You can check your AI visibility by testing the questions your customers are likely to ask in AI tools and recording whether your business, competitors or third-party sources appear in the answers.

But I would not stop at one question.

I would not stop at one AI tool either.

In my experience, the most useful AI visibility checks are not simple “do I appear?” tests.

They are competitor and source checks.

The better question is usually: “Who appears instead of me, and why?”

Why checking AI visibility is becoming useful

AI tools are now part of everyday research, planning and decision-making.

ChatGPT receives around 2.5 billion prompts per day globally, according to OpenAI via Axios, reported by TechCrunch.

Not every prompt is a search.

But many prompts involve research, comparisons, recommendations, planning and purchase support.

That means your customers may already be asking AI tools questions that influence who they trust, shortlist or contact.

I do not think every business needs to panic about AI search.

But I do think most service businesses should at least know whether they are visible for the questions their customers are likely to ask.

Source: TechCrunch / OpenAI via Axios, July 2025

Start with realistic customer questions

Do not only ask:

“What is my company?”

That might tell you whether an AI system recognises your brand name, but it does not tell you whether you appear during the buying journey.

I would start with questions like:

• “Which company can help with X?”
• “Best agency for Y”
• “X vs Y”
• “What should I choose for…?”
• “Who offers [service] in [location]?”
• “Which provider is best for a small business?”
• “What should I look for when choosing a [service provider]?”

These are the questions that can reveal whether your company is part of the conversation.

When I run checks, I normally want to see three things:

1. whether the brand appears
2. which competitors appear
3. which sources seem to support the answer

That third point is often the most useful (correct intent is an integral part of good SEO and I think it is no different here, either).

Check several AI systems

Different AI tools may use different sources or give different answers.

You may want to test:

• ChatGPT
• Perplexity
• Gemini
• Claude
• Google AI Overviews
• Bing Copilot

Visibility in one system does not guarantee visibility everywhere. And at this stage it’s hard to say which LLMs will become the biggest. I feel Google Ai overviews will be very much worth keeping in mind, however.

Where possible, test in a clean browser, private mode or a fresh chat so previous conversations do not influence the answer too heavily.

I also like to repeat important checks over time. AI answers can change, and a single answer is not enough to make a strategy. In fact, answers can change day to day, or even with every search! I think it is important to get a good overview from testing multiple times.

If any of this seems too overwhelming, don’t be scared of just giving me a shout using the contact form. I’m happy to give advice.

Record competitors and citations

The most useful question is often not:

“Do I appear?”

It is:

“Who appears instead, and what supports them?”

If competitors are repeatedly supported by review sites, directories, YouTube videos, comparison articles, case studies or local listings, those sources become part of your action plan.

In my experience, this is where many businesses get surprised.

They assume the competitor is only winning because of better SEO.

Sometimes that is true.

But sometimes the competitor simply has a clearer footprint across more sources: stronger reviews, more specific pages, better directory listings, comparison mentions, YouTube visibility or clearer service positioning.

That is not impossible to fix. But you need to see it first.

When to use an audit

Manual checking is a useful starting point, but it quickly becomes difficult to manage.

A structured GEO audit gives you a clearer view of visibility gaps, competitor patterns, source opportunities and the practical steps needed to improve.

The best results usually come from checking AI visibility alongside classic SEO.

That means looking at your pages, internal links, content gaps, Google visibility, local signals, reviews and external mentions together.

Because in my experience, weak AI visibility is rarely just an “AI problem”.

It is usually a visibility, clarity or trust problem.

Further practical answers are available in the AI GEO Visibility FAQ. The SEO & GEO Visibility Audit is designed to check this systematically.