How to check whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews recommend your business
Short answer
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google the same short list of questions your customers really ask, in a private browser window, and record whether your business is named, which sources are cited, and whether the details are correct. Small service businesses in mid-size US cities should repeat this monthly. Google says AI Overviews often don't trigger and require no special optimization beyond normal SEO.
“There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.”
Google Search Central, AI features and your website
To check whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews recommend your business, ask each one the same short list of questions your customers really ask, then record whether your business is named, which sources are cited, and whether the details are right. This guide is for small service businesses in mid-size US cities, such as contractors, cleaning companies and auto shops. It covers how to build the question list, how to run the test, what to record, and what to fix when you are left out. Expect results to vary: Google says AI Overviews are only shown when its systems decide they add something to classic Search, and as such, they often don't trigger.
How to check whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews recommend your business#
The check itself is simple and needs no paid tools: a fixed list of prompts, the same wording in every tool, a private browser window, and a spreadsheet. What makes it useful is repeating it the same way every month, so you compare like with like instead of reacting to one answer.
Each tool works a little differently. ChatGPT can search the web when it answers. Gemini can use Google Search results to ground its answers. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode appear inside Google Search itself. Google notes that AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary. That is why you test each one separately and keep the results apart.
Build a prompt list from the questions your customers actually ask#
The best prompts are the questions people type or say before they hire someone like you. Pull them from your call log, your text messages and the questions customers ask on the first visit. A list built from real customer language tests what actually brings you work, while a list of generic marketing phrases only tests phrases nobody uses. For a local service business, five kinds of prompts cover most of what matters.
- Category questions: "Who are the best roofers in Greenville, South Carolina?"
- Urgent need: "Emergency AC repair near me open on Sunday."
- Specific job: "Who installs tankless water heaters in [your city]?"
- Comparison: "Is [your business] or [competitor] better for kitchen remodeling?"
- Brand check: "What do you know about [your business name] in [your city]?"
If you serve Spanish-speaking customers, add the same questions in Spanish, such as "¿Quién repara aires acondicionados en [tu ciudad]?". Answers in one language can differ from the other, and that gap is worth knowing.
Keep the list short and do not change the wording between checks. Changing the question changes the answer, and then you cannot tell whether a change came from your business or from the prompt.
How to run the test in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews#
Run every prompt in a private or logged-out browser window, from your normal service area, and note the date. Personal history and location can change what you see, so keep those conditions the same each time.
ChatGPT. Ask each prompt with web search turned on and open the sources it lists. OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot crawler is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features, and that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.
Gemini. Ask the same prompts and check which websites it draws on. Google's crawler documentation explains that its Google-Extended control lets publishers manage whether content may be used for grounding in Gemini Apps, which means providing content from the Google Search index to the model at prompt time.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Search the same prompts on Google. If no AI Overview appears, record that and move on. When one appears, note which businesses and links it includes, and check AI Mode separately.
Run each prompt twice if you can. AI answers can change from one run to the next, and a business that appears in one of two runs is in a different position from one that never appears.
What to record: mentions, citations, accuracy and sentiment#
Recording the same fields every time turns scattered screenshots into something you can track. A simple spreadsheet with one row per prompt and tool is enough, as long as the columns never change between checks. For each prompt and each tool, write down:
- Mentioned: whether your business is named at all, and in what position.
- Citation frequency: which websites the answer links to or cites, and whether one of them is yours or your Google Business Profile.
- Accuracy: whether your phone number, hours, services and service area are correct.
- Sentiment: whether the description is positive, neutral or negative, and why.
- Competitors named: which other local businesses appear instead of you.
Some marketers summarize this as Share of Model, meaning the share of answers that mention your business across your prompt list. It is a useful single number to watch over time, as long as you remember it comes from your own small sample and not from a measurement of every customer's search.
Which sources AI answers cite: your website, your Business Profile or directories#
The cited sources tell you where an AI answer learned about you, and that tells you what to fix. Sort every cited link from your test into one of four groups and count them each month.
- Your own website: the strongest position, because you control the wording.
- Your Google Business Profile or map listing: common for local questions, so keep hours, phone and services current there.
- Review sites and directories, such as Yelp, the Better Business Bureau or trade directories: if these dominate, the answer reflects whatever those listings say, so check them for old phone numbers, wrong addresses and unanswered reviews.
- News, community or other sites: useful third-party mentions you do not control directly.
This split separates organic citations of your own pages from directory-driven mentions. If a tool names your business but only cites a directory with an old phone number, the fix is the directory listing, not your website.
Why AI answers may leave your business out, and what to fix#
If you are missing, start with the basics. Google's documentation states there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary, beyond the best practices for Google Search.
Start with these checks:
- Can the page be found and shown? Google says that to be eligible as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.
- Is crawling allowed? Google lists ensuring crawling is allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure, among the SEO fundamentals that still apply. For ChatGPT, check that your robots.txt does not block OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust.
- Is your Business Profile current? Google's list of fundamentals includes checking that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up-to-date. The profile holds your hours, phone number and service area, so keep those current.
- Is the important content in text? Google advises making sure important content is available in textual form, and that structured data matches the visible text on the page.
You do not need to buy special files or markup for Google's AI features. Google says you don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features, and there's no special schema.org structured data you need to add.
