This is the audit you get on the call.
A real AI Search audit we ran in October 2026 for a window and door replacement company in a major US city. We changed its name, its rivals' names, some question wording and the details that would identify it. Every finding is from the real audit, and the counts and shares are the real ones.
Google ranked them on page one for 9 of 46 buyer searches. Asked the same questions, AI named them in 5 of 97 answers.
Yours is built the same way: from 50 questions your own buyers ask, put to ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, plus a crawl of your site.
Apply for your free audit callPage 1: Where you stand
Your number: 5.2%. ChatGPT and Google AI Mode named you in 5 of 97 answers to 50 questions your buyers ask. Your top rival, a national replacement brand, was named in 14 (14.4%). ChatGPT named you in 4 of 50 answers and Google AI Mode in 1 of 47.
On Google's normal results, you're on page one for 9 of 46 of the same searches, and in the top 3 for 4. So Google ranks you more often than AI names you. You rank first on Google for a patio door cost question your buyers ask, yet Google AI Mode answered it with two rival installers, and ChatGPT named no business at all.
When someone in your city asks an AI assistant who to call to replace their windows or patio doors, the answer usually names a national replacement brand, a local installer or a national franchise, and not you. Ask the same assistants about you by name and they know you well: a near-perfect review rating, and a trusted dealer for a well-known window brand. They just don't think of you when the buyer hasn't heard of you yet.
Your six signals
Page 2: Who gets named instead of you
These are the businesses AI names most often when your buyers ask:
We count names the way the answers gave them. Rival D also appeared under another name in 5 answers.
A sample of the answers where a competitor was named and you weren't (the full list, question by question, comes with the audit):
| Question your buyer asked | Engine | Named instead |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the best window replacement company in [your city]? | Google AI Mode | Three rivals, including A and D |
| Best window and door company in [your city] for a high-end home | ChatGPT | Three rivals, including A |
| Who are the best [window brand] dealers in [your city]? | Google AI Mode | Two other businesses |
| Where can I get [window brand] windows installed in [your city]? | ChatGPT | Rival B |
| Who installs [type of] patio doors in [nearby suburb]? | ChatGPT | Three local glass and door firms |
| Is there a window and door showroom in [your city] where I can see products in person? | Google AI Mode | Two other businesses |
| How much does it cost to replace windows in [your city]? | Google AI Mode | Rivals C and A |
| How much does a [type of] patio door cost installed in [your city]? | Google AI Mode | Rival E and one other installer |
| Full-frame vs insert replacement windows, which is better for an older [your city] home? | Google AI Mode | One local exteriors firm |
| Licensed and insured window replacement contractor in [your city] with good reviews | ChatGPT | Rival C |
| Which [your city] window companies offer a lifetime warranty on windows and installation? | Google AI Mode | Three rivals, including A |
Three stand out. The two [window brand] questions named other businesses, though AI calls you a trusted [window brand] dealer when asked about you by name. Google ranks you second for the high-end home search and first for patio door cost, and the AI answers to both left you out.
Where those answers get their information. The sites cited most in the answers that left you out: the state licensing board, Yelp, rivals' own sites and the big-box retailer's site, then Angi, Expertise.com and BBB. Your site links your BBB profile and a public license register; we didn't check how complete your listings on the licensing board, Yelp, Angi and Expertise.com are, and that is the first job.
Page 3: What we found, signal by signal
Offsite
You were named in 5 answers: top rated installers in [nearby suburb] (Google AI Mode, second), plus the showroom question, an outlying town, a company without high-pressure sales, and permits and disposal (all ChatGPT). You were named in 1 of 16 "best for the job" answers. The directories behind the answers that leave you out are the licensing board, Yelp, Angi, Expertise.com and BBB.
Relevance
Your buyer pages meet 62% of the must-haves a machine can check; /doors/ is the weakest, missing what is included, what is not included and proof from your own records. In the pages we crawled, doors get a small fraction of the pages windows get. We didn't find a pricing or price-guide page or a reviews page. You do have articles on cost, materials, door types, energy bills and timing, and Google ranks your materials comparison pages second, yet both AI engines answered that question without naming any business. You were named in 0 of 16 price answers, 0 of 14 comparison answers and 0 of 16 problem-first answers.
