Sample report
A real audit, anonymized.
We ran a scaled-down audit (6 questions, 5 engines) on a well-known sales CRM brand to show what you get. It is not a client and is not affiliated with us. Names are replaced with labels.
Prepared by Knownstone, a Hutcheson Labs company · November 1, 2026
AI Visibility Audit — SAMPLE
1. Summary
26AI answers captured
5AI engines
92%Subject brand mention rate
8/26answers citing subject-brand.com
Across 6 buyer-style questions, Subject brand was named in 92% of answers, behind Competitor A at 100%. The brand is consistently recommended, usually in the top two positions, but its own site is cited as a source in only 8 of 26 answers. Engines lean on the leading competitor's pages, video, Reddit threads and third-party review/listicle sites for evidence. The biggest opportunities are (1) earning citations on the third-party pages engines already trust, (2) giving engines quotable, answer-first pages for comparison and "best for" questions, and (3) closing gaps in Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, where the brand was absent from 1 in 6 answers.
2. Method
Questions were sent as fresh sessions (no login, US location where supported) to: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview. Each answer's text was scanned for 14 tracked CRM brands (first-mention order = rank) and every cited link was recorded. One run per question per engine in this sample; paid audits use 30 questions and 2 runs each. Claude has 2 answers in this sample because our test run hit a tool usage cap; Perplexity and Grok were not captured in this run (see notes).
| # | Buyer question tested |
|---|---|
| 1 | What CRM do small marketing agencies use to manage clients and deals? |
| 2 | What is the easiest CRM for managing a sales pipeline? |
| 3 | Subject brand vs Competitor A: which CRM is better for a small business? |
| 4 | Which CRM should a 10-person sales team use to track leads and deals? |
| 5 | What is the best CRM for a small B2B sales team? |
| 6 | What is an affordable CRM for a B2B startup? |
Google AI Overview queries were sent as shorter keyword versions of the same questions.
3. Mention rate by brand (all engines)
| Brand | Share of answers naming the brand |
|---|---|
| Competitor A | |
| Subject brand | |
| Competitor B | |
| Competitor C | |
| Competitor D | |
| Competitor E | |
| Competitor F | |
| Competitor G | |
| Competitor H | |
| Competitor I | |
| Competitor J | |
| Competitor K |
4. By engine
| Engine | Answers | Subject brand mention rate | Avg. position when named | Answers citing its site | Most-named brand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 6 | 100% | 1.7 | 6 | Subject brand (100%) |
| Claude | 2 | 100% | 1.0 | 0 | Subject brand (100%) |
| Gemini | 6 | 100% | 1.8 | 0 | Subject brand (100%) |
| Google AI Mode | 6 | 83% | 1.8 | 1 | Competitor A (100%) |
| Google AI Overview | 6 | 83% | 1.6 | 1 | Competitor A (100%) |
5. Sources AI engines cited most
These domains supplied the evidence behind the answers. Getting accurately represented on the third-party ones is usually the highest-leverage off-site work.
