AEO Audit and Assessment Services

Define which queries matter for your business:

For dispensaries: - 15-20 location-based queries ("best dispensary in [city]," "[city] cannabis") - 10-15 product queries ("best strains for [condition]") - 5-10 brand/reputation queries ("[your business name]," "[your business] reviews")

For brands: - 5-10 brand-specific queries ("[brand name]," "where to buy [brand]") - 10-15 product queries ("[strain name]," "[product type]") - 5-10 competitive comparison queries

For publishers/educators: - 20-30 topic-based queries ("cannabis cannabinoids," "edible dosing," etc.)

Test across all four major AI systems for each query. Scope typically includes 50-150 total tests depending on business type.

For each query, identify which competitors appear and how prominently:

Competitor A appears in Gemini 90% of time for local queries Competitor B appears in Gemini 70% of time You appear in Gemini 15% of time

This benchmarking reveals competitive gap. If top competitors appear 90%+ and you appear 15%, optimization roadmap should focus on matching competitors' visibility first.

Analyze what makes competitors visible: - Do they have more reviews? - Is their GBP more complete? - Do they have more content? - Are they cited more frequently on Perplexity?

This analysis points to use areas for improvement.

Complete GBP audit against competitor profiles:

Audit checklist: - Is business name exactly correct? - Is address complete and accurate? - Are hours updated and accurate (including holidays)? - Is phone number current? - Are product categories listed? - Are there 15+ high-quality photos? - Is business description complete (250-500 words)? - Are all attributes properly set? - Are posts publishing weekly? - Is review response happening within 24 hours? - Is review count and rating competitive?

Score your GBP against top competitor GBPs. Most cannabis dispensaries will find their GBP is 40-60% as complete as top competitors. Identify specific gaps (missing product categories, outdated hours, insufficient photos) for immediate improvement.

Audit your content presence and performance:

Document: 1. Total number of unique content pieces you've published 2. Topics covered by your content 3. Topics competitors cover that you don't 4. Average word count of your content vs. competitors 5. Citation frequency: How often are your articles cited by Perplexity compared to competitors? 6. Backlink profile: How many backlinks does your content have compared to competitors?

Most cannabis dispensaries will have minimal content (0-5 pieces) while competitive dispensaries have 15-30. Brands often have stronger content presence, but rarely match publication-quality content.

Test citation frequency by checking which of your content pieces Perplexity cites for target queries. If Perplexity rarely cites your content but frequently cites competitors, content quality or structure needs improvement.

Conduct basic technical audit:

Checklist: - Is website HTTPS secure? - Is website mobile responsive? - What are Core Web Vitals scores? (use PageSpeed Insights) - Does site have XML sitemap? - Does site have robots.txt? - Are there crawl errors in Google Search Console? - Does site have schema markup implemented? - Are there broken internal or external links?

Most cannabis websites will find multiple technical issues. These issues directly impact both SEO and AEO performance.

Use Google Search Console to identify specific technical issues, then prioritize fixes by impact.

Create audit report covering:

1. 1Executive Summary: Current AEO visibility, gap analysis, top priorities
2. 2Competitive Benchmarking: How you compare to competitors across all signals
3. 3GBP Analysis: Current state, gaps, improvement roadmap
4. 4Citation Analysis: Where you're cited, where you're missing, citation consistency issues
5. 5Content Audit: Current content, topics, performance, gaps
6. 6Technical Audit: Current technical state, issues identified, prioritized fixes
7. 7AI System Specific Findings: How you perform in each AI system, unique gaps
8. 8Priority Improvement Roadmap: 90-day and 6-month priorities ranked by ROI

This report becomes your AEO strategy foundation.

Conduct full AEO audit: - Annually if you're implementing complete AEO strategy - Quarterly if you're in competitive market - Whenever you've made significant changes (new content, moved locations, merged businesses)

Track audit metrics over time. Improving metrics (more AI system appearances, better review scores, more citations) validate that your AEO strategy is working.

AEO strategy without baseline audit is shooting blindly. You cannot improve what you cannot measure. An audit quantifies your current AI search visibility, identifies specific gaps relative to competitors, and reveals which tactics offer highest ROI. For cannabis businesses, audit often reveals shocking gaps: a dispensary with strong Google rankings may have zero appearance in Gemini local answers, or minimal appearance in Perplexity citations. These gaps represent quantifiable revenue recovery opportunity. Audit baseline establishes that opportunity and validates AEO investment. Additionally, audit creates accountability mechanism: you can measure whether your AEO strategy is working by tracking improvement against audit baseline. Monthly or quarterly re-testing of core audit queries reveals progress and validates that tactics are moving metrics.

Audits reveal not just your position but competitive positions simultaneously. By testing which competitors appear in AI answers for target queries, you quantify competitive advantage needed. If top competitor appears in Gemini 85% of the time and you appear 10% of the time, you know exactly how much work is required to reach competitive parity. This competitive clarity allows realistic timeline and budget estimates. Additionally, audit reveals which competitors' tactics are working (strong GBP, regular reviews, frequent content) and which competitors haven't optimized for AEO despite Google visibility. This intelligence allows you to compete against weakest competitors first, building momentum before challenging established leaders.