Contents
- Define the market and offer to analyze
- Check indexing without making it a full diagnosis
- Request the correspondence between queries and pages
- Review AI visibility claims
- Evaluate the quality and origin of content
- Link the report to an execution plan
- Measure without promising a ranking
- What does an actionable deliverable look like?
- Local SEO: distinguish a query average from the page you will change
- A first plan with decisions at 30, 60 and 90 days
- Measure a received request before calling it a lead
- Sources and method
An AI SEO agency must be able to explain what it observes, how it measures it, and what actions it recommends. Being cited in a generated response, gaining clicks in Google, and receiving a business inquiry are three different outcomes. A useful audit distinguishes them and documents the limits of its evidence.
In brief
- Request a diagnosis of pages and queries before a list of content to produce.
- Require a reproducible protocol for observations in AI responses.
- Link recommendations to pages, responsible parties, and control criteria.
Define the market and offer to analyze
Start by naming the clients you are trying to reach, the priority services, languages, and territories. A business in the North Shore should not automatically interpret international visibility as progress in its local market. The audit must specify the scope of the data and its conclusions.
Ask which commercial pages serve as the destination. An article can attract readers without strengthening an offer. The role of the content must be explicit: answer a decision-making question, provide evidence, remove an objection, or guide to the next step.
Our SEO and GEO guide for SMEs presents the visibility changes. This article is used to evaluate a service: which elements must be provided to understand and verify the work?
Check indexing without making it a full diagnosis
Request an inspection of important pages, their status, their canonical URLs, and their presence in internal links. The agency must distinguish between a page present in the sitemap, an accessible page, and a page actually indexed. These states are not equivalent.
An inspection describes the indexing state of the checked URL. Ask which URLs were sampled, why they were chosen and what remains unchecked. Ranking and the rest of the site need separate evidence.
Request the correspondence between queries and pages
For each priority query group, ask which pages appear in search and how that visibility changed. A glossary may capture a commercial query instead of a service. Several similar guides may share impressions without answering the searcher’s question clearly.
TableRequest the correspondence between queries and pages · shareable block
| Actionable evidence | Limit to be specified | |
|---|---|---|
| Indexing | Inspected URL, status, and canonical | Scope of the sample |
| SEO visibility | Queries, countries, pages, and compared dates | Small volumes and non-exhaustive data |
| Content | Intention and difference with existing pages | Possible absence of company-specific evidence |
| AI responses | Query, product, date, and observed response | Variation in outputs and context |
| Conversion | Measured action and qualified opportunities | Incomplete collection and partial attribution |
Request a justification for each new page. When an existing guide already answers the same question, an improvement, a merge, or a better link to the service may be preferable. The quantity of text produced is not evidence of quality.
Review AI visibility claims
Google indicates that SEO best practices remain relevant for its AI features and that no special optimization guarantees an appearance. For a service, this implies distinguishing documented requirements, hypotheses to test, and tools presented as mandatory without evidence.
An observed citation is a snapshot. Keep the exact query, the product, the language, the date, and the known conditions. Note if the brand is mentioned, if a URL is linked, and if the response correctly describes the offer. A mention without a link does not automatically represent a visit.
Compare the same set of questions under conditions as stable as possible. Avoid replacing difficult queries with formulations containing the brand name to display a more flattering result. A protocol must be able to be read and replayed by an external person.
Evaluate the quality and origin of content
Ask which information comes from your projects, your team, or external sources. Hypothetical examples should be identified. Case studies must reflect real and authorized projects. A text that invents savings or field experience undermines trust, even if it uses the right keywords.
Google's recommendations on useful content emphasize added value and transparency. For an audit, translate this guidance into concrete checks: resolved questions, consultable sources, explicated method, and absence of promises exceeding available evidence.
The SEO services should lead to decisions adapted to your offer and your capabilities. A small site may need to clarify two service pages before launching ten new guides.
Link the report to an execution plan
Each recommendation must specify the target page, the observed problem, the proposed action, and how to verify its effect. Add the dependencies: access to data, business validation, measuring contacts, or information to be obtained. Without this, a detailed report may remain impossible to execute.
Rank the actions according to their expected impact and level of evidence. Correcting an inaccessible page differs from exploring a new query. An interesting hypothesis can be tested on a single piece of content before being extended. Observations must then modify the plan, and not just feed into a monthly table.
Measure without promising a ranking
Set a baseline and checkpoints. Track targeted queries, associated pages, relevant visits, and confirmed business actions. Variations can depend on demand, competitors, search changes, or data collection. The report must explain what it knows and what it does not allow to conclude.
For modest volumes, examine trends and individual cases rather than spectacular percentages. Going from one citation to two gives a one hundred percent increase, but does not prove business progression. The useful question remains: do the right prospects understand the offer better and move to the next step?
What does an actionable deliverable look like?
Here is a fictitious example of an audit log, proposed by Daillac to clarify what a recommendation should contain. The observations below are not issues found on your site. Each line distinguishes evidence, interpretation, and action; an owner and a deadline are then added to the work plan.
TableWhat does an actionable deliverable look like? · shareable block
| Hypothesis to examine | Action and monitoring criterion | |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial URL missing from the index; inspection dated | Blockage or different canonical URL | Correct the observed cause; re-inspect the URL and its canonical |
| Relevant query in positions 8:15; export page/query/country | Response or snippet insufficiently precise | Improve the existing page; compare clicks and impressions over full periods |
| Two pages visible for the same intent | Possible editorial overlap | Compare their objectives and queries before any merging |
| AI citation observed without associated visit | Occasional visibility, unknown reach | Repeat documented observations and separately track visits |
| Form received without commercial status | Missing qualification measure | Link unique requests to CRM records |
A deliverable includes the dated export, the filters used, the concerned URLs, and the limitations of the diagnosis. It then proposes an order of execution: resolve a proven access issue, reinforce an existing commercial page, then create additional content if the need is not covered. Accumulating new articles should not serve as an automatic response to all declines.