| Domain | Answers citing it | Type |
|---|---|---|
| competitor-a.com | 12 | Competitor (owned) |
| youtube.com | 9 | Video / community (UGC) |
| subject-brand.com | 8 | Subject brand (owned) |
| reddit.com | 8 | Video / community (UGC) |
| competitor-b.com | 7 | Competitor (owned) |
| competitor-f.com | 5 | Competitor (owned) |
| competitor-e.com | 4 | Competitor (owned) |
| kayako.com | 4 | Third-party review, listicle or blog |
| zapier.com | 4 | Third-party review, listicle or blog |
| gilzor.com | 3 | Third-party review, listicle or blog |
| competitor-c.com | 2 | Competitor (owned) |
| competitor-d.com | 2 | Competitor (owned) |
| blog.salesflare.com | 2 | Third-party review, listicle or blog |
| techradar.com | 2 | Third-party review, listicle or blog |
| dupple.com | 2 | Third-party review, listicle or blog |
6. Site readiness check (owned site)
| Check | Finding | Status |
|---|---|---|
| AI crawler access (robots.txt) | No blocks for GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended; only API/preview paths disallowed. Sitemap declared. | Good |
| Structured data (homepage) | JSON-LD present: Organization, FAQPage (5 Q&As), DefinedTerm. No SoftwareApplication/Product schema with pricing and ratings found on the homepage. | Improve |
| llms.txt | Present (~9 KB, well-structured brand summary). Note: no major AI engine has confirmed using llms.txt; we treat it as low-cost, optional. | Present |
| Pricing page access | Returned HTTP 403 to our automated fetch. If AI crawlers see the same, engines may quote pricing from third-party pages instead. | Verify |
| Owned-page citations | Own site cited in a minority of answers; engines prefer the leading competitor's guides plus third-party listicles and Reddit. | Gap |
7. Prioritized fixes (30/60/90 days)
| When | Action | Why (evidence level) |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Publish answer-first comparison and "best CRM for [team type]" pages with a 2-3 sentence direct answer at the top, a comparison table, current pricing, and dated sources. | Engines quote concise, specific passages; the GEO study (Aggarwal et al., 2023) found statistics, quotations and citations raised visibility up to ~40% in tests. (Moderate) |
| 30 | Make sure the pricing page is fetchable by AI crawlers and add SoftwareApplication/Offer schema matching visible prices. | Engines can only cite what they can fetch. Schema alone showed little citation lift in Ahrefs' 2026 test, so treat it as hygiene, not a lever. (Hygiene) |
| 60 | Get accurate, current coverage on the third-party pages engines cited above: correct pricing and features on review sites, outreach to listicle authors, helpful (disclosed) participation in relevant Reddit threads. | Ahrefs' 75K-brand study found branded web mentions correlated most with AI Overview visibility (0.664). Correlation, not proof. (Moderate) |
| 60 | Entity consistency: identical one-line description, category, pricing and founding facts across site, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, G2/Capterra and Wikidata. | Reduces contradictory facts engines may repeat. (Best practice) |
| 90 | Re-run the same prompt set; compare mention rate, position and owned-citation share against this baseline. | Engines re-crawl and update on their own schedules; measure, don't assume. (Measurement) |
8. Answer-level detail
| Engine | Question | Brands named, in order | Cited domains |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | What CRM do small marketing agencies use to manage clients and deals? | Competitor A, Subject brand, Competitor I, Competitor B, Competitor E | competitor-a.com, subject-brand.com, competitor-i.com, competitor-b.com, competitor-e.com, productive.io, tasksession.com, onfolio.com |
| ChatGPT | What is the easiest CRM for managing a sales pipeline? | Competitor A, Subject brand, Competitor G, Competitor E, Competitor B | competitor-a.com, subject-brand.com, competitor-g.com, competitor-e.com, competitor-b.com |
| ChatGPT | Subject brand vs Competitor A: which CRM is better for a small business? | Subject brand, Competitor A | subject-brand.com, competitor-a.com |
| ChatGPT | Which CRM should a 10-person sales team use to track leads and deals? | Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor B, Competitor C, Competitor D | subject-brand.com, competitor-a.com, competitor-b.com, competitor-c.com, competitor-d.com, spotsaas.com, gilzor.com, blog.salesflare.com |
| ChatGPT | What is the best CRM for a small B2B sales team? | Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor B, Competitor J, Competitor C | subject-brand.com, competitor-a.com, competitor-b.com, competitor-j.com, competitor-c.com, gilzor.com, dupple.com, techradar.com |
| ChatGPT | What is an affordable CRM for a B2B startup? | Competitor A, Competitor B, Subject brand, Competitor C, Competitor F, Competitor D | competitor-a.com, competitor-b.com, subject-brand.com, competitor-f.com, competitor-d.com, stackbytrade.com, dupple.com, rankite.com |
