Using AI to Evaluate Your Online Presence
You already have access to one of the most capable research tools ever built. Here is how to use it to audit your own digital footprint before spending a dollar.

You Already Have a Research Department
If you have access to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any other large language model, you are sitting on a research tool that most businesses are not using. These tools are not magic. They do not have access to your private data or live analytics. But they are exceptionally good at analyzing publicly available information, explaining concepts in plain language, and helping you think through problems you have not had time to think through yourself.
The trick is knowing how to ask. A vague question gets a vague answer. A well-structured prompt gets an analysis that would have cost you a consulting fee five years ago. This article gives you prompts you can copy, paste, and use right now to start understanding your online presence with fresh eyes.
What Is a Persona and Why Does It Matter
Before you start copying prompts, there is one concept worth understanding. When you give an AI a persona, you are telling it to approach your question from a specific angle with specific expertise. The difference between asking a generic question and asking one prefaced with a persona is dramatic. A persona focuses the response, raises the quality of the analysis, and surfaces considerations you would not have thought to ask about.
Every prompt below starts by establishing a persona. This is intentional. You want the AI thinking like an SEO specialist, not a general-purpose assistant. The more specific the persona, the more useful the output.
You do not need a paid AI subscription for any of this. The free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini all handle these prompts well. If you have never used one before, just go to the website, create an account (if required), and paste the prompt into the chat box.
Evaluate Your Website's First Impression
Your website makes a first impression in about three seconds. This prompt asks the AI to evaluate what a potential customer would think when they land on your site for the first time.
You are an experienced digital marketing consultant who specializes in local service businesses. I am going to give you my website URL. I want you to visit it and evaluate the first impression it makes on a potential customer. Consider these factors: - Does it clearly communicate what the business does within the first few seconds? - Is the contact information easy to find? - Does it look professional and current, or dated? - Is there a clear call to action? - Would you trust this business based solely on the website? Be honest and specific. I am looking for actionable observations, not compliments. My website: [YOUR URL HERE]
Some AI models can browse the web and will actually visit your site. Others will ask you to paste the content. Either way, you will get useful analysis.
Understand How Search Engines See You
Most business owners have never thought about their website from a search engine's perspective. This prompt helps bridge that gap by asking the AI to explain what signals your site is sending to Google.
You are a technical SEO specialist with 10 years of experience auditing local business websites. I want you to evaluate my website from a search engine's perspective. Explain to me, in plain language that a non-technical business owner can understand: - What is my site telling search engines about my business? - Are there obvious SEO problems you can identify? - Does my site have structured data or schema markup? - How well is my content organized for search intent? - What are the biggest opportunities I am missing? Do not use jargon without explaining it. Treat me as someone who is smart but not technical. My website: [YOUR URL HERE]
If the AI cannot browse your site directly, paste the HTML source of your homepage. You can get this by right-clicking on your page and selecting 'View Page Source.'
Audit Your Business Listings
Your business information lives on more platforms than you think. This prompt helps you discover where you are listed and whether the information is consistent.
You are a local SEO expert who specializes in NAP consistency and business listing management. I want you to help me understand my business's presence across online directories. My business name is: [YOUR BUSINESS NAME] My city is: [YOUR CITY] My industry is: [YOUR INDUSTRY] Please: 1. List the major platforms where my business should have a listing (Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Yelp, Bing Places, Facebook, industry-specific directories for my field). 2. Explain why consistency across these platforms matters for both customers and search engines. 3. Tell me what information should be identical across every listing. 4. Identify any industry-specific directories I should be on based on my field. I want to understand the landscape before I start checking each one.
This will not check your actual listings for you since the AI does not have access to your accounts. But it will tell you exactly where to look and what to look for, which is half the battle.
Compare Yourself to Competitors
You cannot improve what you do not measure, and measurement includes knowing where you stand relative to the competition. This prompt is surprisingly effective at surfacing competitive gaps.
You are a competitive analyst for local service businesses. I want to understand how my online presence compares to my competitors. My business: [YOUR BUSINESS NAME AND URL] Competitor 1: [NAME AND URL] Competitor 2: [NAME AND URL] Compare us across these dimensions: - Website quality and professionalism - Clarity of services offered - Online review presence (what you can observe publicly) - Content depth and SEO indicators - Overall first impression for a potential customer choosing between us Be direct about where I am behind and where I have an advantage. I need honest assessment, not encouragement.
What to Do With What You Learn
These prompts will give you a clearer picture of where you stand than most business owners ever get. Some of what you learn will be things you can fix yourself: updating an old phone number on Yelp, adding a better description to your Google Business Profile, or rewriting a confusing homepage headline.
Other findings will point to structural issues: missing schema markup, no analytics tracking, poor content organization for search engines. Those are harder to fix on your own, and that is where professional help becomes worth the investment. The point of this exercise is not to turn you into a web developer. It is to make you an informed buyer who knows what questions to ask and can tell the difference between someone who knows what they are doing and someone who does not.
If you run these prompts and want help understanding the results, or if the findings confirm what you suspected and you are ready to do something about it, we are happy to have that conversation. No pressure, no pitch. Just a straight assessment of where you are and what would actually help.
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