AI Trust Audit by Trusted Shops

About Trusted Shops

Trusted Shops SE is Europe's leading trust brand for e-commerce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Cologne, Germany. With over 35,000 certified online shops and millions of verified customer reviews across Europe, Trusted Shops sets the standard for safe online shopping.

The AI Trust Audit is built and maintained by the Trusted Shops team, combining 25+ years of e-commerce trust expertise with cutting-edge AI visibility analysis.

What the AI Trust Audit Does

The AI Trust Audit is a free analysis tool that evaluates how artificial intelligence systems perceive, understand, and represent your website. As AI-powered search engines and assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) become primary information sources, your website's "AI visibility" directly impacts how potential customers discover and trust your business.

The tool performs Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) analysis – examining the technical, content, and trust signals that AI models use to evaluate websites and decide whether to recommend them in their responses.

What We Offer

The 6 Analysis Categories

  1. Security & Infrastructure – SSL/HTTPS, security headers, response times, server configuration
  2. Content Quality – Structured data (Schema.org), headings hierarchy, meta information, content depth
  3. Trust Signals – Trusted Shops certification, customer reviews, trust badges, social proof
  4. Legal Compliance – Imprint/legal notice, privacy policy, terms and conditions, cookie consent
  5. Performance – Page load speed, robots.txt configuration, sitemap, mobile optimization
  6. Reputation – External reviews, brand mentions, domain authority, online presence

How It Works

  1. Enter your URL – Type or paste your website address into the audit tool
  2. Automatic Analysis – Over 50 checks run in real-time, examining your website's AI visibility factors
  3. Review Results – Receive your AI Trust Score with detailed findings per category and specific improvement recommendations

The entire process takes approximately 30–90 seconds depending on your website's complexity and server response speed.

How It's Different

Pricing

The AI Trust Audit is 100% free.

There are no paid tiers, hidden fees, or premium features behind a paywall.


Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is the AI Trust Audit?

The AI Trust Audit is a free tool by Trusted Shops that analyzes how AI systems perceive and evaluate your website. It examines over 50 technical, content, and trust-related factors that influence how AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity represent your business in their responses.

Who is the AI Trust Audit for?

The audit is designed for online shop operators, website owners, marketing professionals, and SEO specialists who want to understand and improve their visibility in AI-powered search and recommendation systems.

Is the audit really free?

Yes, the AI Trust Audit is completely free with no credit card required and no registration needed. You can run unlimited analyses. Optional registration unlocks PDF report downloads and score tracking over time.

In which languages is the AI Trust Audit available?

The AI Trust Audit is available in 8 languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, and Portuguese. All audit results, recommendations, and the PDF report are fully translated.

Score & Results

How is the AI Trust Score calculated?

The AI Trust Score is calculated from over 50 weighted checks across 6 categories: Security & Infrastructure, Content Quality, Trust Signals, Legal Compliance, Performance, and Reputation. Each check contributes points based on its importance for AI visibility. The final score is a percentage from 0 to 100.

What is a good AI Trust Score?

Above 70% is considered good, indicating strong AI visibility. 50–70% shows room for improvement. Below 50% suggests significant optimization opportunities. Most websites score between 40% and 65% on their first audit.

What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization – the practice of optimizing your website so that AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can accurately understand, represent, and recommend your business. Unlike traditional SEO which focuses on search rankings, GEO ensures AI models have the right signals to trust and cite your website.

Technical

How does the audit handle robots.txt and AI crawlers?

The audit checks whether your robots.txt file allows or blocks AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot. Many websites unknowingly block these crawlers, which prevents AI systems from accessing and recommending their content. The audit identifies these blocks and provides specific guidance.

How does the technical analysis work?

The audit performs real-time analysis of your website, checking technical infrastructure (SSL, response times, robots.txt), content structure (headings, meta data, structured data), trust indicators (reviews, certifications), and external reputation signals. All checks run live against your current website state.

Can I enter specific subpage URLs for the audit?

Yes. The audit provides an 'Advanced Options' menu (gear icon) in the URL input field where you can add up to 5 specific subpage URLs for deeper analysis. This is useful for testing product pages, category pages, or landing pages individually.

Optimization

Which optimizations have the biggest impact?

The highest-impact improvements include: implementing Schema.org structured data, allowing AI crawlers in robots.txt, adding comprehensive meta descriptions, displaying verified customer reviews, ensuring HTTPS with valid SSL certificates, providing a clear imprint and privacy policy, and optimizing page load speed.

How is the AI Trust Audit different from traditional SEO tools?

Traditional SEO tools optimize for Google search rankings. The AI Trust Audit focuses on how AI systems (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) perceive your website. It checks AI-specific factors like structured data completeness, AI crawler access, trust signal density, and content clarity for machine comprehension – aspects most SEO tools don't cover.

Troubleshooting

Why can't my website be analyzed?

Some websites cannot be analyzed because they block automated requests via WAF or bot protection, have restrictive robots.txt rules, use aggressive rate limiting, have very slow response times, or are offline. Try disabling bot protection temporarily or contact us for assistance.

Why does the analysis sometimes take longer?

Analysis time depends on your website's size, response speed, and the availability of external data sources. Complex sites or slow servers may require more time. The audit checks multiple external APIs for reputation data, which can add to processing time.

Are the results always 100% accurate?

While we strive for accuracy, some checks depend on external data sources that may have delays or gaps. The audit provides a comprehensive snapshot of your AI visibility factors, but should be used as guidance rather than absolute measurement. We continuously improve our algorithms.


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