Branded SERP Audit for Entity Authority

When to use this prompt

Quarterly. Also after a major company event: a rebrand, a leadership change, a product launch, a press cycle. The branded SERP is the page a buyer or AI engine sees first when they verify who you are. If it is weak, every other piece of marketing is downstream of it.

This is also the right prompt to run before a fundraising round or partnership pitch. Anyone serious will Google your brand name. You should know what they will find.

The prompt

<role>Search analyst auditing branded SERP results and entity signals. You have live web access. Use it.</role>

<task>Run a live search for the brand name. Catalog every surface that appears in the top 20 results, in the AI Overview if present, and in the knowledge panel if present. Flag any reputation risks.</task>

<inputs>
<brand>[BRAND NAME]</brand>
<domain>[BRAND DOMAIN]</domain>
<known_aliases>[ANY OTHER NAMES THE BRAND USES, e.g., legal name, alternate spellings]</known_aliases>
</inputs>

<instructions>
1. Search Google for the brand name. Do not infer from training data.
2. Catalog the following surfaces:
   - Knowledge panel (Yes/No, with the specific facts shown)
   - AI Overview (Yes/No, with the cited sources and the recommendation given)
   - Top 10 organic results (URL, page title, page type)
   - Image results (top 6 image sources)
   - "People also ask" boxes (every question shown)
   - Reviews surface (G2, Trustpilot, Glassdoor, Yelp, Google Reviews if present)
3. For each result, classify ownership:
   - OWNED: the brand controls the page
   - EARNED: third-party page that is favorable or neutral (positive press, listings, partnerships)
   - RISK: third-party page that is unfavorable, outdated, or low quality (negative reviews, defunct profiles, scraper sites, copycat brands)
4. Identify the top 3 reputation risks. For each, name the specific URL and the specific concern.
5. Identify the top 3 entity-authority gaps: things that should appear on the branded SERP but do not (e.g., no Wikipedia entry, no Crunchbase profile, no LinkedIn company page in top 10).
6. Do not fabricate results. If a search returns fewer than 10 organic results, report what was actually returned.
</instructions>

<output_format>
**Knowledge panel:** [Yes / No]. [Facts shown if yes.]

**AI Overview:** [Yes / No]. [Cited sources and recommendation if yes.]

**Top 10 organic results:**
| # | URL | Title | Type | Ownership |
|---|-----|-------|------|-----------|

**Image results dominant sources:** [comma-separated]

**People also ask:**
- [Question 1]
- [Question 2]
...

**Top 3 reputation risks:**
1. [URL] — [concern]
2. ...
3. ...

**Top 3 entity-authority gaps:**
1. [missing surface, e.g., "No Wikipedia entry"]
2. ...
3. ...

**Highest-leverage fix:** [the one move that would most clean up the SERP]
</output_format>

How it works

The branded SERP is the entity verification surface for both humans and AI engines. When an LLM is asked “who is [brand],” it does not consult an internal database of trustworthy entities. It does a retrieval over the open web. What surfaces is what gets summarized.

The OWNED / EARNED / RISK classification forces the model to evaluate ownership rather than just listing URLs. Most branded SERP audits collapse into “here are 10 links,” which is not an audit. The classification surfaces the work that needs to happen: claim missing profiles, suppress risks, fill authority gaps.

The “do not fabricate results” line is essential because models will pad branded SERP audits with plausible-sounding entries when the real SERP is sparse. The explicit instruction keeps the audit honest.

Example output

Knowledge panel: No.

AI Overview: Yes. Cited sources: brand homepage, LinkedIn company page, TechCrunch coverage. Recommendation: “[Brand] is a mid-market product analytics platform founded in 2022.”

Top 10 organic results: [populated table]

Top 3 reputation risks:

1. abandoned-startup-directory.com/[brand] — outdated 2023 listing with wrong pricing, ranks #6
2. competitor-comparison.io/[brand]-alternatives — competitor-owned page, ranks #4
3. crunchbase.com/[brand] — last updated 2023, missing recent funding

Top 3 entity-authority gaps:

1. No Wikipedia entry
2. No Wikidata entity (sameAs targets are limited)
3. No Trustpilot profile claimed

Highest-leverage fix: Claim and refresh the Crunchbase profile. It ranks in the top 5 and drives Wikidata signals that AI engines reach for when summarizing the entity.

Variations

• Founder SERP audit: Run on a founder’s personal name. Critical for personal brand-driven companies; the founder’s SERP is often the first verification step for buyers.
• Competitor audit: Run on a competitor’s brand to benchmark what a strong vs weak branded SERP looks like in your category.
• Pre-launch audit: Run before a brand or product launch to identify squatters and lookalikes.