Does AI mention your business? Start with a repeatable check
One question and one answer are not enough. Build a small, repeatable check that separates mentions, links, and recommendations.
- Choose customer questions and save the exact prompts, complete answers, and test conditions.
- Distinguish a company mention from a website link and a product recommendation.
- Repeat the check over time. Your sample is not market share, and a mention does not establish an inquiry.
Start with a customer decision
Choose one product or service and one audience. Write five questions that audience might ask before getting in touch: questions about solutions, fit, alternatives, costs, and drawbacks. Start with questions that do not name your business. Keep branded questions in a separate group.
For an illustrative example, a project management software company might check: ‘How should a team of ten choose a project management tool?’ That is a different question from ‘Is our product good?’ Mixing their results hides that difference.
Record what actually appeared
For each check, save the tool, date, language, exact question, answer, and source links. Record whether web search was enabled when that information is visible. Distinguish three observations:
- Mention: your company is named in the answer.
- Citation or link: the answer points to a page on your website.
- Recommendation: your company is presented as a suitable option for the need being tested.
Repeat before drawing conclusions
You might run a weekly check, keeping questions and conditions as consistent as possible. Save answers that do not include your company too. Flag changes in wording, tool, or language so you can interpret differences later.
If your company appeared in three of ten answers, report exactly that. Do not label it ‘30% of the market.’ Look at actual visits and inquiries alongside your answer records. A mention does not establish that a customer arrived.
Turn an observation into a website task
Look for a specific gap: outdated product details, missing suitability information, or a page that makes the answer difficult to find. Address one gap and record the date of the change. Compare the next set of answers without assuming your edit caused every difference.
Google says its existing SEO foundations apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode. No special schema or new AI file is required. A supporting page needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet, and inclusion is still not guaranteed. This guidance concerns Google’s search products.
Google Search Central: AI features and your website ↗Sources & further reading
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