Don't Be Conned Into Paying For an AI Search Optimisation Audit FFS!
SEO F**king What - Get Found on Google, make money from your website · Nikki Pilkington
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (episodes.captivate.fm) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
I got sent an AI search optimisation audit that cost a business thousands of pounds. It was beautifully presented, full of charts and graphs, and packed with confident recommendations about AI citations and ChatGPT visibility.
It also missed a whole BUNCH of stuff.
Hi, I’m Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I’m talking about: an audit that recommended deleting pages that were actively driving real traffic from Google — because a proprietary AI visibility tool said they weren't getting ChatGPT citations.
I'll break down exactly why this kind of audit is dangerous, not just useless, and what the businesses being sold this stuff actually need to know.
I cover what a real audit should include, why Google organic traffic still dwarfs AI referral traffic for most sites, and the red flags to watch for before you hand over your budget to someone flogging "proprietary AI search tools".
If you've been pitched an AI search audit — or you're tempted — listen to this first.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Have you been had by an AI search audit?
00:54 What happened: The audit I was sent
01:43 What the audit missed — 462 errors, redirect chains, and more
02:20 The analytics data they ignored: Google vs ChatGPT traffic
03:42 The dangerous advice: deleting pages that were actually working
05:00 Why this makes me so f&%king angry
06:24 The fix: check your numbers
08:17 Red flags to watch for before you pay for any AI SEO audit
Mentioned in this episode:
ICN Network