A DIY AI Visibility Audit: 7 No-Code Steps for Marketers

Why Your Website's Technical Health Matters for AI Visibility

In the evolving digital landscape, your brand's visibility is no longer just about ranking on a list of blue links. With the rise of generative AI in search, models like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews act as research assistants, synthesizing information from multiple sources to provide a single, comprehensive answer. This new paradigm is what we call AI Visibility: how AI models perceive, interpret, and represent your brand. While public awareness of AI is growing rapidly, with one study by the Pew Research Center finding that nearly half of Americans have heard a lot about it, the mechanics of how AI finds and trusts information remain a black box for many businesses.

This is where your website's technical health becomes critical. AI models are trained to prioritize sources that are trustworthy, authoritative, and provide a good user experience. Technical problems—like slow load times, broken links, or a lack of security—are significant red flags. They signal to an AI that your site may be unreliable or low-quality, making it far less likely to be used as a source in a generated answer. This creates what we call the AI Visibility Paradox, where even sites with strong traditional SEO can be invisible to AI if their technical foundation is weak.

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the idea of a 'technical audit' can be intimidating. But you don't need to be a developer to diagnose and fix the most common issues. This guide provides a simple, 7-step DIY audit designed for non-technical marketers, using free, no-code tools to help you improve your site's health and boost your AI visibility.

Step 1: Check Your Structured Data (Schema Markup)

Why it matters for AI visibility: Think of structured data, often called schema markup, as a direct translator for AI. It's a standardized code vocabulary you add to your website to explicitly tell search engines and AI models what your content is about—for example, that this page is a product, this number is a price, or this text is a review. This clarity is essential for AI systems that break down content into passages or "chunks" for analysis. By providing clear context, schema makes your content easier for AI to understand, categorize, and pull into a synthesized answer, directly improving its 'Optimized for Chunk-Level Retrieval' and 'Citation-Worthiness'. According to Google's documentation, this markup enables richer results and a better understanding by search systems.

How to check it (using no-code tools): The easiest way to check your site is with Google's free Rich Results Test. Simply enter a URL from your website (like a product page or blog post) and run the test. The tool will show you what, if any, structured data it detects and flag any errors.

How to fix it (with low-code/no-code solutions): You don't need to write code to implement schema. Most modern CMS platforms have plugins or built-in features that handle this for you. For WordPress, popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math automatically add essential schema (like Organization, Article, and WebPage). For e-commerce platforms like Shopify, the theme itself often includes Product schema. Check your plugin or theme settings to ensure these features are enabled.

Step 2: Analyze Your Site Speed and Core Web Vitals

Why it matters for AI visibility: Speed is a fundamental signal of quality and reliability. AI models are designed to deliver information quickly and will favor sources that load fast. A slow website creates a poor user experience, which is a strong negative signal that hurts your 'Citation-Worthiness'. Core Web Vitals are a specific set of metrics Google uses to measure this experience, focusing on loading speed (Largest Contentful Paint), interactivity (Interaction to Next Paint), and visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift), as detailed in Google's documentation on Core Web Vitals. A site that performs well on these metrics is seen as more professional and authoritative.

How to check it (using no-code tools): Google's PageSpeed Insights is a free and powerful tool for this. Enter your URL, and it will provide performance scores for both mobile and desktop. More importantly, it will diagnose specific issues that are slowing your site down, such as large images or inefficient code.

How to fix it (with low-code/no-code solutions): Many common speed issues can be fixed without a developer. Before uploading images to your site, use a free tool like TinyPNG to compress them. For WordPress users, installing a caching plugin (like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket) can dramatically improve load times by storing a static version of your site for repeat visitors.

Step 3: Verify Your Mobile-Friendliness

Why it matters for AI visibility: A massive portion of the data used to train AI models, and a huge volume of user queries, originate from mobile devices. In fact, global market share is nearly evenly split between mobile and desktop, with mobile accounting for almost 50% of traffic [1]. If your website is difficult to navigate or read on a phone, it's considered a low-quality source. AI systems will pass over it in favor of mobile-optimized competitors, making mobile-friendliness a foundational requirement for AI visibility.

How to check it (using no-code tools): This is one of the easiest checks. Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. Just enter your URL, and it will give you a clear pass or fail result in seconds.

How to fix it (with low-code/no-code solutions): The vast majority of modern website themes and templates are 'responsive' by default, meaning they automatically adjust to fit any screen size. If your site fails the test, the simplest solution is to ensure you are using an up-to-date, responsive theme. If you're on a platform like WordPress or Shopify, switching to a well-reviewed modern theme will typically resolve any mobile-friendliness issues.

Step 4: Confirm Your Site's Crawlability (Robots.txt & XML Sitemap)

Why it matters for AI visibility: If AI crawlers can't access your content, it's as if your website doesn't exist. Two key files manage this access: robots.txt and the XML sitemap. The robots.txt file gives bots instructions on which pages they are allowed or disallowed from crawling. The XML sitemap, as described in Google's developer documentation, acts as a roadmap, listing all the important URLs on your site you want to be discovered. Without proper configuration, your most valuable content may never make it into an AI's knowledge base.

