Fresh Digital · SEO Resource AI Search · Answer Engine Optimisation

The AEO discovery
questionnaire.

The questions we ask to plan an AI search campaign, the kind that gets a business named, quoted and recommended by Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Fill it out live at kickoff, then download or print your answers.

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Session

Who and when

Fill this out live in the kickoff. Your answers save in this browser as you type, and you can download or print the completed questionnaire at the end.

01 · Baseline

Run the AI baseline first

Before the session, test the same prompts in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini. Capture the exact wording each returns, and screenshot it. You want a live starting point, not a guess.

Why it matters. You cannot plan a lift without a starting point. Ten minutes of testing tells you whether the client is visible, invisible, or misrepresented in AI answers, and gives you concrete examples to open with.

Brand prompts. "What is [brand]?", "Is [brand] any good?", "[brand] reviews", "[brand] vs [competitor]". Is it described accurately? Any wrong or outdated facts?
Category prompts, no brand. "best [category] in [location]", "who are the top [category] providers", "recommend a [service] near [area]". Is the client mentioned at all? Who is?
Buyer-question prompts. The real questions a customer asks before buying. Does the client content get cited, or a competitor?
Note the citations. Which sources does the AI quote (their site, directories, reviews, press, competitors)? That is your target list.
Listen for: Wrong or missing facts about the client, competitors owning the category answers, and which third-party sources the engines trust. These three findings shape the whole plan.
02 · Entity Facts

Business, offer and entity facts

AI answers are only as accurate as the facts it can find and trust. Nail the core facts and make them consistent everywhere.

Why it matters. Getting the core entity facts right, and consistent across the web, is the single biggest lever for being represented correctly in AI answers.

In one or two sentences, how would you want an AI to describe your business to a potential customer?
What exactly do you sell or offer? List every service, product line and location, in the names customers use.
What makes you genuinely different? What can you say that a competitor honestly cannot?
What hard facts should an answer always get right? Locations and service areas, hours, price model, guarantees, credentials, year established.
Are there facts often reported wrong about you, online or by customers?
What is the official, canonical name, address and phone for each location?
Listen for: Fuzzy or inconsistent facts, USPs that are really table stakes, and any gap between how they describe themselves and how the market searches for them.
03 · Audience

The real questions buyers ask

AEO rewards content that answers the exact questions buyers ask, in their words. The client knows those questions better than any keyword tool.

Why it matters. The client knows the real buyer questions and the objections that never reach the website. Each one becomes an FAQ or content target.

Who makes the decision, and who else influences it? (Often the researcher is not the buyer.)
What are the ten questions you get asked most before someone buys? Use their exact phrasing.
What objections or worries come up again and again, and what reassurance closes them?
What do customers misunderstand about your category before they talk to you?
What words do your customers use that differ from the industry jargon?
At what point does someone start asking AI or Google for help, and what are they deciding then?
Listen for: Real buyer language, high-stakes objections, and questions the current site does not answer clearly.
04 · Current Presence

Current search and AI presence

Their perception, plus your Section 1 baseline, frames expectations and surfaces easy wins and known problems.

Why it matters. Their view plus your baseline shows the gap between where they think they stand and what the engines actually say.

Have you searched for yourself in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI answers? What did you make of it?
Where do you already show up strongly, and where do you feel invisible?
Which directories, review sites, association listings or "best of" lists do you appear on? Which matter in your industry?
Do you have a Google Business Profile for each location, and who manages it?
Has anyone written about you or linked to you? Press, blogs, podcasts, partners?
Listen for: Existing authority you can amplify, and the gap between perceived and actual standing.
05 · Authority

Authority, trust and E-E-A-T

AI engines lean on entities and sources they can trust. Experience, expertise, authority and trust signals decide whether you are quoted or skipped.

Why it matters. AI favours identifiable expertise and hard proof over anonymous content, especially in high-stakes categories.

Who are the named experts or leaders, and what are their credentials and track record?
What proof do you hold? Awards, certifications, memberships, accreditations, licences, partnerships.
Do you have original data, case studies or results no one else has? These are highly quotable by AI.
Where do your reviews live, and how strong are they?
Is there a Wikipedia or Wikidata entry, or a Google Knowledge Panel, for the business or its founders?
Listen for: Named, credentialed people and hard proof points you can put in front of the engines.
06 · Content

Content and structure readiness

Answer engines lift clear, well-structured, directly-answered content. This tells you how much is new content versus restructuring what exists.

Why it matters. It tells you how much of the win is new content versus simply restructuring what already exists.