| Gemini | What is an affordable CRM for a B2B startup? | Competitor A, Competitor B, Subject brand, Competitor F, Competitor D | competitor-a.com, zoflowx.com |
| Gemini | Which CRM should a 10-person sales team use to track leads and deals? | Competitor C, Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor B | hackceleration.com, withallo.com |
| Gemini | What is the easiest CRM for managing a sales pipeline? | Subject brand, Competitor G, Competitor C, Competitor A, Competitor E | kayako.com, slack.com, uschamber.com, baserow.io |
| Gemini | What CRM do small marketing agencies use to manage clients and deals? | Competitor A, Competitor I, Subject brand, Competitor F, Competitor E, Competitor B, Competitor C | competitor-f.com, onepagecrm.com |
| Gemini | What is the best CRM for a small B2B sales team? | Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor K, Competitor B, Competitor H | kayako.com, youtube.com, competitor-k.com |
| Gemini | Subject brand vs Competitor A: which CRM is better for a small business? | Subject brand, Competitor A | zapier.com, sales-surge.io, flozic.ai, business.com |
| Google AI Mode | What is the best CRM for a small B2B sales team? | Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor H, Competitor D, Competitor B, Competitor C | baserow.io, reddit.com |
| Google AI Mode | Which CRM should a 10-person sales team use to track leads and deals? | Competitor C, Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor H, Competitor B | reddit.com, twilead.com |
| Google AI Mode | What CRM do small marketing agencies use to manage clients and deals? | Competitor F, Competitor A, Subject brand, Competitor I, Competitor E, Competitor H | competitor-f.com, fluidcrm.io |
| Google AI Mode | What is the easiest CRM for managing a sales pipeline? | Competitor A, Competitor D, Competitor K, Competitor E | youtube.com, reddit.com, google.com |
| Google AI Mode | Subject brand vs Competitor A: which CRM is better for a small business? | Subject brand, Competitor A | competitor-a.com, hackceleration.com, youtube.com, subject-brand.com, google.com |
| Google AI Mode | What is an affordable CRM for a B2B startup? | Competitor F, Subject brand, Competitor B, Competitor C, Competitor A | spiich.ai, reddit.com, competitor-f.com |
| Google AI Overview | best CRM for small B2B sales team | Subject brand, Competitor D, Competitor A, Competitor B, Competitor K, Competitor H | youtube.com, zapier.com, gushwork.ai, pcmag.com, salestarget.ai, instantly.ai |
| Google AI Overview | CRM for small marketing agencies | Competitor A, Competitor I, Competitor B | reddit.com, competitor-b.com, netsuite.com, functionfox.com, competitor-a.com, zapier.com, youtube.com |
| Google AI Overview | easiest CRM for managing a sales pipeline | Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor G, Competitor D | reddit.com, competitor-a.com, uschamber.com, onesuite.io, kayako.com, youtube.com, pipeline.zoominfo.com |
| Google AI Overview | CRM for 10 person sales team to track leads and deals | Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor E, Competitor B | reddit.com, onesuite.io, twilead.com, youtube.com, interakt.shop, competitor-a.com, instagram.com |
| Google AI Overview | subject brand vs competitor A for small business | Subject brand, Competitor A | reddit.com, youtube.com, subject-brand.com, zapier.com, avoma.com, competitor-e.com, larksuite.com, competitor-a.com |
| Google AI Overview | affordable CRM for B2B startup | Competitor A, Competitor B, Competitor C, Subject brand, Competitor G, Competitor F, Competitor J | competitor-f.com, youtube.com, jetpack.com, instantly.ai, competitor-b.com, competitor-k.com |
| Claude | What is the best CRM for a small B2B sales team? | Subject brand, Competitor A, Competitor C, Competitor B, Competitor G, Competitor D, Competitor J | superoffice.com, coevera.com, clarify.ai, kayako.com, blog.salesflare.com, fluidcrm.io, salesgenie.com |
| Claude | Subject brand vs Competitor A: which CRM is better for a small business? | Subject brand, Competitor A | competitor-e.com, vedain.com, business.com, sales-surge.io, layer3labs.io |
9. Notes and limits
- AI answers change between runs, locations and accounts; one run per question is a snapshot, not a stable average.
- Brand detection is automated text matching and may miss paraphrases or misread a common word; we spot-check every paid audit.
- Perplexity and Grok were not captured in this sample run (a capture timeout and a tool usage cap). Paid audits cover ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews as standard; Perplexity, Claude, Copilot and Grok are attempted and reported only when captured.
- Recommendations are evidence-informed, not guaranteed. No one can guarantee placement in AI answers.