How to check it (using no-code tools): You can check these files directly in your browser. To see your robots.txt file, navigate to yourdomain.com/robots.txt. To find your sitemap, common locations are yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml or yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml. If you see a '404 Not Found' error, it means the file is missing.

How to fix it (with low-code/no-code solutions): Again, SEO plugins are your best friend here. Tools like Yoast SEO and Rank Math automatically generate and manage both your robots.txt file and XML sitemap. Dive into your plugin's settings to ensure the sitemap feature is enabled. Once enabled, you should submit your sitemap URL to Google Search Console to ensure Google knows where to find it.

Step 5: Ensure Your Site is Secure (HTTPS)

Why it matters for AI visibility: Security is a non-negotiable trust signal in the modern web. HTTPS encrypts the connection between a user's browser and your website, protecting their data. AI models are explicitly programmed to prioritize user safety and will avoid insecure (HTTP) sites. Lacking an SSL certificate and HTTPS is a major red flag that severely damages your 'Content Authoritative Signals' and makes it highly unlikely your site will be trusted as a source. As noted in Google's own documentation, Google recommends HTTPS for all websites.

How to check it (using no-code tools): This is another simple browser check. Look at the URL bar when visiting your site. If you see a padlock icon, your site is secure (using HTTPS). If you see a 'Not Secure' warning, your site is still on HTTP.

How to fix it (with low-code/no-code solutions): In the past, this was a complicated and expensive process. Today, most web hosting providers offer free SSL certificates (often through Let's Encrypt). The fix is typically as simple as logging into your hosting control panel and enabling the SSL certificate for your domain. If you can't find the option, a quick message to your host's support team can usually get it activated for free.

Step 6: Review Your Page and Heading Structure (H1, H2s)

Why it matters for AI visibility: A logical heading structure (one <h1> per page, followed by <h2>s for main sections and <h3>s for sub-sections) does more than just organize content for human readers. It creates a clear, semantic outline that AI models use to understand the hierarchy and context of your information. This is vital for 'Optimized for Chunk-Level Retrieval,' as it allows an AI to easily identify and extract a specific, self-contained section of your page to answer a targeted user question. According to the MDN Web Docs, using a single <h1> and not skipping heading levels is a best practice for accessibility and document structure.

How to check it (using no-code tools): Use a free browser extension like 'SEO META in 1 CLICK'. Navigate to one of your key pages, click the extension icon, and go to the 'Headers' tab. This will show you the exact heading structure of your page, allowing you to quickly spot issues like multiple <h1>s or an illogical order.

How to fix it (with low-code/no-code solutions): This is a simple fix within your page editor. In WordPress, Shopify, or any other modern CMS, you can highlight text and select the appropriate heading level from a dropdown menu. Remember the simple rule: the <h1> is for the main title of the page only. Use <h2>s for your main sub-topics, and <h3>s for points within those sub-topics.

Step 7: Audit Your Internal and External Links

Why it matters for AI visibility: Links are the currency of trust and context on the web. Internal links (links to other pages on your own site) help AI models understand the topical relationships between your content, demonstrating your expertise across a subject. External links (links to other authoritative websites) act as citations that bolster your own credibility. As noted by the Nielsen Norman Group, connecting to the rest of the web is a key factor in establishing trustworthiness. A well-linked piece of content signals that it is well-researched and part of a broader conversation, increasing its 'Citation-Worthiness'.

How to check it (using no-code tools): This is a manual review. Open one of your most important blog posts or service pages. As you read, ask yourself: are you linking to other relevant articles or resources on your own site? When you state a fact, statistic, or claim, are you linking out to the original source, like a study or reputable report? If the answer is no, you have an opportunity to improve.

How to fix it (with low-code/no-code solutions): Make it a habit. On every new piece of content you publish, aim to include 2-3 relevant internal links to your other pages. For any data points or bold claims, perform a quick search to find the original source or a reputable article covering it and add an external link. This simple practice is one of the most powerful ways to build authority for both users and AI. For more ideas on building authority, see our scrappy guide to AI visibility.

From Manual Audit to Automated Action

Congratulations on completing your DIY technical audit! By checking these seven areas, you've taken a significant first step toward improving how AI models perceive your website. You now have a better understanding of structured data, site speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, security, page structure, and linking strategy.

However, you may also be realizing that while this manual audit is empowering, performing it regularly across your entire site is time-consuming. Furthermore, knowing what to fix is one thing, but finding the time and resources to implement those fixes is another challenge entirely. This is the 'AI Visibility Execution Gap' that so many SMBs face—a gap between knowing what to do and having the capacity to do it.

This is where Searchify provides a solution. Our platform automates this entire audit process, continuously monitoring your site for these issues and hundreds more. We don't just report on problems; our Action Center provides a prioritized list of data-driven recommendations to improve your AI visibility. And for teams that need to close the execution gap completely, our full-service add-on provides an expert team to implement these technical and content changes for you.

Tired of manual checks? Get your free, automated AI Visibility One-Pager. We'll analyze your site against these factors and more, giving you a prioritized list of actionable recommendations in minutes. Get your free report now.