Credibility
Good foundations: your contractor license number with a link to a public register, a link to BBB, a named person on your About page, 5 of 5 sampled articles with a named author and profile, and no contradictions in your facts across 3 pages. The gaps: testimonials appear without a link to where they came from, your Organization markup lists 0 profiles though your site links Facebook and Instagram, there is no Person markup for your people, and we didn't find liability insurance stated. When AI quotes your rating, it takes it from a third-party review platform, not your site.
Uniqueness
You have things rivals can't copy: a showroom and a long, detailed page on the window brand you sell. When asked for a showroom, ChatGPT named you first and cited your site. But we found a number from your own records on 1 of 7 buyer pages and 0 of 5 other pages, and the site is written pages only: we found no video, tools, research or original photos. The page-by-page judgement against the three uniqueness questions from our SOURCE framework wasn't run (the quick read couldn't settle it), so this grade leans on the crawl.
Structure
Strong underneath: robots.txt lets all 10 crawlers that feed AI answers in, every crawler we tested gets the same page as a browser, and the headline and copy are in the raw HTML on all 8 priority pages. All 8 can be indexed. Two things to fix: real Chrome visitors on phones fail Core Web Vitals on main content load (about 2.9 seconds site-wide and on the homepage, against Google's 2.5), and we didn't find local business markup. Small fixes: 34 pages have images without a text alternative (9 commercial), 6 commercial page titles never name the business, /thank-you/ sits in your sitemap, and one blog article links to a page that doesn't work.
Evaluation
We'll ask what you track today. Your site sends data to GA4.
Page 4: The three moves, in order
Get onto the sources AI reads when it leaves you out
- Why first
- Offsite is your weakest signal, and the answers that name rivals cite the licensing board, Yelp, Angi, Expertise.com, BBB and review sites.
- Who does it
- Your marketing lead or office manager.
- Effort
- Two to four weeks.
- This week
- Check that your licensing board entry shows your business name and license number exactly as your site does, then claim and complete your Yelp, Angi, Expertise.com and BBB profiles with the same name, address, services and brand dealer status.
- How we'll know
- Re-run these 50 questions in 45 days.
Answer the price, comparison and problem questions on the pages AI reads
- Why
- You were named in none of the price, comparison or problem-first answers, even where your articles already cover the topic.
- Who does it
- Your website lead with an estimator.
- Effort
- Three to four weeks.
- First step
- Build one price guide page with ranges from your own jobs (windows by material, patio doors by type, entry doors), add what is included and not included to /windows/ and /doors/, and give patio doors their own page.
Make your proof checkable and your phone pages faster
- Why
- AI repeats ratings from a third-party review platform and rival lists because your site's reviews and people aren't connected to their sources.
- Who does it
- Your web developer.
- Effort
- One to two weeks.
- First step
- Add local business markup listing Facebook, Instagram and the profiles from move one, link each testimonial to its Google source, add a reviews page and Person markup for your named person, and bring phone load under 2.5 seconds.
How long this takes: the fixes are done in weeks, the effects show in months. Expect the first signals to move in month one, and citations and leads to start showing up in months two to four.
How we measured
50 buyer questions, written from your site and your market, asked once each in ChatGPT (OpenAI's API with web search on, close to ChatGPT but not the app itself) and Google AI Mode (Google's own results, signed out, from your city) in October 2026. Google AI Mode gave no answer for 3 questions, so 97 answers count. Questions about you by name were asked separately and left out of your number. We crawled 35 pages of your site and checked how AI crawlers are treated, how the pages read before and after scripts run, and real visitors' page speed from Google's Chrome data. Answers vary from one asking to the next, so read your number across the whole set, not question by question. The question set is yours: re-run it any month, with us or anyone else, and you have a number you can hold anyone to, including us.
Want to see your own number?
Apply for a free 30-minute call. A senior member of the StudioHawk team runs this audit on your site before the call, walks you through it, and you keep it, along with a 90-day plan and the full answer list.
Apply for your free audit call