Do you have an FAQ or help section, and does it answer the real buyer questions?
Is your key information written as clear, direct answers, or buried in marketing copy?
Do you have detailed pages for each service, product and location, or thin ones?
Is important information locked in PDFs, images or gated forms a crawler cannot read?
Who creates content, at what cadence, and who signs it off?
Listen for: Clean answers win. Marketing fluff, thin location pages and gated facts all block AEO.
07 · Competitors

Competitors and category landscape

AEO is comparative. Know who currently owns the AI answer and why, so you can out-structure and out-authorise them.

Why it matters. You need to know who owns the answer today, and whether it is a rival brand or an aggregator, because the play differs.

Who are your three main competitors, and who do you lose to most often?
In the baseline, who did the AI recommend for your category? A competitor, a directory, or a marketplace?
What comparison questions do buyers ask? ("[you] vs [competitor]", "best [category] for [need]".)
Is there a directory or review platform that dominates your category answers? Can you get listed or featured there?
Listen for: Whether the competition is other brands or aggregators. Beating an aggregator is a different play from beating a rival brand.
08 · Feasibility

Technical access and feasibility

AEO needs schema, crawlable content and measurement. Confirm what you can change and see before committing to outcomes.

Why it matters. Editability, analytics access and crawler status decide what is achievable. A blocked AI crawler quietly caps everything.

What platform is the site on, and can we add and edit structured data (schema) freely?
Can we get access to Google Search Console, GA4, Google Business Profile and any AI-visibility tools?
Is any structured data already in place (Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQ, Product, Service, Review)?
Are AI crawlers (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) allowed or blocked in robots.txt?
Who owns and can change the website, and how quickly can changes ship?
Listen for: Editability, analytics access, and whether AI crawlers are accidentally blocked.
09 · Guardrails

Brand voice, claims and guardrails

You are creating content that speaks for the client in AI answers. Get the guardrails before you publish, not after.

Why it matters. These set your content pace and protect the client from a wrong, AI-facing claim.

What claims can you make, and what must you never make? Any regulated or legal language to avoid?
What is your tone, and are there words or phrases you always or never use?
Are there topics, competitors or comparisons you do not want to engage with publicly?
Who approves published content, and how long does approval take?
Listen for: Compliance limits and approval bottlenecks.
10 · Goals

Goals, priorities and measurement

AEO can feel abstract. Agree up front what a win is and how you will show it, so the campaign is accountable.

Why it matters. A concrete definition of success keeps a compounding, sometimes abstract channel honest and reportable.

If AI visibility works, what changes for the business? More enquiries, better-informed buyers, fewer objections, authority?
Which products, services or locations matter most right now? Where do we focus first?
What are the priority questions you most want to be the answer to?
How will we judge success? Citations in AI answers, referral traffic from AI, branded search lift, assisted enquiries?
What is the realistic budget and timeframe, and how patient is the business for a compounding channel?
Listen for: A concrete definition of success and a short priority list. Vague goals produce vague campaigns.
11 · Inputs

Assets and inputs to collect

Most AEO work stalls waiting for inputs. Ask for these in the same session so the team can start.

Why it matters. Gathering inputs in the session itself is the difference between starting next week and starting next month.

Full service, product and location list, with correct names and details.
Pricing or pricing model, guarantees, and any spec or fact sheets.
Named experts and their bios, credentials and photos.
Proof assets: awards, certifications, case studies, data, testimonials.
Access to GSC, GA4, GBP, the CMS and any AI-visibility tracking.
Brand guidelines, approved claims, and the content approval contact.
Listen for: Anything missing here becomes next week's blocker, so collect it now.
The Plan

Turning answers into an AEO plan

Map what you learned onto the five AEO workstreams. This is the bridge from discovery to a costed, sequenced campaign.

What you learnedWorkstream it feeds
Core facts, USPs, inconsistent details (2, 4)Entity foundation: consistent NAP, profiles, Knowledge Panel, Wikidata, canonical facts across the web
Real buyer questions and language (3, 6)FAQ and answer content: structured, directly-answered pages in the buyer's words
Platform, schema, crawler status (8)Structured data plan: Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQ, Product, Service, Review schema, plus crawler access
Experts, proof, reviews, directories (5, 7)Authority and citation building: named expertise, third-party sources, "best of" and directory placements
Goals, priorities, success measures (10)Measurement and roadmap: baseline, tracked prompts, AI-referral and branded-lift reporting, phased priorities

Rule of thumb: fix the entity facts and crawler access first, then build the answer content and the authority in parallel, and baseline the AI prompts from day one. Re-run the baseline monthly as your scoreboard.

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Your answers are saved in this browser automatically. When you are done, download them as a file to drop into your brief, or save as a PDF. Questions? sales@freshdigital.com.au.

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