Before buying GEO, audit whether your practice’s public information is accessible, accurate, specific, and supported by pages worth citing. Then sample actual AI answers and record what they mention and link. A useful proposal should connect every deliverable to an observed gap; it should not sell a secret file, guaranteed citation, or unexplained visibility score.

Here, GEO means generative engine optimization: work intended to improve visibility in AI-generated answers. Use this audit to establish the current condition before a vendor defines the problem for you.

Confirm access and ownership first

List who controls the domain, website, analytics, Search Console, Business Profiles, and robots.txt file. Confirm that the practice can publish corrections and retain its pages and reporting if a provider changes. Record which systems the prospective vendor wants to access and why.

Use read-only access during an initial audit when that is sufficient. Google’s hiring guidance recommends considering audit scope carefully and initially granting only read access to Search Console. It also says providers should explain their recommendations and warns that no one can guarantee a first-place ranking. See Google’s SEO hiring guidance.

Check ordinary technical eligibility

Inspect the homepage, important location pages, and core service pages. Confirm that each preferred URL works, allows crawling, has no unintended noindex directive, declares a sensible canonical, and delivers the main text in the rendered page.

For Google’s generative search features, foundational SEO still applies. Google says eligible pages must be indexed and able to appear with a snippet. Its current guidance also calls for the site to be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console, so check that setting as part of the access review. This is a site control, not special AI schema or an llms.txt requirement, and eligibility does not guarantee appearance. See its current generative AI search guide.

For ChatGPT search, OpenAI says public sites can appear and advises publishers not to block OAI-SearchBot if they want content included in summaries and snippets. OpenAI documents GPTBot separately for potential training controls. Review the OpenAI publisher FAQ.

Verify the practice facts answer systems may encounter

Create a fact sheet with the exact practice name, addresses, phones, hours, doctors, services by location, appointment URL, and short factual description. Compare it with the website, profiles, major directories you actively maintain, and booking destination.

Mark each item verified, conflicting, missing, or outdated. Assign a source and owner. A vendor can find inconsistencies, but the practice must confirm which fact is correct. Do not resolve a mismatch by copying whichever version appears most often.

Inspect pages for evidence and specificity

Choose five pages central to the buying decision and ask:

  • Does the opening answer the page’s main question directly?
  • Are the doctor, location, service, and appointment details specific and current?
  • Can the practice substantiate credentials, processes, and factual claims?
  • Does the page add first-hand operational detail rather than repeating generic advice?
  • Are important qualifications preserved near the claim?
  • Does the page link to the next useful source or action?

Google’s guidance emphasizes original, useful content and says third-party GEO advice should be checked against official documentation. It also cautions that third-party tools do not have access to Google’s internal ranking or AI systems. See Google’s generative AI search guide.

Sample answers without turning them into a score

Prepare a small panel of real prospective-patient questions. Use the exact same wording on each declared review date. Record the engine, date, location or locale, signed-in or fresh-session context, answer, practice mention, recommendation status, cited URLs, and any factual error.

Keep categories separate: a mention names the practice; a recommendation presents it as an option; a citation or source links to a page; a referral is a measured website visit. One answer may contain one category without the others.

For a hypothetical audit, three sampled answers may omit the practice, one may mention it without a link, and one may cite an outdated directory. That is a five-answer observation, not a percentage that describes the market. The next work should address the outdated fact and weak source pages, then repeat the same bounded sample later.

Require a deliverable-to-evidence map

Ask the provider to complete four fields for every recommendation: observed evidence, proposed change, owner, and verification method. “Add AI schema” is incomplete. “Correct the north-office hours on the location page and profile, then verify both rendered destinations” is reviewable.

A sound scope may include technical corrections, stronger service or location pages, fact reconciliation, original expert input, and measurement setup. It should also state what depends on the doctor, office manager, developer, or platform.

Use our basic SEO and GEO guide for the broader strategy and the AI visibility measurement guide for the reporting process. ChiroCandy provides SEO for chiropractic practices. To review an AI visibility proposal against the evidence, schedule a conversation and bring the audit, sampled answers, and access list.