On Oct 27, 2026, PathOpt asked six AI tools 24 questions a small business owner might ask about getting found online, 3 times each. PathOpt came up in 0 of 430 answers (two more didn't load). When the same tools were asked about PathOpt by name, they found it in 36 of 36 answers.
This page holds the full results, how we got them and what they can't tell you. We'll add each recheck to this page.
The results at a glance
How did PathOpt run the test?
We picked 24 questions a small business owner might ask, plus 2 that ask about PathOpt by name. Seven of the 24 came from a database of real questions people asked ChatGPT. We wrote the other 17 to match what we offer, so we don't know how often people ask them.
A few of the 24 questions:
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows a business on Google Maps. SEO, search engine optimization, is the work of getting found in search.
We asked each question 3 times on six tools: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Google AI Mode (Google's AI answers for harder questions), Google AI Overviews (the AI summary at the top of Google results), Claude and Perplexity. Each try was a fresh, separate request. For Claude and Perplexity we used the versions other software uses, not the apps.
The answers were collected through a data service, not typed into the apps by hand. All of them came from one evening, between 9:32 and 9:51 PM Central.
That makes 26 questions, 3 tries and 6 tools, or 468 planned answers. Two Google AI Overviews would not load after two retries, so we left them out rather than count them as misses. That leaves 466.
What did the AI tools say?
| Tool | General questions: PathOpt mentioned or linked | Questions naming PathOpt: found it |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 0 of 72 | 6 of 6 |
| Google Gemini | 0 of 72 | 6 of 6 |
| Google AI Mode | 0 of 72 | 6 of 6 |
| Google AI Overviews | 0 of 70 | 6 of 6 |
| Claude | 0 of 72 | 6 of 6 |
| Perplexity | 0 of 72 | 6 of 6 |
| Total | 0 of 430 | 36 of 36 |
"Found it" means the answer named PathOpt or linked to PathOpt's website. So the tools could find PathOpt. But in this test, none of the 430 answers to our 24 general questions named or linked to PathOpt.
Of the 36 answers about PathOpt by name, 35 linked to pathopt.com.
Who showed up instead?
On the 24 general questions, the most-linked sources were big, general ones.
| Source | Answers that linked it (of 430) |
|---|---|
| Google's guides for website owners | 67 |
| 66 | |
| YouTube | 49 |
| 39 | |
| Google's help center | 33 |
Companies that sell SEO software and large agencies also showed up.
Did PathOpt's own website answer the questions?
Mostly not. Of the 24 questions, our site fully answered 2, partly answered 9 and didn't answer 13. None of the questions about getting found in AI search had a real answer on our site.
One example stood out. Asked "What should a small-business AI visibility audit include?", Perplexity linked the same guide from another agency in all 3 answers. That guide listed what an audit checks.
Our SEO page said we help with AI search, but not what we check. For the by-name question about our AI search help, Perplexity linked that same SEO page in all 3 tries, so it could find the page. The page just didn't answer the question.
We can't see why the AI tools chose other sources. We can only see what they chose.
Did other businesses get the same result?
On Nov 3, 2026, we ran a smaller version of the check on three Dallas-area home service businesses as test runs. Each question was asked once on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Perplexity.
| Business | General questions: came up (named or linked) | Questions naming the business: found it |
|---|---|---|
| Business A | 1 of 30 | 4 of 4 |
| Business B | 0 of 35 | 4 of 4 |
| Business C | 6 of 32 | 4 of 4 |
These counts leave out questions where no AI summary appeared or an answer failed to load.
Wording mattered. For Business C, "Who is the best [service] company in [city]?" named it in 0 of 3 answers. "Who should I hire for [service] in [city]?" named it in 3 of 3.
Each set of 3 came from three different AI tools, asked once each, on the same day. So this shows that wording changes the answer, not that asking again does.
The checks also turned up listing problems at two different businesses. One business's Google Business Profile was filed under a slightly different name at an out-of-state address, so a search by name alone missed it. For another, a search by name alone nearly matched a look-alike business.
In these four checks, PathOpt and three local businesses, the AI tools found each business when asked by name but mostly didn't bring it up on general customer questions.
What has PathOpt checked and changed since?
- How to check whether AI search mentions your business
- Why AI answers recommend your competitors, not your business
- What a small-business AI visibility audit should include
- How to tell if AI search optimization is working
When will PathOpt check again?
The first recheck is planned about 4 weeks after the new pages show up in Google, then on a few more dates after that. We'll ask the same 26 questions on the same six tools and report each tool separately against the 0 of 430 and 36 of 36 above.
We'll also split the 24 questions in two: the 4 our new pages answer, and the 20 that no new page answers yet. We'll compare the patterns, but this won't tell us which change caused them. If later pages answer more of the 20, we'll move those questions and say so.
We haven't shown a lift yet. If nothing changes, we'll say so plainly. You can read how we measure results for client work too.
What this test can and cannot tell you
This test shows what six AI tools said on one evening, for the questions we chose. It can't tell you why the tools picked other sources, how often people ask these questions or whether the answers will last. AI answers change, and three tries minutes apart don't measure change across days or weeks.
The local results come from one day, Nov 3, 2026, and those owners haven't seen the reports. No one can promise that an AI tool will mention a business, and our SEO page says the same.
Facts on this page last checked Nov 10, 2026.
Want a starting count for your business? Our free audit is smaller than this test. It asks each question once on four AI tools: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Perplexity. It doesn't check whether your site blocks AI tools from reading it, or the facts AI tools repeat about you.
The report lists every question we asked and how often you came up for each one, the businesses and sites that showed up instead, what we found on your Google profile, and one thing to fix first. It doesn't include the full text of each answer. A person reads every report before it goes out, and a call is offered, never required.