AEO AUDIT: IS YOUR EVENT COMPANY VISIBLE TO AI SEARCH?

What Is an AEO Audit?

An AEO audit is a systematic test of your event company's visibility across AI-powered search platforms. Unlike a traditional SEO audit that checks Google rankings, an AEO audit asks: when a client asks ChatGPT "Who's the best event production company in Dallas?" — does your company appear in the answer?

For most event service companies, the answer is no. And that's a problem because AI search is growing fast: ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly active users (OpenAI, October 2025), and 65% of Google searches end without a click (SparkToro, 2025). Clients are increasingly asking AI for vendor recommendations instead of scrolling search results.

How Do You Run an AEO Audit?

A thorough AEO audit tests your visibility across multiple platforms with queries your potential clients actually ask. Here's the process:

Step 1: Build Your Query List

Create 20-30 test queries across four categories:

• Discovery queries: "Best event production company in [your city]," "top event planners for corporate events," "AV rental company near me"
• Comparison queries: "[Your company] vs [competitor]," "best event companies for [specialty]"
• Service queries: "How much does event production cost?" "What does an event planner do?"
• Brand queries: "What is [your company name]?" "Is [your company] good?" "[Your company] reviews"

Step 2: Test Across All Major Platforms

Run every query on each of these platforms and record whether your company is mentioned:

• ChatGPT (including ChatGPT Search) — the largest AI assistant by user count
• Google AI Overviews — integrated directly into Google Search results
• Perplexity — a search-first AI that always cites sources with links
• Claude — Anthropic's AI assistant, growing rapidly
• Gemini — Google's AI assistant
• Voice assistants — Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant

Step 3: Score and Analyze

For each query, record:

• Were you mentioned? (Yes/No)
• Were you cited as a source? (URL included)
• Was the information accurate?
• What position were you in the response? (First mentioned, listed among several, not mentioned)
• Which competitors appeared instead?

What Does an AEO Audit Typically Reveal?

After auditing dozens of event companies, we consistently find:

• 80%+ are completely invisible to AI search. The AI doesn't mention them at all for any query.
• Entity recognition is the #1 gap. AI doesn't recognize the company as a distinct entity it can make statements about.
• Competitors who invest in content appear everywhere. Even a small content advantage creates outsized AI visibility because the space is so uncontested.
• Structured data is almost always missing. No Organization schema, no LocalBusiness schema, no FAQ schema — the machine-readable signals AI needs.
• Information accuracy varies wildly. When AI does mention a company, the details are often outdated or wrong because the company hasn't provided structured, current data.

What Causes Poor AI Visibility?

The most common reasons event companies are invisible to AI:

Issue	Why It Matters	How to Fix
No structured data	AI can't parse your content reliably	Add Organization, LocalBusiness, and FAQ schema
No entity presence	AI doesn't recognize your company as a "thing"	Build presence on Wikidata, directories, Google Business
Thin content	Nothing substantial for AI to cite	Publish answer-first content targeting client questions
Inconsistent NAP	AI can't confirm your company details	Align name, address, phone across all platforms
No third-party mentions	AI has no external validation of your authority	Get featured in industry publications and directories

How Gray Park's Free AEO Audit Works

Our free audit covers everything above — and delivers actionable results in 48 hours:

1. We run 20+ queries about your company and category across all major AI platforms.
2. We score your visibility on a clear scale — how many queries mention you, how accurately, and on which platforms.
3. We map your competitors — who's appearing in AI answers instead of you?
4. We audit your structured data — what schema exists on your website and what's missing.
5. We deliver 3-5 quick wins — specific, actionable changes you can make this week to start improving.

No retainer required. No obligation. You get a clear picture of where you stand and what to do about it.

The Bottom Line

AI search visibility isn't optional anymore — it's a growing source of client inquiries for event companies that invest in it. An AEO audit tells you exactly where you stand: visible or invisible, accurate or outdated, recommended or ignored. The event companies that audit now and act on the results will establish AI visibility while competitors are still unaware of the gap.