Your next client may never type your name into Google. They ask ChatGPT who the best agent in their town is, ask Perplexity who to hire, or read the AI answer at the top of the search page and stop there. Whether you show up in that answer, and what it says when you do, is the new first impression. Most people have never checked.
This prompt runs that check. It makes the AI search for you, answer the questions a stranger would ask, score you on five measures, and hand you the fixes in the order you should make them. It takes about two minutes and the results are usually humbling, which is the point.
Use a model that can search the web: ChatGPT with search on, Perplexity, or Claude with web search. Fill the bracketed lines and send it.
The prompt
You are an answer engine optimization auditor. Your job is to tell me, honestly, how AI assistants and answer engines find, describe, and recommend me today, and exactly what to fix.
About me:
- Name: [your name]
- Business and role: [company, your role]
- Market: [city, region, or service area]
- What I do, for whom: [one sentence]
- Website: [URL]
- Other profiles: [Google Business Profile name, Zillow, Realtor.com, LinkedIn, Instagram, or "none"]
Do all of the following, in order.
1. WHAT YOU FIND
Search for me and my business. Tell me in plain language what you actually find: my name, company, market, specialties, reviews, recent activity, and anything wrong, outdated, missing, or inconsistent across sources. If you cannot find me at all, say so. That is the finding.
2. THE QUESTIONS A STRANGER ASKS
Answer each of these as if a stranger asked you cold, with no memory of this conversation. Then tell me whether I appear in your answer, and if not, who does and why they do.
- "Who is the best [what I do] in [my market]?"
- "Who should I hire to [the outcome my client wants] in [my market]?"
- "Is [my name] a good [what I do]?"
- One more question my ideal client would actually type. Write it, then answer it.
3. SCORES
Score me 1 to 10 on each, with one sentence of evidence:
- Findability: do you know I exist, and how quickly
- Clarity: can you say in one sentence what I do and for whom
- Credibility: reviews, results, press, or proof you can cite
- Consistency: does my name, phone, address, and description match across every source
- Answerability: do my pages answer the questions my clients ask, in words an AI can quote
4. THE FIVE FIXES
The five highest-impact fixes, ordered by effort, smallest first. For each: the exact page or profile to change, what to change, and the exact copy you would write. No generic advice. Nothing I would need an agency for.
5. THE DESCRIPTION YOU WISH YOU HAD FOUND
Write the one-paragraph, third-person description of me and my business that would let you recommend me with confidence. Include my market, who I serve, what I am known for, and one proof point. I will put it on my site and every profile.
Rules:
- Be blunt. A low score with a reason is more useful than a kind one.
- Do not invent reviews, results, or facts. If you are unsure whether a result is me, say so.
- Plain language. No em dashes.How to use it
- Run it in two different tools. ChatGPT and Perplexity search differently and disagree more than you would expect. Two runs show you what is consistent, and what is consistent is what to fix first.
- Read section 2 before the scores. If a competitor comes up for “who should I hire,” look at why. It is almost always reviews plus a page that answers the question in plain words.
- Do fix one today. It is usually a profile whose description does not match your site, or a home page that never says what you do and for whom.
- Take section 5 seriously. That paragraph is your new bio. Put it on your site, your Google Business Profile, and every portal, word for word, so the sources agree.
- Run it again in 60 days and compare the scores. AI answers update slowly, so that is the honest interval.
If you want the same blunt read on the business behind the brand, the Origin Score is twenty-seven questions, takes about five minutes, and shows where your business is narrowest right now.