The rest is about making your business easy to identify. Entity resolution is the term for how a system links your name to the right phone number, address and services. Use the same name, phone number and service area on your website, your Business Profile and the directories you are listed in. Vecino's approach is to build pages that answer the questions people actually ask, in English and Spanish, and to answer the question in the first paragraph, which is also the kind of text these tools can lift into an answer.
How to measure AI search traffic in Search Console and Google Analytics 4#
Mentions are only half the picture; referral traffic attribution tells you whether those mentions send people to your site. Neither Google tool gives a perfect AI-only view, so read them for what they do show.
In Search Console, Google says sites appearing in AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the overall search traffic, reported in the Performance report within the "Web" search type. You will not see AI Overview clicks as a separate line, so treat the Performance report as your total Google search picture.
In Google Analytics 4, Google defines Organic Search as visits from non-ad links in organic-search results, including Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Referral is defined as visits via non-ad links on other sites or apps. Links clicked inside ChatGPT or Gemini answers usually arrive from those sites, so look in your referral sources for names such as chatgpt.com or gemini.google.com.
Then connect visits to real outcomes. Count calls, form submissions and messages, and note which of them became paid jobs. A tap on the call button is not a customer, so judge any AI visibility work by the jobs it produces, not by mentions alone. This matters because of zero-click search: some people will get your phone number from an answer and call without ever visiting your site.
Manual checks vs automated AI visibility tools#
Automated tools run your prompts on a schedule and chart the results, which helps once you track many prompts across several locations. For a single small business with a short prompt list, a careful manual check each month is a reasonable place to start, and it shows you exactly what customers see. It also forces you to read the answers, which is where you notice a wrong phone number or a competitor described as the local specialist in your trade.
If you do try a tool, check three things before you rely on it: which AI tools it actually queries, whether it records the sources each answer cites, and whether it lets you set the location and language of the prompt. A tool that only counts mentions cannot tell you why you are missing.
A monthly AI visibility checklist for a small service business#
Use this routine once a month, and keep each month's results in the same spreadsheet so you can compare them. A quarterly review of the whole sheet shows whether fixes are working, and which tools mention you more or less often than before. The steps take about the same time each month once the prompt list is set.
- Run your fixed prompt list in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google, in a private window, in English and Spanish if you serve both.
- Record mentions, cited sources, accuracy, sentiment and competitors named.
- Fix any wrong details at the source: your website, your Google Business Profile and your directory listings.
- Check robots.txt for OAI-SearchBot and Googlebot access, and confirm key pages are indexed in Search Console.
- Review Search Console and Google Analytics 4 for search and referral visits, then match them to calls and jobs.
No one can promise that an AI tool will recommend a particular business, and Vecino does not. What Vecino Marketing does is help small service businesses in mid-size US cities build accurate websites, Google Business Profiles and question-answering pages that these tools can read. If you want a second look at why AI answers leave you out, contact Vecino for a review.
| Prompt type | What it tests | Example prompt |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Whether you are named among local options | Who are the best roofers in Greenville, South Carolina? |
| Urgent need | Whether you appear for time-sensitive jobs | Emergency AC repair near me open on Sunday |
| Specific job | Whether your specialty services are known | Who installs tankless water heaters in [your city]? |
| Comparison | How you are described next to a competitor | Is [your business] or [competitor] better for kitchen remodeling? |
| Brand check | Whether your hours, phone and services are stated correctly | What do you know about [your business name] in [your city]? |
| Spanish | Whether answers differ for Spanish-speaking customers | ¿Quién repara aires acondicionados en [tu ciudad]? |
| Tool | How it uses websites | Control or requirement named in the official documentation |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT search | OAI-SearchBot surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features | Sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers (OpenAI) |
| Gemini Apps | Can ground answers in content from the Google Search index at prompt time | Google-Extended manages use for grounding in Gemini Apps; it does not affect Google Search inclusion (Google) |
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Show supporting links inside Google Search | Page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet; no special optimization required (Google) |
| Tool | Where AI-related visits are counted |
|---|---|
| Search Console | AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the Performance report, within the "Web" search type |
| Google Analytics 4 | Organic Search includes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode; Referral covers non-ad links from other sites and apps |
AI Search Visibility & Share of Model Calculator
Calculates Share of Model (AI visibility rate), primary recommendation share, and web citation frequency across standardized test queries in generative search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
Share of Model (Overall Visibility):
Top Recommendation Rate:
Citation / Source Inclusion Rate:
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need special schema or an AI text file to appear in Google AI Overviews?
No. Google says you don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and there's no special schema.org structured data you need to add. A page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.
Why doesn't ChatGPT show my website as a source?
Check your robots.txt first. OpenAI says sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. OpenAI also says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt change for its systems to adjust.
Can I see AI Overview clicks separately in Search Console?
Not as a separate line. Google says sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console, reported in the Performance report within the "Web" search type.
Does blocking Google-Extended remove my business from Google Search?
No. Google says Google-Extended does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search and is not used as a ranking signal. It manages whether your content may be used for Gemini model training and for grounding answers in Gemini Apps.
Sources
- AI features and your website - Google Search Central
- Overview of OpenAI Crawlers - OpenAI
- Google’s common crawlers - Google Search Central
- [GA4] Default channel group - Google Analytics Help