How to Conduct a GEO Competitive Intelligence Audit in 90 Minutes

Traditional competitive intelligence asks: what keywords do competitors rank for? GEO competitive intelligence asks: what does AI say about competitors vs. us? Here's the 90-minute process.

• AHOD account (free tier for initial scans)
• Ahrefs or Semrush (for editorial coverage mapping)
• Access to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity
• Spreadsheet for tracking

Step 1: Run AHOD Scans (15 minutes)

1. 1Run AHOD scan for your own brand
2. 2Run AHOD scan for each of your top 3-5 competitors

Record for each:

• AI Visibility Score
• Which LLMs feature them most prominently
• Overall sentiment
• Category query performance

Step 2: Manual AI Testing (15 minutes)

Run 10 prompts in ChatGPT and 5 in Perplexity covering your primary category queries:

• 'What is the best [category] for [primary use case]?'
• 'Who are the leading [category] companies?'
• 'Compare [you] vs [competitor 1]'
• 'What should I look for in a [category] solution?'
• 'What do experts say about [your category]?'

For each prompt, note:

• Which brands appear?
• In what order?
• What language is used to describe each?

Step 3: Competitor Backlink Analysis (20 minutes)

For each competitor, use Ahrefs:

• Pull referring domains sorted by DA (highest first)
• Filter to DA70+ domains
• Note: which are Google News-indexed editorial publications?

Create a table:

Gaps where competitors have editorial coverage but you don't = priority editorial targets.

Step 4: Category Coverage Theme Analysis (10 minutes)

Review 5-10 editorial articles about each competitor. Identify 3 theme clusters they cover in editorial content that you haven't covered:

• Theme 1: [Topic competitors own that you don't]
• Theme 2: [Topic competitors own that you don't]
• Theme 3: [White space neither has covered well]

Step 5: Prioritize Gaps

Rank gaps by opportunity size:

1. 1Publications where multiple competitors appear and you don't (highest priority)
2. 2Category queries where competitors appear and you don't
3. 3Theme coverage gaps you can fill first
4. 4White space opportunities

Step 6: 30-Day Action Plan

Write a specific 30-day plan:

• 2-3 editorial placement submissions targeting top-gap publications
• 1-2 content pieces addressing identified theme gaps
• HARO monitoring setup for publications you're not yet in

This audit, run quarterly, produces a continuously updated competitive intelligence picture that keeps your editorial strategy ahead of competitor moves.