My search engine marketing mantra within the age of GEO is from the nice Lil Wayne, “Actual G’s transfer in silence like lasagna.”
Translation for search engine marketing entrepreneurs: the best GEO strikes aren’t loud development hacks. They’re the refined edits and formatting that make AI cite you with out fanfare.
To assist along with your GEO audit, right here’s an inside peek into my secret menu.
Check out my GEO content material audit template.
It’s an evolution of my search engine marketing content material audit.
As Google’s Danny Sullivan has been telling rooms stuffed with entrepreneurs, “Good search engine marketing is sweet GEO.”
That’s why I like to think about GEO as search engine marketing’s MTV Unplugged model. It’s the identical band, identical lyrics, simply stripped down, reimaged, and far more private.
Alright, sufficient philosophy. You got here right here for the key recipe. Let’s crack open the GEO content material audit template and see the way it works in observe.
Use this GEO content material audit template
Cool. You’ve made a replica of the GEO content material audit template. Now what?
Listed below are the important thing sheets you’ll work by:
Abstract: Excessive-level snapshot when you’ve scored all the things.
Motion listing: Fast recap of subsequent steps that summarizes all of your findings from the opposite tabs.
Content material stock: That is the spine. Filters embrace:
URL.
Motion.
Technique.
Web page title.
Final up to date date.
Creator.
Phrase rely.
Readability.
Common phrases per sentence.
Key phrases.
Canonical.
Inside hyperlinks.
And extra.
Indexability/structure/ URL design/on-page: Your technical well being continues to be vital.
Structured information: Markup wanted and the place.
Worldwide: Hreflang, language, native cues (foreign money, models, spelling, belief marks).
Velocity: Sure, web page pace continues to be vital.
Content material and gaps: High quality scoring and what’s lacking.
Linking: Inside hyperlink plans and exterior targets.
Refresh: Cadence schedules by asset sort.
You’ll bounce between content material stock, structured information, content material, content material gaps, and linking essentially the most.
Instruments you’ll need readily available
Crawling and gaps: Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Semrush for key phrases and hyperlinks.
Search Console: Construct a regex model view (model + misspellings + product names) to observe demand transfer as AI solutions unfold.
Immediate testing: Manually take a look at core purchaser prompts in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews/AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity. Log inclusions and citations. BrightEdge’s dataset exhibits that you just’ll see numerous disagreement throughout platforms. Anticipate that.
Attribution: Roadway AI (or related) to attach matters/pages to pipeline and income to your QBR.
The best way to do a GEO content material audit (with the template)
1. Set targets
Decide outcomes that map to how folks truly discover you now:
Inclusion fee: Share of goal prompts the place your model is talked about inside ChatGPT/AI Overviews/AI Mode/Perplexity/Copilot.
Homepage and direct elevate: Patrons usually go to AI → Google → your homepage. Because of this you’ll need to watch branded impressions and homepage periods.
Income by matter/web page: Wire this to your attribution software.
Why this combine?
As a result of AI containers change, and engines disagree.
A blended scoreboard helps you keep away from chasing one fragile metric.
Professional transfer: Add “ChatGPT/AI Search” to “How did you hear about us?” in varieties and gross sales notes and evaluate weekly. Many groups report that is the place the trace of AI-assisted discovery exhibits up first.
2. Construct your content material stock
Utilizing Screaming Frog, export each URL with: title/H1, final up to date, creator, canonical, phrase rely, readability metrics, inner hyperlinks, and a goal question/theme.
Add a number of customized fields:
Direct-answer current (Y/N): Is there a
FAQ current (Y/N): Does it mirror immediate fragments and embrace FAQ schema?
Why?
In case your web page is tidy, answer-first, and correctly marked up, it’s far simpler to reference.
3. Section by web site, market, and language
Break your stock into:
Area/subdomain/folder (e.g., .co.uk, /fr/).
Market language variations (U.S. vs. U.Ok. English, Spain vs. Mexico Spanish).
Indexability quirks (hidden duplicates, parameters, session IDs).
For worldwide pages, rating:
Hreflang implementation (pointing to the precise alternates; reciprocal).
Native cues (foreign money, models, spelling, belief marks like native badges, VAT specifics).
CTAs (country-specific copy, cellphone numbers, retailer hyperlinks).
A shaky worldwide setup is a quick solution to look sloppy to customers and AI fashions.
4. Pull the numbers
Have a look at greater than natural:
Natural periods and conversions.
Direct periods and homepage pattern
GSC clicks/impressions/queries and model regex trendline.
Guide AI inclusion log (engine, immediate, did we present, who else bought named?).
Google says the AI experiences drive “higher-quality clicks,” whereas many search engine marketing entrepreneurs report common site visitors decline.
Learn each, and measure your personal actuality.
5. Choose the substance
Rating each high-value web page for “citable sign”:
Direct reply up high (
Proof: Proprietary information, SME quotes, strategies, and hyperlinks out to credible sources.
Commerce-offs: The place your product just isn’t the perfect match.
FAQ block that mirrors immediate syntax (e.g., “finest X for Y,” “X vs Y,” “pricing,” “implementation time”).
Schema: FAQ, HowTo, Product, Group/Creator with revealed/up to date dates.
6. Map gaps and conflicts
Create a success listing:
Duplicates and cannibalization: Merge or redirect. If two pages reply the identical factor, resolve which one lives.
Lacking BOFU pages:
“[Competitor] options.”
“X vs Y.”
