When someone asks ChatGPT for “the best accountant in Leeds” or asks Google’s AI Overview which tool to use, the answer names a few businesses. If yours is not one of them, you are invisible in a channel that is quietly taking share from the normal search results, and most businesses have no idea whether they show up or not.
The work of earning those mentions has a name, generative engine optimization, and it is worth reading if you want the theory. This guide is the practical half: how to find out where you stand today, and what moves the needle.
Check it the only way that works: ask
There is no dashboard inside ChatGPT that tells you your “AI ranking”. The only reliable way to know is to ask the engines the questions your customers ask, and read who gets named. Do it across the engines that matter now:
- ChatGPT
- Google AI Overviews
- Gemini
- Perplexity
Ask each one your ten most important buying questions. Phrase them the way a real customer would (“who is the best plumber in Newcastle for emergency work?”), not as keywords. Record whether you are mentioned, and which competitors are. That list is your baseline.
One thing to watch: answers vary between sessions and can be personalised. Ask each question a couple of times, in a fresh session, so you are reading the pattern rather than a single roll of the dice.
What actually improves your odds
AI answers tend to name businesses that are:
- Clearly the answer. Pages that state what you do, where, and for whom, in plain language near the top.
- Consistent across the web. Your name, category and location matching across your site, your Google Business Profile and directory citations.
- Well regarded. Reviews and mentions the engines can find.
- Reachable. Not blocked by a firewall or robots rule that stops the crawler reading you. This is the one that catches people out: a Cloudflare rule added to keep AI training crawlers out is very easy to write too broadly, so it locks out Googlebot as well. Our free Cloudflare crawler check fetches your site as Googlebot and as a normal browser and tells you whether the two get different answers.
Three of those four are mechanical, which means you can measure them rather than guess. The free agent readiness check reads your homepage the way an answer engine does and scores it on crawlability, structured data, schema validity, entity recognition, freshness and topical relevance. It will not tell you whether ChatGPT names you, but it will tell you whether ChatGPT could.
Notice how much overlap there is with good local SEO and technical SEO. The work that wins the map pack is largely the same work that wins the AI mention: a Business Profile in the right category, consistent details across directories, and a page that plainly answers the question being asked. If you have been putting off tidying your Business Profile or fixing crawl issues, this is another reason to do it.
A simple worked example
Say you run a physiotherapy clinic and ask, “best physio in Geelong for sports injuries?” Perplexity names three clinics and you are not among them. You open the three it did name and notice each has a dedicated page for sports injuries, a Business Profile in the right category, and a stack of recent reviews.
Your fix list writes itself: a clear sports-injury page that answers the question, a Business Profile category and description that match, and a habit of asking happy patients for reviews. Re-ask the question a month later and you can see whether the mentions have started to shift your way.
Turn it into a habit, not a one-off
A single check is a snapshot. The value is in re-running it on a schedule so you can see mentions appear after you fix a page or tidy your Business Profile, and catch it when a competitor overtakes you. Measured over time, AI visibility becomes a metric you manage, not a mystery, and it sits naturally alongside the rankings you already watch.
Argrow runs these checks for you across all four engines, tracks your AI visibility beside your organic and local rankings, and measures the lift when a change earns you a citation. See how AI visibility tracking works.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if ChatGPT mentions my business?
Ask it the buying questions your customers would ask, like 'who is the best [your service] in [your area]?', and read whether you are named and who else is. Do it across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity, and repeat it on a schedule so you can track changes.
Is there a tool to track AI search visibility?
Yes. Argrow asks each engine your customers' questions on a schedule and records whether you are cited, tracked next to your organic and local rankings, with the lift measured when a change earns a mention.
Why is my competitor mentioned by AI and I'm not?
Usually because their page answers the question more directly, their business details are more consistent across the web, they have reviews the engine can find, or your site is harder for the crawler to read. All of those are fixable.
How often should I check AI visibility?
A single check is only a snapshot. Monthly is a sensible rhythm for most businesses, so you can see mentions appear after you make changes and catch it early when a competitor overtakes you.
