# Your first paid audit

> Create an account, add your website, pick your questions and run a full audit.

Source: https://youcited.com/docs/getting-started/quick-start-guide
Section: Getting Started
Last updated: 2026-10-29
All docs: https://youcited.com/docs/index.md

## Before you start

If you haven't yet, run the [free audit with your AI assistant](/docs/getting-started/free-audit). It takes five minutes and tells you whether a paid audit is worth it.

A paid audit adds what the free one leaves out: more AI engines and models, three answers per question, the [site check](/docs/feature-guides/site-check), [recommendations](/docs/feature-guides/recommendations), [fix files](/docs/feature-guides/fixes), and PDF and Markdown reports.

Prefer to let your AI assistant do all of this? Connect the [hosted MCP connector](/docs/integration-guides/connect-your-ai-assistant) and ask it to "run a Cited audit of my site". The steps are the same; the assistant just clicks the buttons.

## Step 1: Create an account

Go to [youcited.com/register](/register) and sign up with your email or with Google. There's no card and no subscription.

## Step 2: Add your website

Enter your website. Cited reads your homepage and fills in your business name, industry and a one-line summary. Check them and fix anything that's off, because they shape the questions Cited drafts in the next step.

## Step 3: Pick your questions

Open your business and go to **Questions**. Cited drafts five questions that buyers in your industry ask AI, such as "Who are the best wedding photographers in Austin?" or "Which bookkeeping service is best for a small restaurant?"

Edit them so they sound like your real customers:

- Ask what a buyer would ask before they know your name. "Best family dentist in Denver" is a useful question; "Is Smith Dental good?" usually isn't.
- Mix broad questions with specific ones (a service, a location, a problem you solve).
- Write them in the language your customers use. Reports come back in the same language.

You can add more than five; each extra question costs a little more. See [Businesses and questions](/docs/feature-guides/businesses-and-questions).

## Step 4: Choose how the audit runs

Below your questions:

- **Depth:** Standard, or Deep (slower, more detail).
- **Models:** by default Cited asks a flagship and a fast model from OpenAI, Gemini and Claude. Turn on **Compare specific models** to add others, or Google AI Mode and AI Overviews.
- **Recommendations:** leave on to get recommendations and fix files when the audit finishes.

The screen shows the price in credits before you run.

## Step 5: Buy credits and run

If your balance is too low, click **Buy credits**, pick a pack and pay with Stripe. Or buy a single audit without a pack. Then click **Run**. A standard audit usually takes a few minutes; you can close the page and come back.

If an audit fails, its credits come back to you automatically.

## Step 6: Read your report

When it finishes you get:

- one overall score, a score per engine and a score per model,
- every question with each AI's answer and the sites it cited instead of you,
- the site check,
- a short summary with the next step.

See [Reading your report](/docs/feature-guides/reading-your-report) and [Understanding your scores](/docs/getting-started/understanding-your-scores).

## Step 7: Fix and re-check

Open **Recommendations**, generate the fixes you want (or **Generate all fixes**), and follow each fix's guide. Mark a fix done and click **Verify on my site**. Run another audit in a few weeks to see whether the fixes are working.