aeo-audit

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from review. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: aeo-audit
description: "Audit AI search visibility. Use when: checking brand presence in ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini."
argument-hint: "[brand-name or URL]"
---

# /digital-marketing-pro:aeo-audit

## Purpose

Evaluate the brand's visibility and accuracy across AI answer engines. Analyze how the brand is cited, described, and recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, **Google AI Mode** (the conversational search surface that became Google's default at I/O 2026 — ~1B MAUs as of May 2026), Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. Produce optimization recommendations to improve AI visibility.

**AI Mode vs AI Overviews — why both matter:** AI Overviews are the summary block at the top of a classic Google SERP and trigger on a subset of queries. AI Mode is a conversational tab (and now the default search experience for opted-in users) backed by Gemini 3.5 Flash with deeper reasoning, follow-ups, and a different citation pattern. The two surfaces select different sources for the same query in a large share of cases (internal observation, 05/2026 — "40–60%" is a rough estimate; re-verify against your own probe set). Audit both.

**Cross-reference with GSC AI Performance Report (rolled out 3 June 2026):** The Google Search Console AI Performance Report (UK rollout first, global to follow) gives you actual *impressions* in AI Overviews + AI Mode for verified properties. Synthetic probe results from this skill should be reconciled against GSC actuals — see `/digital-marketing-pro:gsc-ai-performance` for the workflow. Important caveat: the GSC report intentionally excludes click data; click-through attribution must come from GA4 (the new `AI Assistant` channel group, added 13 May 2026, captures `Medium=ai-assistant` referrals from ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude; see `/digital-marketing-pro:analytics-insights`).

**Google's official position on AI optimization** (Google AI Optimization Guide, updated 15 May 2026): no `llms.txt`, no AI-specific schema, no separate AI eligibility gate. Pages eligible for snippets in classic Search are eligible for AI Features. Don't manufacture work around fictional ranking factors — `/digital-marketing-pro:aeo-geo` documents what *does* work (entity consistency, citation-worthy snippets, knowledge graph alignment).

**Information Agents (Google AI Pro / Ultra, summer 2026 launch):** Google announced at I/O 2026 a new class of persistent agents that continuously monitor web / news / real-time data for subscribers and deliver synthesized updates with actionable capabilities. Once these go live, they become a **7th probe target** for this skill (alongside ChatGPT / Perplexity / AI Mode / AI Overviews / Gemini / Copilot). Until then, treat AI Mode as the proxy — agents are powered by the same Gemini 3.5 Flash backbone. Source: [blog.google/search-io-2026](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/search-io-2026/).

## Input Required

The user must provide (or will be prompted for):

- **Brand name**: The brand to audit
- **Website URL**: Primary domain
- **Key queries**: 5-10 queries a potential customer might ask that should surface the brand
- **Competitors**: 2-3 competitors for comparison
- **Product/service categories**: What the brand should be known for

## Process

1. **Load brand context**: Read `~/.claude-marketing/brands/_active-brand.json` for the active slug, then load `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json`. Apply brand voice, compliance rules for target markets (`skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md`), and industry context. **Also check for guidelines** at `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/guidelines/_manifest.json` — if present, load restrictions and relevant category files. Check for custom templates at `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/templates/`. Check for agency SOPs at `~/.claude-marketing/sops/`. If no brand exists, ask: "Set up a brand first (/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup)?" — or proceed with defaults.
2. Define a test query set: