AI Search Optimization: Audit, Fix, Get Cited in ChatGPT & More

What is AI Search Optimization?

AI Search Optimization is the third stage of the AI visibility lifecycle, after prompt research and monitoring. It takes what your Brand Reports observed, which prompts you lose and which sources get cited instead, and turns it into specific work: technical fixes so AI crawlers can reach your pages, content fixes so answers can quote them, and outreach targets so the sources AI

GEO Audit: test 19 AI crawlers against your robots.txt and your live server
Content Audit: score any page across 15 structural checks and 13 AI readiness dimensions
Recommendations: a prioritized queue of on-page and off-page actions, per engine
Citation gap analysis: find the pages AI already cites that name competitors, not you

How AI Search Optimization works inside OtterlyAI

What makes Otterly's AI Search Optimization Platform different

Citations

See every domain cited across your tracked prompts, how often each one is pulled from, and where a listing or mention would move you into the answer.

Crawlability Check

Fetch any URL as OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityCrawler or GoogleBot, and compare the static HTML against the rendered version, so you see what each engine actually reads.

Recommendations

Ten GEO recommendation types, split into on-page and off-page and ranked by impact, each carrying the prompt it affects, the source that beats you, and the next step.

Marketplace

Browse vetted sites, directories and publishers that AI engines already cite for your prompts, and book a placement without ever leaving the platform.

Content Audit

Check whether a page answers the prompts you track, with headings, entities and coverage graded against the sources currently winning those answers.

GEO Audit

Every page scored on structure, entities and answerability, graded against what generative engines need rather than classic ranking signals, so you can see exactly where the points are lost.

Trusted by 40,000+ Marketing Pros worldwide

AI engines tracked in one place

65+

countries & languages covered

citation growth in 12 months*

“OtterlyAI makes AI visibility easy to understand.
It is a must for every business.”

Ginger Henderson

Head of Growth, Series B SaaS

"OtterlyAI is most valuable for marketing teams, SEO
professionals and agencies investing in content but unable
to measure whether that work reaches AI search."

Michelle J Raymond

Founder B2B Growth

"Using OtterlyAI has been a game changer.
I'm finding myself using this daily!"

Nathan

Founder, B2B SaaS

“A game-changer for AI search visibility. It tells you
exactly what to do nest — no guesswork!”

Nikos Taskos

Demand Gen Lead

“Since using OtterlyAI I've seen a 2x increase in our
visibility in AI search engines.”

Rebecca Anderson

Content Marketing Manager at Instant Commerce

“Since using OtterlyAI, I've seen a 2x increase in both our
visibility in AI search engines and incoming traffic.”

Rebecca Anderson

Content Marketing Manager, Instant Commerce

Related features of OtterlyAI

OtterlyAI's is a full feature list: here's what pairs well with Prompt Research.

AI Search Analytics

Track brand mentions & citations across 7 AI Search engines.

Learn more →

Agent Analytics

See which AI crawler bots visit your wbesite over time and which pages.

Learn more →

ChatGPT Ads Tracking

Discover which citations contain paid ads inside ChatGPT

Learn more →

OtterlyAI API

Want to use data from OtterlyAI into your existing tool? Check out the API

Learn more →

OtterlyAI MCP

Pull your AI search data into any workflow or AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT

Learn more →

AI Prompt Research

Find the real prompts your buyers ask AI search engines. Learn more

Learn more →

Start optimizing for AI Search. It's otterly awesome.

Book a Demo Start Your Free 14-Day Trial →

Real results from teams using OtterlyAI

How Bacula Won the AI Search Battle

Read Full Story →

Demo from ChatGPT up 1% → 10%

Read Full Story →

How Instant Built GEO from Zero

Read Full Story →

8x More Citations in 12 Months

Read Full Story →

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about AI Search Optimization in OtterlyAI.

How is AI Search Optimization different from SEO?

SEO earns a ranked link. AI Search Optimization earns a mention or a citation inside a generated answer. The technical groundwork overlaps, but the target changes: AI crawler access, content an engine can quote cleanly, and presence on the third-party sources those engines already trust.

What does the GEO Audit actually test?

Two layers. First, whether your robots.txt allows each of 19 AI crawlers, including GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and CCBot. Second, whether your server really serves those user agents, by requesting your page as each bot and recording the response.

Where do the Recommendations come from?

From your own Brand Report data. OtterlyAI looks at the prompts you track, the sources AI cites for them, and which of those sources mention competitors instead of you, then generates ranked actions across ten types, grouped into on-page and off-page.

Start optimizing for AI Search. It's Otterly Awesome.

For ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Claude. All in one place.

Try for Free

Get instant access to the full platform and explore all features, including AI Search visibility, brand mentions, and competitor tracking.

Start Your Free 14-Day Trial

No credit card required

AI Search Optimization turns AI Search data into work that gets cited

What is AI Search Optimization?

How AI Search Optimization works inside OtterlyAI

Citations

Crawlability Check

Recommendations

Marketplace

Content Audit

GEO Audit

Trusted by 40,000+ Marketing Pros worldwide

“OtterlyAI makes AI visibility easy to understand.It is a must for every business.”

"OtterlyAI is most valuable for marketing teams, SEOprofessionals and agencies investing in content but unableto measure whether that work reaches AI search."

"Using OtterlyAI has been a game changer.I'm finding myself using this daily!"

“A game-changer for AI search visibility. It tells youexactly what to do nest — no guesswork!”

“Since using OtterlyAI I've seen a 2x increase in ourvisibility in AI search engines.”

“Since using OtterlyAI, I've seen a 2x increase in both ourvisibility in AI search engines and incoming traffic.”

Related features of OtterlyAI

AI Search Analytics

Agent Analytics

ChatGPT Ads Tracking

OtterlyAI API

OtterlyAI MCP

AI Prompt Research

Start optimizing for AI Search. It's otterly awesome.

Real results from teams using OtterlyAI

Frequently Asked Questions

Start optimizing for AI Search. It's Otterly Awesome.

“OtterlyAI makes AI visibility easy to understand.
It is a must for every business.”

"OtterlyAI is most valuable for marketing teams, SEO
professionals and agencies investing in content but unable
to measure whether that work reaches AI search."

"Using OtterlyAI has been a game changer.
I'm finding myself using this daily!"

“A game-changer for AI search visibility. It tells you
exactly what to do nest — no guesswork!”

“Since using OtterlyAI I've seen a 2x increase in our
visibility in AI search engines.”

“Since using OtterlyAI, I've seen a 2x increase in both our
visibility in AI search engines and incoming traffic.”