“Pricing.”
“Trade-specific use circumstances.”
Offsite holes: Are you absent from “Better of” lists, comparability hubs, evaluate websites, and related discussion board threads? That’s the place AI fashions store for context. The extra you seem on these domains, the likelier you’re to get named in solutions.
7. Set up subsequent steps
Flip findings into an actual plan:
Fixes
Hreflang clean-up.
Canonicals.
FAQ/HowTo/Product/Group/Creator schema.
Direct-answer summaries added to focus on pages.
Internet-new property
“Options,” “X vs Y,” pricing explainer, implementation information.
Video explainers (YouTube) with clear chapters.
Area-specific FAQs and CTAs.
Earned presence
Shortlist the publishers and communities your patrons learn.
Pitch data-led items. Supply SME quotes and screenshots.
For evaluate websites (G2/Capterra), arrange a delicate ask after X days dwell.
Attribution
Join the web page/matter to the pipeline and income in order that GEO progress is mirrored in QBRs (e.g., Roadway or related).
Get the e-newsletter search entrepreneurs depend on.
Labored instance: Filling the template
Let’s see what this seems to be like in observe. Right here’s a pattern workflow that makes use of the GEO content material audit template step-by-step.
Create your targets:
Hit 40% inclusion throughout 50 precedence prompts in AI Overviews/ChatGPT
+15% homepage periods QoQ
+25% matter income for X cluster.
Load all URLs. Decide the highest 100 URLs to deal with first. Manually replace columns with and full the motion with: preserve, replace, merge, redirect.
Plan so as to add FAQ the place you mirror immediate fragments. Take into consideration including Group/Creator (with bios and dates).
Examine hreflang and duplicate cues (foreign money, models, and so on.). Flag any market the place your “native” web page reads like a machine translation or makes use of the fallacious alerts.
Checklist lacking BOFU pages and business variants. Prioritize by purchaser affect.
Add inner hyperlinks from top-traffic pages to the pages you need cited. Brief, descriptive anchors that mirror the query requested.
Flip your motion listing into tickets. Dates. Homeowners. Standing. Nothing lingers.
For every of your 50 prompts, report: engine, date, query, inclusion (Y/N), snippet, and different manufacturers named. Examine weekly for motion. Why weekly? As a result of Google retains tinkering with AI Mode, hyperlinks, carousels, and new UI, your presence can shift with these tweaks.
Maintain these strikes in thoughts to maintain your audit on beat
Refresh cadence
Quick vertical (finance, journey, fast-moving SaaS)? Intention for quarterly.
Different verticals can run biannual or annual content material refreshes.
Contemporary, cited, and up to date content material tends to fare higher for AI Overviews and Perplexity.
Each are leaning exhausting on recency and readability, and Google is actively testing extra seen hyperlinks in these AI blocks.
Native content material beats translation
U.Ok. ≠ U.S.
Spain ≠ Mexico.
Regulate spelling, models, foreign money, belief marks, and examples.
Tune the FAQ to native search habits and purchaser objections.
In case your Canadian web page says “gross sales tax” as a substitute of GST/HST, folks discover – so do fashions.
Observe what issues, not simply what’s straightforward
Inclusion fee throughout engines
Model regex impressions in GSC
Homepage/direct elevate
Income by matter/web page
Chasing “LLM rankings” is sketchy. Use trackers as alerts, not gospel.
What’s actually the distinction between a GEO content material audit and an search engine marketing content material audit?
It’s a evaluate of your content material and your offsite footprint by an AI lens: Is your stuff scannable, citable, up-to-date, and backed by authority that LLMs belief?
search engine marketing audit focuses on rating and site visitors by yourself web site. You crawl, repair indexing, resolve cannibalization, and so on. It’s the basic playbook.
GEO audit focuses on illustration and citability. You continue to care about construction and technicals, however you additionally rating whether or not your model seems in AI solutions, even when the cited web page isn’t yours.
You examine in case your content material opens with a direct reply, mirrors immediate questions (and has FAQ schema), and is referenced by publishers, YouTube movies, Reddit threads, and evaluate websites.
You want each
Skipping both is like coaching your higher physique solely. You’ll look high-quality in a tank high, however most likely ought to keep away from shorts.
Rankings nonetheless matter for discovery and for the content material AI scrapes.
GEO pushes you to grow to be answer-worthy throughout the broader net.
Or in Sullivan’s phrasing, good search engine marketing already factors you towards good GEO.
Pour one out to your previous search engine marketing buddies – GEO is a part of the scene
GEO is right here to remain. Name it unhealthy information delivered with a great whiskey.
Visibility is shifting to AI solutions. For those who’re referenced in AI solutions, you’ll really feel it in your top-funnel numbers.
Rivals can “win” even when their web site isn’t rating as a result of third-party pages that point out them get cited.
“You desire a content material plan that isn’t sipping vodka Pink Bulls prefer it’s nonetheless 2015, then blacking out the second AI modifications the playlist.
That is your GEO content material audit curtain name
ChatGPT doesn’t actually have a SERP. It has a solution. If Google leans additional into AI Mode, that reply turns into the primary act.
Your job: be the supply cited.
You desire a content material plan that doesn’t contain sipping vodka Pink Bulls prefer it’s nonetheless 2015 and blacking out the second AI modifications the playlist.
So run the audit, tighten construction, add proof, win some offsite mentions, and monitor inclusion, not simply rankings.
Tie this to income so no person calls this a science mission.
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