When a buyer asks AI who to use, is it you?
Assistants now shortlist suppliers before a buyer reaches your website. The audit measures how often you’re named against the rivals you lose customers to — on the questions those customers actually ask — and what would change it.
Four failures. Each one fixable, once it’s found.
- Rival A9
- Rival B4
- Rival C4
- You1
Illustrative
You’re missing from the shortlist
Rival A named nine times in twelve; you, once — on questions you should win. The other eleven buyers never hear your name.
- “Best [service] in [town]”Absent
- “[Service] prices in [town]”Absent
- “[You] or [Rival A]?”Named second
- “Who does [specialism]?”Named
Illustrative
Whole questions where you never appear
Price questions, comparisons, “near me”: each is a separate shortlist. Miss one, and every buyer who asks it goes elsewhere.
Who’s the best kitchen fitter in Leeds for a small budget?
“[Rival A] is the most frequently recommended — they publish fixed prices and have over a hundred recent reviews…”
Illustrative
The rival is named, with reasons
It says why it chose them: published prices, a hundred reviews. Fixable reasons — but until they’re fixed, it gives them every time.
- “Top 10 in [town]” articleNot listed
- Trade directoryOld address
- Review platform12 reviews · Rival A: 140
- Your service pageNot cited
Illustrative
The sources deciding the shortlist
The lists, directories and review sites the engines trust for your category. Not on them, and you’re not on the shortlist.
Your part of the plan. With the evidence behind every fix.
- Share of voice against three named rivals, engine by engine
- Every buyer question where you’re absent, and who is named instead
- The lists and directories that feed the shortlist
- A ranked plan: which pages, listings and claims to fix first
- Share of voiceHow often you’re named, against your rivals
- Question coverageWhich buyer questions include you at all
- PositionNamed first, named in passing, or not named
- CitationsLinked as the source, or only mentioned
- Rival reasonsWhy the assistant prefers who it prefers
- Engine differencesWhere one engine names you and another doesn’t
Before you ask. Each answered in its first sentence.
How is share of voice measured?
The same buyer questions are asked of five engines, signed out, and every answer is read. Share of voice is how many of those answers name you, against your rivals.
Which rivals are included?
Three you choose — the businesses you actually lose customers to — plus any the engines keep naming.
If we rank on Google, will AI name us?
Not reliably. Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews draw on its index, but ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot use other sources. A business can rank well and still be missing from the answer.
How quickly can share of voice change?
Engines re-read the web on their own schedules, so fixes show at different speeds. The re-run a week after the first fixes shows what has moved so far.
Do you write the content as well?
The audit tells your team what to write and why; your team or your agency writes it. Where the practice would be paid for the work, the plan says so.
Your next buyeris askingtoday.
Find out what they’re being told now — and make sure the next one hears your name, and hears it right.
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