How to Test If ChatGPT Can See Your Website (Step-by-Step Guide)

A practical guide to checking your AI search visibility

You have probably wondered: "Can ChatGPT actually see my website? Will it recommend my business when someone asks?" This guide shows you exactly how to test your visibility across all major AI assistants.

Quick Answer: Test your visibility by asking ChatGPT specific questions about your industry, checking your robots.txt for AI crawler blocks, and validating your schema markup. For the most accurate assessment, use a dedicated AI visibility audit tool.

Why Testing AI Visibility Matters

AI assistants are becoming the primary way people discover products, services, and information. When someone asks ChatGPT "What is the best accounting software for small businesses?" or Perplexity "Who are the top divorce lawyers in Chicago?", the AI decides which businesses to recommend.

If your website is not visible to these AI systems, you are missing a rapidly growing channel of potential customers. The good news: testing your visibility takes just a few minutes.

Method 1: Direct ChatGPT Testing

The most straightforward way to test is to ask ChatGPT about your business directly.

Step 1: Ask About Your Business by Name

Open ChatGPT and ask: "What can you tell me about [Your Business Name]?"

What to look for:

• Does ChatGPT know your business exists?
• Is the information accurate and current?
• Does it mention your key services or products?

If ChatGPT does not know your business: This indicates you likely have visibility issues. Continue to the other testing methods.

Step 2: Ask Industry Questions

Ask questions your potential customers might ask:

• "What is the best [your service] in [your city]?"
• "How do I choose a [your industry] provider?"
• "What should I look for when hiring a [your profession]?"

What to look for:

• Does ChatGPT mention your business or website?
• Are competitors being recommended instead?
• Does the AI cite any sources in your industry?

Step 3: Ask Specific Knowledge Questions

Ask questions that your website content should answer:

• "What are the benefits of [your specific service]?"
• "How does [your product] work?"
• "What is the cost of [your service]?"

What to look for:

• Does the answer match content on your website?
• Are other sources cited for information you cover?

Method 2: Check Your robots.txt File

Your robots.txt file tells search engines and AI crawlers which pages they can access. If you have accidentally blocked AI crawlers, they cannot see your content.

How to Check

Visit your robots.txt file at: yourdomain.com/robots.txt

Look for these user-agent blocks: AI crawlers you might be blocking:

• User-agent: GPTBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT)
• User-agent: ClaudeBot (Anthropic/Claude)
• User-agent: PerplexityBot (Perplexity)
• User-agent: Google-Extended (Google AI)

What you should see:

For maximum AI visibility, your robots.txt should either not mention these bots (allowing access by default) or explicitly allow them:

User-agent: GPTBot Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot Allow: /

What indicates a problem:

User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: /

If you see "Disallow: /" for any AI crawler, that crawler cannot access your site at all.

Method 3: Verify Your Schema Markup

Schema markup helps AI systems understand your content. Without it, AI crawlers see unstructured text and struggle to extract accurate information.

How to Check

Option 1: Google Rich Results Test

Visit search.google.com/test/rich-results and enter your URL. This shows what structured data Google can find.

Option 2: Schema.org Validator

Visit validator.schema.org to test any URL for schema markup.

What to look for:

Essential schema types for AI visibility:

• Organization schema (who you are)
• LocalBusiness schema (if you serve a specific area)
• Service or Product schema (what you offer)
• FAQ schema (questions you answer)
• Article schema (for blog content)

Signs of problems:

• "No structured data detected"
• Missing Organization or LocalBusiness schema
• No FAQ schema on pages with Q&A content
• Errors or warnings in the validation

Method 4: Use Our Free AI Visibility Audit

Manual testing gives you directional insights, but a comprehensive audit reveals the full picture.

What the Free Audit Tests

Our AI Visibility Audit analyzes 50+ factors including:

Technical factors:

• Robots.txt configuration for AI crawlers
• Schema markup completeness and validity
• Page load speed and mobile responsiveness
• SSL certificate status

Content factors:

• FAQ presence and structure
• Question-based headings
• Answer-focused content patterns
• Citation-worthy sentence structure

Authority factors:

• E-E-A-T signals (expertise, experience, authority, trust)
• Author attribution
• Source citations
• Content freshness

Your AI Visibility Score

The audit produces three scores:

1. SEO Score (0-100): Traditional search optimization
2. GEO Score (0-100): AI search optimization
3. AEO Score (0-100): Answer engine optimization

Score interpretation:

• 0-40: Critical issues hurting visibility
• 41-60: Moderate issues limiting potential
• 61-75: Good foundation, room for improvement
• 76-100: Excellent AI visibility

Based on analyzing over 10,000 websites, the average GEO score is just 38/100. Most businesses have significant room for improvement.

Interpreting Your Results

If ChatGPT Knows Your Business

Good news—you have some visibility. Focus on:

• Ensuring information accuracy
• Expanding content that AI can cite
• Adding FAQ schema for specific queries

If ChatGPT Does Not Know Your Business

This is common and fixable. Priority actions:

1. Check and fix robots.txt blocks immediately
2. Add comprehensive schema markup
3. Create FAQ content targeting customer questions

If Competitors Appear But You Do Not

This indicates a GEO gap. Your competitors have optimized for AI search. Actions:

1. Analyze what schema they use
2. Study their content structure
3. Identify FAQ topics they cover that you do not

What to Do If You Are Not Visible

Quick Wins (Implement Today)

1. Fix robots.txt: Remove any AI crawler blocks
2. Add basic schema: Organization and FAQ schema are highest impact
3. Create one FAQ page: Target your top 10 customer questions

Medium-Term Improvements (This Month)

1. Restructure content: Lead with answers, add question-based headers
2. Add author information: Full bios with credentials
3. Implement comprehensive schema: Service, Product, LocalBusiness

Strategic Changes (This Quarter)

1. Build topical authority: Comprehensive content clusters
2. Earn citations: Create original research and statistics
3. Optimize for all AI platforms: Test on ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity

Testing on Other AI Platforms

Testing Perplexity Visibility

Perplexity shows its sources explicitly. Ask questions and check if your site appears in the citations.

Effective test queries:

• "[Your topic] guide"
• "Best [your service] companies"
• "[Your industry] statistics"

Testing Claude Visibility

Similar to ChatGPT, ask Claude about your business and industry topics. Claude tends to be more conservative with recommendations, so visibility here indicates strong authority signals.

Testing Google AI Overviews

Search Google for your target queries and check if AI Overviews appear. If your competitors are cited but you are not, focus on the same optimization strategies.

Ongoing Monitoring

AI visibility is not set-and-forget. Regular testing helps you:

• Track improvement after optimizations
• Identify new issues before they impact traffic
• Stay ahead of algorithm changes
• Benchmark against competitors

Recommended testing frequency:

• Monthly: Full AI visibility audit
• Weekly: Spot-check key queries in ChatGPT
• After changes: Test affected pages immediately

Get Your Free AI Visibility Score

Ready to see exactly how visible your website is to AI search? Our free audit takes 90 seconds and shows you:

• Your SEO, GEO, and AEO scores
• Critical issues blocking AI visibility
• Specific recommendations for improvement
• How you compare to industry averages

Start your free audit now and discover why AI might be ignoring your website.