Assessing the digital alignment of brands in the AI era of search
GradientSurge is a digital search consultancy that quantifies how your brand’s digital presence performs against AI search expectations.
The web is evolving. Are you?
AI-readiness
We assess how well your site communicates expertise, authority, and trust. From EEAT to entity SEO, we assess your brand’s readiness for LLMs, answer engines, and AI-assisted discovery.
Content quality
We audit for semantic clarity, credibility, and topical coverage across your content. High-quality, relevant, structured content improves rankings, AI visibility, and user satisfaction.
Structured formats
Structured data helps Google and LLMs understand and surface your content. We analyze schema markup, site structure and content clarity—signals that power rich results and AI understanding.
Gradientsurge
The future of search is AI-powered
The way brands are discovered online has changed. Traditional SEO is no longer enough. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and entity-driven search are reshaping digital visibility. We help businesses align with this new landscape, auditing trust, authority, and content signals that position your brand for the AI-driven web.
Casey Burridge – GradientSurge consultant, experienced digital marketer and search expert.
How aligned is your brand with the future of web discovery?
We provide a holistic, structural assessment of how findable, credible, and AI-aligned your brand is, delivering a clear picture of your strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. We evaluate your brand across key dimensions, including:
Discoverability
How easily can users and machines find you across the modern web? We assess your search presence, entity visibility, and topical coverage across organic and AI-powered platforms.
Credibility
Does your site convey trust at a glance? We evaluate EEAT signals, authorship, transparency, and authority signals both on and off your site.
SEO Fundamentals
Is your site technically sound and search-friendly?
We check for indexability, on-page structure, crawl health, and other foundational SEO best practices.
Structured data
Can search engines and AI models understand your content clearly? We audit your use of schema markup, metadata, and semantic structure to support rich results and machine readability.
Content quality
Is your content clear, relevant, and authoritative?
We review for originality, topical depth, and alignment with user intent: all critical for rankings and AI summarization.
AI optimization
Are you sending the right signals to LLMs and AI search engines? We check how your brand is perceived in AI tools, and whether your content is entity-aligned, semantically structured, and LLM-ready.
Readability
Can both users and machines consume your content easily? We assess structure, clarity, formatting, and accessibility for humans and LLMs alike.
Website performance
Does your site meet modern expectations for speed and stability? We evaluate key metrics to ensure performance isn’t costing you visibility.
AI Overviews
55%
The percentage of all Google searches that currently trigger AI overviews to appear.1
content types
88%
The amount of searches that triggered AI overviews that were informational in intent.2
Zero-click searches
59%
The percentage of all Google searches in the US that do not result in a click.3
Organic Traffic
97%
The percentage of web pages that get zero organic traffic from Google.4
Domain strength
29%
The share of mentions that top domains have in AI overviews.5
answer engines
70%
The percentage of all searches that don’t go beyond the initial AI overview.6
Solutions to future-proof your brand
AI-era search isn’t just about rankings, it’s about building a strong foundation across discoverability, credibility, content quality. We offer tailored strategic AI search audit solutions built for your brand’s evolving search challenges.
Basic audit
$1,499
(once off)
A holistic assessment of your brand’s search strength and AI-readiness, with a clear report outlining strengths, gaps, and priority improvements.
Holistic feedback on how your brand’s online presence aligns with AI-era expectations
Comprehensive analysis of your brand’s SEO fundamentals
Actionable recommendations for improvement
Detailed performance report (online dashboard access and PDF )
Have questions? Contact Us
pro audit
$1,999
(once off)
A holistic assessment of your brand’s search strength and AI-readiness with a 60-minute strategy session to walk through results and prioritize next steps.
Everything in the basic audit, plus…
60-minute strategy session to go over audit results, outline action items, and prioritize next steps
Follow-up support via email
Tailored action plan with recommendations and prioritized next steps
Have questions? Contact Us
FAQs
How is this different from a typical SEO audit?
Typical SEO audits only look at traditional technical SEO and on-page metrics. This is outdated. In the modern era of search, SEO has evolved into a more holistic function that spans aspects of brand marketing, content marketing, website optimization, PR, UX, and more.
Our audit is designed to assess your brand holistically across 7 key dimensions: AI-readiness, content quality, digital footprint, expertise signals, SEO fundamentals, trust and authority signals, and website optimization. We look at more than 130 individual metrics to measure your brand’s alignment with the AI-powered web and the modern era of search.
Is this just an automated scan of my website?
No. While we use some professional tools to gather data, every insight, score, and recommendation is manually reviewed and written up in accordance with best practices. A large portion of the audit is also qualitative, which means we spend time manually reviewing your website and content. The outcome is a personalized assessment and action plan containing expert insights, not a generic report.
What is the basis for your audit criteria?
We prioritize metrics based on a combination of sources: official guidance from search engines like Google and Bing, documentation from AI platforms like OpenAI and Perplexity, academic studies, industry research, and proven best practices from real-world case studies. Every metric is chosen to reflect what actually matters for visibility, credibility, and performance in today’s evolving search landscape.
What exactly do I get in the audit?
You will receive a comprehensive, personalized report covering your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities across the 7 key dimensions of AI-era search performance. You will be able to access the report via our online portal or download a PDF version.
Based on our assessment of your brand across 130+ metrics, we assign you an overall Digital Alignment Score (out of 100), along with individual scores for each dimension. Your score is meant as an indication and benchmark of your brand’s current strength across important search fundamentals.
Will this help me get more organic traffic?
Indirectly, yes. The audit doesn’t guarantee rankings, but it helps ensure your brand is aligned with the fundamentals that matter in the modern era of search. It gives you a strong foundation to perform well in both traditional and AI-driven search environments.
Who is this audit for?
The audit is ideal for small to medium sized software vendors and SaaS companies. But any brand can benefit. If you’re interested, send us a message and we can discuss whether it’s the right fit for you.
Do you offer implementation help?
Implementation is not included, but we offer a 60-minute strategy session as part of the Pro option to help you understand the audit results and prioritize next steps. If you’re interested in ongoing advisory, consulting, or hands-on support, you can get in touch with us any time.
How long does it take to get my audit results?
Turnaround time is typically 5–7 days after we receive the required information.
Have more questions? Get in touch.
Send us an email
Please reach out with any questions you may have. We’re happy to connect via email or hop on a quick call.