The Foundation Audit shows you what ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity get wrong about your business and what stops Google and the AI crawlers reading your site, in one starting audit. It combines two Aemorph audits: the AI Hallucination Diagnostic and the thirteen-area technical SEO audit. You see the answers buyers read about you and the faults that keep your pages out of search, then choose the fix that comes first.
The Foundation Audit Combines Two Audits Into One Starting Point
The Foundation Audit joins the Diagnostic, which tests what the AI chats say about you, to the technical SEO audit, which tests whether crawlers reach and read your pages, so you start with both halves of the picture. A wrong AI answer and a blocked page have different causes and different fixes. Buying the two audits as one gives you a single scope, one kick-off and one set of findings, with the next step named at the end.
| Audit | What it tests | Engines or tools | Turnaround | What you receive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Hallucination Diagnostic | What the AI chats say about your business, set beside what your own website says | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, on a sample of 10 to 20 of your showstopper questions | 5 business days | A report of each wrong, outdated or missing answer by engine, presented on a call |
| Technical SEO audit | Whether Google and the AI crawlers fetch, render and index your pages, across thirteen areas | Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Lighthouse, Ahrefs and DataForSEO | Within 21 days of kick-off | The crawl, render and index baseline, with each fault listed and the fix to specify; no keyword research |
| Foundation Audit | Both of the above, scoped and delivered together | The same four AI chats and the same audit tools | Diagnostic report in 5 business days; technical SEO audit within 21 days of kick-off | One set of findings and the recommended next step, presented on a call |
What each audit tests and what you receive.
| What you get | The problem it solves | What changes for you | Surface | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hallucination audit | No visibility into what AI engines currently say about you | A documented list of each hallucination found in the sample, by engine | The four AI chats | 5 business days |
| Website comparison | No view of whether your own site answers the question | What your own website says in answer to the same sample questions | Your website | Included in the Diagnostic report |
| Thirteen-area crawl audit | Core pages blocked, duplicated, slow or unreadable to crawlers | Index status, canonicals, redirects, hreflang, structured data and AI crawler access checked against the intended state | Google Search, Bing, AI crawlers | Within 21 days of kick-off |
| Report call | Findings with nobody to explain them | Aemorph presents the findings and names the recommended next step | Not applicable | On delivery |
What each Foundation Audit deliverable changes.
What is the Foundation Audit?
The Foundation Audit is Aemorph's one-time starting audit, made of the AI Hallucination Diagnostic and the thirteen-area technical SEO audit. The Diagnostic puts a sample of 10 to 20 showstopper questions to the four AI chats and records every inaccurate answer. The technical SEO audit checks thirteen areas of your site, from crawl and index controls to AI crawler access. Aemorph presents the combined findings on a call.
What is the difference between the Foundation Audit and the free tools?
The free tools on tools.aemorph.com are quick public checks, and the Foundation Audit is the paid audit that adds Aemorph's sample, a full crawl and a call. The Hallucination Report compares what AI says with your website, using Aemorph's scan of your homepage, navigation and key pages, and the Money on the Table audit estimates the revenue you leave on the table in search. Neither tests showstopper questions across four named engines, crawls every page template or comes with a call.
The Technical Half Checks Thirteen Areas of Your Site
The technical half of the Foundation Audit checks the same thirteen areas as Aemorph's technical SEO audit, so each fault that keeps crawlers from your core pages is listed before any fix is scoped. It carries no keyword research and no keyword opportunities. Fix work afterwards is scoped and quoted from the findings, because the work depends on what the audit finds.
| Area | Checks | Tool | Why it matters | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crawl and index | robots.txt named and formatted correctly and listing the sitemap; an XML sitemap holding only SEO-relevant pages, declared in robots.txt and submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools; each page indexed or kept out of the index as intended; crawl stats | Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Screaming Frog | A crawl block stops that crawler fetching the page's current content | Index status for each page against the intended status |
| Single-version URLs | http, https, www and non-www resolve to one HTTPS version | Screaming Frog | Several live versions split one page's signals | The versions that fail to resolve to one URL |
| Canonical tags | Canonical tags present and pointing at the intended URL | Screaming Frog | Google reads the canonical as a strong signal for which URL to index | Pages with missing or conflicting canonicals |
| Status codes and redirects | Status codes, redirect chains and broken links | Screaming Frog, Ahrefs | Chains and broken links waste crawl and lose visitors | A list of chains and broken links to repair |
| Architecture | Each page within 4 clicks, orphan pages, internal links, parameters, pagination and URL structure | Screaming Frog | This check identifies weak internal discovery paths and disconnected pages | Deep pages, orphan pages and structural faults |
| Duplicates | Duplicate pages, titles, meta descriptions and H1s | Screaming Frog | Duplicates leave search engines to choose between competing pages | Duplicate sets grouped by template |
| Speed | Core Web Vitals, render-blocking resources and image weight | Lighthouse, Google Search Console | Google publishes good thresholds for Core Web Vitals | Templates that miss the thresholds |
| Mobile and rendering | Mobile usability and JavaScript rendering | Lighthouse, Screaming Frog | Content that appears only after JavaScript runs stays unread by crawlers that skip JavaScript | Pages whose content depends on JavaScript |
| Hreflang | Hreflang where the site serves more than one market | Screaming Frog | Google ignores hreflang pairs that do not point to each other | Missing or one-way hreflang pairs |
| Structured data | Presence and validity of structured data | Screaming Frog, DataForSEO | Google documents structured data for supported Search features | Missing and invalid markup by template |
| Security | A valid SSL certificate and mixed content | Lighthouse, Screaming Frog | HTTPS is one of the technical minimums | Certificate status and mixed-content pages |
| Link health | Broken backlinks and backlinks to dead or redirected pages | Ahrefs | Links to dead pages carry no value to the live site | Backlinks to reclaim with redirects |
| AI crawler access | Robots rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended; llms.txt | Screaming Frog, DataForSEO | The crawler policy sets permissions for named crawlers, with separate controls for training and search | The current policy for each AI crawler token |
Audit tools: Lighthouse, DataForSEO, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
What does the AI half check?
