To check whether AI search mentions your business, ask the AI tools the questions your customers ask, with and without your business name, and write down what comes back. Google Search Console, Google's tool for site owners, now has a report on how often links to your site show up in its AI answers. It doesn't show the questions, the answers or who else was named, so you still have to ask.
PathOpt ran this check on its own business on Oct 27, 2026. Here's the method, and what it can and can't tell you.
Key Takeaways
How do I check it myself, step by step?
A full first pass is 5 customer questions on 2 tools, with 3 tries each, which gives you 30 answers, plus your by-name questions. If that's too much, start with 2 questions on 1 tool.
What does Google's AI report show, and what doesn't it show?
Google rolled out its Generative AI performance report to all sites on Aug 31, 2026. It counts impressions, meaning how many times links to your site were shown in Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, by page, country, date and device. (Google Search Console Help)
That's useful, but it has gaps. It doesn't show the questions people asked, the answers they saw, mentions of your business name without a link, or who else was named. That's why you still ask the tools yourself.
If you don't see the report, Google says that usually means too few impressions. Your site may also be excluded from AI features. That's a setting in Search Console under Settings, then "Search generative AI."
Why ask with your business name and without it?
They test different things. Asking by name shows whether the tools can find you. Asking without your name shows whether they bring you up for a customer who doesn't know you yet.
The gap can be large. In PathOpt's Oct 27, 2026 test, AI tools found PathOpt in 36 of 36 answers when asked about it by name, but mentioned or linked it in 0 of 430 answers to 24 general small-business questions.
The full results of PathOpt's AI search test show how we ran it. We haven't shown a lift yet. We'll recheck the same questions and publish the result, even if nothing changed.
We also checked three Dallas-area home service businesses on Nov 3, 2026. Each was found in 4 of 4 answers by name. They came up in 1 of 30, 0 of 35 and 6 of 32 answers to customer questions.
In these four checks, the tools found each business when asked by name. Don't assume they find yours. Run the by-name check first.
What else should I check?
Read the by-name answers for wrong facts and wrong links. Check your own site too: PathOpt found a wrong line about how it charges in a file on its own site written for AI tools, and fixed it on Nov 3, 2026. An AI tool could repeat a line like that.
Then check your Google Business Profile, the free listing that shows your business on Google Maps. Look at whether it exists, its category, and its rating and review count. Its name and phone number should match your website.
In our test runs, one business's profile was filed under a slightly different name at an out-of-state address, so our search by name alone missed it. For another business, a name-only search nearly matched a look-alike business. If a search by name misses your profile, search by your phone number too.
Why ask more than once, and in different words?
AI answers change. PathOpt asked each question 3 times, all in one evening. Tries minutes apart show repeat results, not change across days or weeks. So date every round, and check again later.
Wording matters too. For one test business, "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. The wording still changed the result, so test more than one wording.
Google says AI Overviews often don't appear. (Google Search Central) When one doesn't show, note it in your sheet and leave it out of your count. We left out two AI Overviews that would not load.
What should my tracking sheet look like?
A plain spreadsheet works, with one row per answer. Use these columns: Date, Tool, Question, Try, Named?, Linked? and Who instead. Add a Notes column if you want one.
Here is an example row.
Count it up two ways: by-name answers that found you, and general answers where you came up. Keep the two numbers apart, because mixing them hides the gap.
Could my website be blocking AI tools?
A file on your site called robots.txt tells crawlers, the programs that read web pages, what they may visit. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. (OpenAI)
Perplexity recommends allowing its crawler, PerplexityBot, for a site to appear in its search results. (Perplexity) Ask whoever runs your website to check this file.
When does it make sense to have someone run it for you?
It makes sense when you want a starting count without running the first round yourself. PathOpt's free AI visibility audit asks questions a customer might ask, built from your website, plus one question that names your business and up to 3 real questions people asked ChatGPT. It asks each one once, on one day, on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Perplexity. It also checks your Google Business Profile.
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.
It doesn't check whether your site blocks AI crawlers or the facts AI tools repeat about you, so keep those on your own list. To judge any audit, ours included, read what a small business AI visibility audit should include.
What this can and cannot tell you
A self-check tells you whether you came up for the questions you asked, on the tools you used, on the day you asked. It shows who appears instead and whether the tools have your facts right.
It can't tell you why the tools chose other sources. We can't see why either; we can only see what they chose. For more on that, read why AI recommends your competitors and not your business.
It also can't tell you how often people ask your questions, or whether today's answers will last. No one can promise that an AI tool will mention you. Our search engine optimization (SEO) page says the same: inclusion in AI answers cannot be guaranteed.
Facts on this page last checked Nov 10, 2026.
