute review call.
Payment
$1,000, invoiced with the agreement and due in full before work begins. The 10 business days start when payment has cleared.
Cancellation
Full refund within 24 hours of payment. After that the fee is non-refundable, since the prompt set is designed and tracking begins on the first business day.
No guaranteed outcome
This is a diagnostic and advisory service. It improves your eligibility to be cited and gives you a clear plan, but specific rankings or citation results aren’t guaranteed. AI platforms change.
Your analysis is yours
On full payment, the completed custom analysis is yours to use inside your business. The methodology and scoring frameworks behind it remain owned by Top of Search and should not be repurposed or resold.
Full terms, including confidentiality, intellectual property, and liability, are set out in the service agreement sent after intake.
Ready to find out what AI is saying?
$1,000 for the full audit. Scored analysis and review call included.
Ready in 10 business days.