More buyers now ask an AI tool which supplier to use before they search. Asking ChatGPT about your business once tells you very little, because the answer changes with the wording and from one day to the next. A fixed set of questions checked the same way each month gives you something you can actually track.
Step 1: Write down the questions your buyers ask
Start with the questions you hear from real enquiries and sales calls. Aim for ten to fifteen, mixing broad questions about your service, questions about price and comparisons, and a search for your business name. Write them exactly as a customer would.
Step 2: Ask each tool the same way
Use ChatGPT with search turned on, Perplexity, and Google, where AI Overviews and AI Mode appear for some searches. Start a fresh chat for each question, and note whether you were signed in and where you were, since both can change the answer.
Step 3: Record what you see
- Whether your business is named
- Whether your site is linked or cited, and which page
- Which competitors appear instead
- Any details that are wrong, such as old prices, hours or services
Step 4: Repeat monthly and look at the trend
Run the same questions once a month. Individual answers will vary, so look for patterns over a few months: questions where you start appearing, and questions where a competitor’s page is always the one cited.
When the details are wrong
Trace the wrong detail to where it comes from. It is usually an old page on your site, your Google Business Profile or a directory listing. Correct it at the source and keep your details identical everywhere, then check again the following month.
When you aren’t mentioned at all
AI answers draw on pages the tools can find and trust. If no page on your site answers a question clearly, there is nothing of yours for the answer to use. Build pages that answer your buyers’ questions directly, with the main answer early and your facts stated plainly.
Google says there are no special files or markup needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: pages need to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, like any search result. It also counts traffic from these features in Search Console’s web search figures (Google Search Central).
We run this check every month as part of our AI search optimisation work, and turn the gaps it finds into the next month’s pages.
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How to check whether ChatGPT mentions your business
A simple, repeatable way to check whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews mention your business, and what to do when they don’t.
The title and description we wrote for search engines, as they appear in results.