An observation sheet of AI responses to reproduce
- Exact question: [full text], without rephrasing it between two recordings.
- Product and mode: [service], [displayed version if available], [search mode], [connected account or not].
- Context: [language], [known location], [date and time], [new or previous conversation present].
- Response: [screenshot or copy], [cited URLs], [brand mention], [possible incorrect information].
- Repetition: [number of recordings], [identical conditions], [variations observed].
- Allowed conclusion: [specific observation or trend on this sample], [what remains unknown].
In a fictional exercise of ten recordings of the same question, three responses may cite a page. The result is "three citations out of ten observations in these conditions," not "30% market visibility." The sample does not represent all users or all products. A screenshot proving a citation does not prove a click or a commercial request.
The measurement contract to request
Choose the pages, queries, and market before making changes. Keep a reference period, then compare thirty full days to the previous period and, when relevant, to a comparable seasonal period. Examine Google clicks, organic sessions, confirmed requests, and qualified opportunities separately. The report must explain collection gaps and small volumes. An agency can commit to these deliverables and this method; ranking or citation also depends on systems it does not control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an agency guarantee a citation in ChatGPT or Google?+
It can propose a method, improve the pages, and document observations. A general guarantee of citation or ranking does not correspond to a result that the agency fully controls. Have the exact scope of the commitment specified.
Do you need a special file to appear in Google's AI features?+
Google does not require special optimization or a dedicated file for these features. The fundamentals of accessibility, indexing, and quality remain relevant. Any additional recommendation should be presented with its evidence and purpose.
Is an AI response screenshot enough to measure the GEO?+
It proves an observation in a given context. It does not measure all responses, visits, or leads. Useful tracking keeps queries, dates, products, and conditions, then shows variations and limits.
What is the first deliverable to request?+
A diagnosis linking your offerings, your pages, and the observed queries, followed by a prioritized plan. Content proposals should explain how they differ from existing content and the next step expected for the reader.
Local SEO: distinguish a query average from the page you will change
A recommendation needs a precise destination. An average position for a query across a whole site can include an article, a service page and an old URL. It does not necessarily describe the service page the agency proposes to edit. Request the query-plus-page view for the same country and dates before agreeing to a rewrite.
Illustrative figures, not client results
Suppose a query averages position 13 across the site while the relevant service page averages 8 on a small number of impressions. These fictional values illustrate different aggregation levels. Neither average is a live rank, and a tiny sample does not establish a stable position.
TableEvidence to request for a local project · shareable block
| Documented observation | Practical decision | |
|---|---|---|
| Query and destination | Country, language, dates and the URLs appearing for the query. | Choose the page whose purpose matches the buyer’s question. |
| Local result check | Exact place, device, date and distinction between organic links and Maps. | Do not present a national organic result as neighbourhood coverage. |
| Existing strong page | Business purpose and visible strengths before editing. | Keep the URL and useful content; limit the initial change. |
| Business Profile | Verified listing identifier and real address or service area. | Check the actual listing before recommending duplicate profiles. |
Google describes local results in terms of relevance, distance and prominence in its Business Profile guidance. A consultant cannot remove the distance factor by repeating city names. For a Saint-Jérôme business serving the North Shore, state the real location and actual service coverage; ask for local evidence instead of an invented office.
A first plan with decisions at 30, 60 and 90 days
The periods below are review windows proposed for planning, not ranking promises. Agree a baseline and the date changes go live. If Google has not revisited a page or the data remains too sparse, record that uncertainty instead of declaring the action successful or unsuccessful.
TableExample of a reviewable editorial SEO plan · shareable block
| Work to deliver | Decision at review | |
|---|---|---|
| First 30 days | Choose a small group of service questions, verify destinations and apply limited changes. | Can the team verify what changed and why? |
| Around 60 days | Compare final, non-overlapping periods for the same market and review page-level queries. | Keep, refine or investigate; avoid a causal claim from one movement. |
| Around 90 days | Review useful contacts alongside query and page evidence. | Expand only the work whose business usefulness is supported. |
Measure a received request before calling it a lead
A page view, a click and a completed request are different events. Write down where successful receipt is confirmed, how permitted measurement is triggered and how the team distinguishes a relevant request from spam or recruitment. A click on the submit button is not proof that the business received the request.
- Keep search exposure, site visits, received requests and qualified opportunities in separate columns.
- Record consent and measurement limits; analytics will not necessarily count every real request.
- Document any event-definition change before comparing periods.
- Review recurring questions from actual enquiries before commissioning another article.
A useful audit hands over an evidence sheet, a bounded list of changes, named owners and the next review date. Content about AI visibility should use the same discipline: identify the platform, query, context and observed answer, then separate a citation from a commercial outcome.
IllustrationStaged autumn street scene with a smartphone map illustrating a local SEO review · shareable block
Sources and method
Google Search Central : AI features and your website · Google Search Central : Creating helpful, reliable content · Google Search Console : Performance report. Sources consulted on October 1, 2026; the grids and decision examples are an editorial analysis by Daillac.
Obtain an audit that leads to verifiable actions
Present us with your market, your priority pages, and your available data. We can scope an SEO and AI visibility analysis with evidence, limitations, and an execution order.
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