The short answer
Ask three real customer questions in two assistants and copy the answers, with the sources shown, into one document. Sort what you find into four piles: not mentioned, mentioned wrongly, mentioned but thin, or fine. Each pile has a different next step. A proper repeated monthly measurement comes later, once you know where you stand.
What you saw, and what it usually means
Start from the symptom, not from the theory. These are the situations clients bring us most, with the first thing worth checking.
| What you saw | What it often points to | First thing to do |
|---|---|---|
| The assistant has never heard of you | Little written about you that it can find, or your pages cannot be read | Run the first look below, then check whether your key pages are indexed and readable |
| It names you but gets a fact wrong (hours, address, services) | An old or conflicting source somewhere on the web | Note which sources it shows, then follow fix wrong AI answers |
| It names competitors and not you | They answer the question more clearly or are mentioned on more trusted sites | Open the sources it cites and compare those pages with yours |
| It describes you in a vague or generic way | Your own pages say little that is concrete | Look at your homepage and services page as a stranger would |
| It says different things on different days | Normal behavior for generated answers | Do not react to one answer. Collect a few before changing anything |
| It sends people to a page of yours that is out of date | The old page is still indexed | Send us the address so we can update or redirect it |
The 20-minute first look
This is a quick check, not the full measurement method. Its job is to tell you which problem you have. For the repeatable version, with fixed question sets, repeated runs and a share-of-answers number, read measuring AI visibility.
- 1Write three questions a customer would type before they know your name. One about your category in your city or region, one about price or process, one comparing you with an alternative.
- 2Ask each question in ChatGPT and in Google (look for the AI summary above the results). If you use Gemini or Perplexity yourself, add them.
- 3Ask each one in a new chat, signed out or in a private window if you can.
- 4Paste each answer into one document. Under it, paste the source links the assistant showed, even if you were not mentioned.
- 5Add a fourth question that is only about your company name, and paste that answer too.
- 6Stop there. Do not keep asking until you get an answer you like. That teaches you nothing.
Write down the date and which assistant each answer came from. When you send this to us, that detail saves a round of questions.
Sort what you found into four piles
Read your document once and put each answer into one pile. Most businesses have answers in more than one.
| Pile | How to recognize it | Who can fix it | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fine | Named, facts correct, your own page among the sources | Nothing to fix | Keep a copy. It is your baseline |
| Thin | Named, but described generically or listed last | Mostly you, with copy help from us | Send us the real details that set you apart (see what to send for AEO) |
| Wrong | Named with an incorrect fact | You and us, at the source of the error | Find the source it cited, then fix that page or listing |
| Missing | Not named at all for questions where you clearly fit | Depends on why | Check the sources it did cite, then read the next section |
If you are missing: work through it in this order
Being absent does not mean something is broken on your website. It often means the assistant had better material from somewhere else. Work through these in order and stop at the first one that is true.
- 1Search your company name on Google. If your own site is not the first result, a search-engine problem sits underneath this one. Start with why isn't my page on Google.
- 2Look at the sources the assistant did cite. Are they directories, review sites, news articles or a competitor's page? That tells you where the assistant looks for your topic.
- 3Check whether you appear on those sites at all, and whether your listing there is complete and accurate.
- 4Open your own page for that question. Does it answer in the first few lines, with concrete details? If it only says "tailored solutions," there is nothing to quote.
- 5If all of that looks fine, ask us to check crawler access. AI crawlers and your site explains when that is the cause.
Do not buy listings, links or "AI optimization" packages from a stranger based on one missing answer. Most of those claim effects nobody can demonstrate. Send us what you found first.
If it says something wrong
Wrong facts are worth more of your attention than missing mentions, because a customer can act on them. The important habit is to record the exact sentence and the sources it showed, then work backwards to where the error lives. Retyping a correction into the chat does not change what the assistant says to the next person.
Take the full routine to fix wrong AI answers. For this page, the only job is to make sure your evidence is clean: full answer text, date, assistant, and the links it cited.
A worked example
Example: A first look that changed the plan
The owner of a physiotherapy clinic asks three questions in ChatGPT and Google. For two of them, the clinic is missing and the sources are a regional directory and a local news piece. For the third, it is named, but the opening hours are an hour out. The directory shows the old hours. The owner sorts the answers into piles: two missing, one wrong. The plan becomes small and specific: correct the directory, check the news piece mentions the right address, and ask us to review the services page, which has no price range or process. No new tool, no big project.
What is in your control, and what is not
- In your control: your own pages, your profile and listing details, the accuracy of what you publish, and the evidence you send us.
- Partly in your control: what other sites say about you. You can correct listings and ask for corrections. You cannot dictate a journalist's or directory's wording.
- Not in your control: which sources an assistant picks, what it learned in training, and whether it answers the same way tomorrow.
- Not available to anyone: a guaranteed mention. We never promise one.
When to ask us
Send a request through the support form and choose the AI search category. Include the document from the first look as a Google Drive or Dropbox link, with each answer, its date, the assistant and the sources shown. Add the three questions you most want to be named for, and say which pile you think each answer belongs in. A short Loom video of you asking the question is also fine. Never send passwords.
A person on our team reviews the ticket and follows up. If you want a recurring measurement instead of a one-off look, say so in the request, and see our AEO service page for how that works.