The AI half of the Foundation Audit is the Hallucination Diagnostic, which tests a sample of 10 to 20 of your showstopper questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. The showstopper questions are the buyer questions that stop a purchase when AI answers them badly. Aemorph draws the sample from its proprietary set after scanning your homepage, navigation and key product or service pages, and sets each answer beside what your own website says. The AI hallucination fix guide explains how each wrong answer is traced to its source.
Why do the two audits belong together?
The two audits belong together because AI answers draw on your website, and a website that crawlers fail to read gives the engines little to quote. Each AI engine answers from what it has learned and looked up about your business across many sources, and your website is one of them. When the Diagnostic finds a wrong answer and the technical audit finds the page that holds the correct fact blocked, duplicated or rendered only by JavaScript, you fix the cause and not just the symptom.
| Finding in the Diagnostic | Matching technical finding | Likely cause | Fix | Where it gets fixed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The engine misses a service your site lists | The service page is blocked, orphaned or sits more than 4 clicks deep | Crawlers have no path to the page | Open the page and link it from a parent page | Technical fix work, scoped from the audit |
| The engine repeats an outdated detail | Old and new versions of the page both resolve | Several live versions split the page's signals | One canonical URL and one-to-one redirects | Technical fix work, scoped from the audit |
| The engine ignores content on a page | Core content appears only after JavaScript runs | Crawlers that skip JavaScript read an empty page | Serve core content without JavaScript | Technical fix work, scoped from the audit |
| The engine files the business under the wrong category | Thin or invalid structured data | Category signals are unclear across sources | Nested JSON-LD and one source-of-truth record | Entity Hardening (Sprint 2), Aemorph's technical entity SEO sprint |
| The engine gives a wrong answer to a buyer objection | No page on your site answers the question | No approved answer sits on your site | Publish your approved answer as the LLM info page | Showstopper Sensor (Sprint 1) |
Illustrative pairings of AI findings and technical findings, and where each gets fixed. Examples are illustrative, not client data.
Who is the Foundation Audit for?
The Foundation Audit suits any business whose buyers research through search and the AI chats and that has not yet audited either. It is built for:
- Businesses that have never checked what the AI chats say about them or whether crawlers reach their core pages.
- Businesses that suspect a lost deal traces back to a wrong AI answer or a page that does not appear in search.
- Businesses preparing a site changesuch as a redesign or migration, that want a dated baseline before anything moves.
- Businesses choosing a first paid step before a sprint, the Influencer Blueprint or a monthly package.
It fits less well for smaller businesses, which the free tools serve first, and for enterprises with multi-market sites, which Aemorph points to the AEO-GEO Audit and the ESAG audit.
How the Foundation Audit Compares With Aemorph's Other Audits
The Foundation Audit sits between the free tools and the enterprise audits: it covers AI accuracy and technical health for one site, and the enterprise audits add competitor testing and a larger page scan. Aemorph recommends the audit that matches your site and your question, and names it at the end of the strategic conversation.
| What it covers | Citation audit (free) | Hallucination audit (free) | Hallucination Diagnostic | Technical SEO audit | Foundation Audit | AEO-GEO Audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | S$1,000 | S$1,000 | S$1,500 | Quoted |
| Turnaround | Minutes | Minutes | 5 business days | Within 21 days of kick-off | 5 business days, and within 21 days of kick-off | 21 days from kick-off |
| Done by Aemorph's team | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tests ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Checks AI answers against the facts on your website | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tests your showstopper buyer questions | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scores how readable your content is for AI citation | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Compares you with competitors | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Crawls the whole site across 13 technical areas | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Checks AI crawler access | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gives a score out of 100 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Where each Aemorph audit fits; the two free audits run on tools.aemorph.com. The ESAG audit adds a crawl of up to 1,000 pages to everything in the AEO-GEO Audit.
The Foundation Audit does not publish anything. The Showstopper Sensor (Sprint 1), which includes the Diagnostic, is the next step when the report finds wrong answers, and technical fix work is the next step when the crawl finds faults.
The Foundation Audit Runs in Four Steps and Reports Within 21 Days
Aemorph runs most of the Foundation Audit on its own side, returns the Diagnostic report within 5 business days and finishes the technical SEO audit within 21 days of kick-off, so you know what to fix before you spend on fixes. The audit starts with a free strategic conversation.
- Book a free strategic conversation of 30 to 60 minutes, a presentation on a video call that Aemorph recaps by email; Aemorph responds within 24 hours.
- Scope the audit with Aemorph: your website, the markets it serves and the access Aemorph needs.
- Audit both halves: Aemorph tests the question sample in the four AI chats and crawls your site across the thirteen areas.
- Present the combined findings on a call, with the recommended next step named.
| Prerequisite | Who does it | What Aemorph needs | Output | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic conversation (free) | Your decision-maker with Aemorph | 30 to 60 minutes on a video call | Confirmed scope | Aemorph responds within 24 hours |
| A public website | Your team | The homepage, navigation and key product or service pages Aemorph scans, and the website Aemorph sets the engines' answers beside | A sample of 10 to 20 showstopper questions, the set the four AI chats are tested on | Before testing begins |
| Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools access | Your marketing lead | Named user accounts with least-privilege access | Crawl, render and index baseline | From kick-off |
| Report call | Your team, with Aemorph | Time for the call | The combined report presented and the next step named | On delivery |
What each party provides and when.
Who does the work on your Foundation Audit?
Your Foundation Audit runs with your own account manager and Aemorph's team: Kristine and Ryan, Senior SEO Specialists and Project Managers; Tent, Trinh, Wahyu and Minh, SEO Specialists; Michelle and Patrick, Content Specialists; Shiena, Web Project Manager; and Dom, Senior Web Developer. Your account manager introduces the team members assigned to your account at kick-off, and every message gets a reply within 24 hours.
How much does the Foundation Audit cost?
The Foundation Audit costs S$1,500 one-time, S$500 less than buying the Hallucination Diagnostic and the technical SEO audit separately at S$1,000 each. Aemorph confirms each paid offer in a quote after the strategic conversation, a free first call.
| Offer | Price |
|---|---|
| Audits | From S$1,000 one-time |
| Hallucination Diagnostic | S$1,000 one-time |
| Technical SEO audit | S$1,000 one-time |
| Foundation Audit (the Diagnostic and the technical SEO audit together) | S$1,500 one-time |
| Sprints | From S$5,000 per website |
| Influencer Blueprint (SEO strategy and roadmap) | From S$15,000 one-time |
| Enterprise monthly engagements (Attain, Apex) | From S$12,500 a month |
Smaller monthly packages are available by application only, against strict criteria; details are on the pricing page. Monthly packages are priced per market.
Want the most value for your budget and prefer to run the work in-house? Leveraged & Scalable, Aemorph's community, teaches your team to plan and execute SEO, AEO and GEO with AI tools, with the skills, tools and access Aemorph shares with members. Full details are on the pricing page.
The Ground Truth Guarantee covers the Showstopper Sensor (Sprint 1) bought on its own; the Foundation Audit sits outside it. Within 30 days of publishing, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity answer your showstopper questions with the facts in your Brand Codex. If they do not, Aemorph refunds 100% of your Sprint 1 fee and keeps working on the answers for a further 60 days, 90 days in total.
Terms: the Ground Truth Guarantee covers Sprint 1 bought on its own; Sprint 1 inside a monthly package carries no refund; it does not cover Sprint 2 (Entity Hardening), search rankings or Google AI Overviews. Full terms
How long do the fixes take to show results?
Your first ranking movements show within 45 days of publishing. The 45 days count from publication, not from the start of your engagement. This is an SEO ranking milestone; answers in the AI chats are measured separately, against your approved facts. The Foundation Audit itself publishes nothing; its findings arrive within the turnaround times above.
Source: Results reported in past client testimonials
The Foundation Audit Shows What to Fix Before You Spend on Fixes
Start with the Foundation Audit to see what the AI chats tell your buyers and what holds your pages back in search, then choose the fix that comes first. Where the report finds wrong answers, the Showstopper Sensor (Sprint 1) publishes your approved answers, with the Ground Truth Guarantee when bought on its own. Where the crawl finds faults, Aemorph specifies each fix, your developers or IT vendor implement it and Aemorph verifies it.
Book a free strategic conversation