The short answer
Pick 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask before they choose a provider. Each month, ask them in the same way in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity and Copilot. Write down whether you are named, where you appear, which competitors are named and which websites the answer cites. Three numbers come out of that log: how often you are named, how often your site is the source, and your share of all the businesses named.
Is it possible to track brand mentions in AI search?
Yes, but not the way you track rankings. AI assistants don't publish a list of results or how often they mention you, and the same question can get a different answer on another day. What you can do is sample: ask a fixed set of questions on a fixed schedule and count. Done the same way each month, that sample shows whether you are named more or less often, and who is named instead. Google's generative AI performance report in Search Console adds one hard number: how often links to your pages were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Why do AI answers need their own tracking?
A rank tracker tells you where your page sits in a list of links. An AI answer is different: it usually names a few businesses in a paragraph, and the names can change with the wording of the question, the platform, the location and the day. Asking once proves very little. Asking the same set of questions every month, under the same conditions, shows you a trend you can act on.
Step 1: choose 20 to 30 buyer questions
Write the questions the way a buyer would type or say them, not the way you describe yourself. Mix these kinds of question, and keep the list the same from month to month so the numbers stay comparable.
- “Best” questions with a place: “Who is the best family dentist in Leeds?”
- Service questions for a type of customer: “Which accountants in Bristol work with startups?”
- Cost questions: “How much does a commercial EV charger installation cost?”
- Comparison questions: “Is [your brand] or [competitor] better for small offices?”
- Questions about you by name: “Is [your brand] reliable?” Here you are checking that the facts are right, not just that you are named.
Step 2: keep the conditions the same
- The same platforms every month: ChatGPT with search on, Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode), Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot are a sensible set.
- A new chat for every question, so earlier questions don't shape the answer.
- Logged out, or a clean profile with memory and personalization turned off.
- The same location. Local answers change with where you ask from, so note it in the log.
- The same exact wording, copied from your list rather than retyped.
- The same week each month, so seasonal changes are easier to spot.
Step 3: log every answer
One row per question per platform, in a spreadsheet with one tab per month. The sample rows are fictional.
| Platform | Question | You: named and cited? | Competitors named | Sites cited | Facts correct? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Best family dentist in Leeds? | Named 2nd, not cited | Kirkgate Smiles, Aire Valley Dental | Two review sites, one directory | Opening hours out of date |
| Perplexity | Best family dentist in Leeds? | Not named | Kirkgate Smiles, Aire Valley Dental, Headrow Dental Care | A local news list, one directory | n/a |
| Google AI Mode | Dentist in Leeds open on Saturdays? | Named 1st, cited | Roundhay Family Dental | Your site, a review site | Yes |
The “Sites cited” column is the most useful one. It tells you which directories, review sites, lists and articles the assistants trust for your market. If you are missing from them, or they describe you wrongly, that is usually the first thing to fix.
Step 4: turn the log into three numbers
- Mention rate: answers that name you, divided by the answers you checked. This is the headline number.
- Citation rate: answers that link to your site, divided by the answers you checked. A citation can send a visit; a mention alone may not.
- Share of voice: your mentions, divided by every business mention across the answers. It shows who AI prefers in your market today.
Watch the trend over three to six months rather than any single month. Answers vary from one run to the next, and 25 answers is a small sample, so a move of one or two answers can be noise.
Step 5: check what your own data shows
- Search Console now has a Generative AI performance report. It shows how often links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, date and device. It doesn't list the questions people asked, and clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted with your other Google clicks in the Performance report, so they can't be separated there. To get into AI Overviews in the first place, see how to rank in Google AI Overviews.
- In your analytics, ChatGPT visits carry utm_source=chatgpt.com, because ChatGPT adds it to the links it sends. Visits from other assistants usually show as referrals from the assistant's own website, when the browser passes one along.
- Ask new inquiries how they found you, and add “an AI assistant” as an option. It is the only way to count people who read an answer and then searched for your name.
Before you read too much into it: check access
If your robots.txt blocks the crawlers that AI search depends on, no amount of content will get you cited. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, and that changes take about 24 hours to apply. Check Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot at least once. Our free Robots.txt Tester does this for any public site, and the AEO Checker checks a single page for the other basics that help AI answers use it.
How to improve your brand's visibility in AI search
| What the log shows | What it usually means | First thing to try |
|---|---|---|
| You are never named | The sources AI trusts for your market don't mention you, or your site doesn't say clearly what you do and where. | Get listed accurately on the sites in the “Sites cited” column, and make your service pages say who, what and where in plain words. |
| You are named, but with wrong facts | Old or conflicting information about you is online. | Correct your site, Google Business Profile and directory listings so they all say the same thing. |
| You are named, but never cited | AI knows the name but uses other pages as its evidence. | Publish the page that answers the question best: specific, dated and with real examples. |
| Competitors are named on one platform only | Each platform leans on different sources. | Compare the cited sites per platform and close the gaps one platform at a time. |
Beyond fixing what the log shows, these steps improve your visibility in AI search engines over time:
- Let the search crawlers in: Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Check with the Robots.txt Tester.
- Make each service page answer its buyer question in the first two sentences, with specific facts. The AEO Checker flags pages that don't.
- Keep your name, services, areas and contact details identical on your site, Google Business Profile and directories, and state them in Organization or LocalBusiness markup.
- Earn reviews and listings on the sites the answers cite, and correct wrong details there.
- Publish what only you can: real prices, worked examples, case studies with dates and numbers.
- Get named in other people's content: industry lists, local news and partners' pages.
This is the work we call generative engine optimization: earning mentions and citations, then measuring them with the same log. LLM SEO covers the page changes in more detail, and SEO, GEO and AEO how the terms fit together.
When is it worth paying for help?
Paid AI search monitoring tools run the same sampling automatically, across hundreds of questions and several times a week, and chart the results. They earn their cost when you track many products or markets, or need frequent data. For one business in one market, a monthly spreadsheet log answers the same question: are we named, and who is named instead? Whichever you use, check how the tool asks its questions (location, logged-in state and wording), because that changes the answers it records.
If the log shows you are rarely named and you want a full picture fast, our AI Visibility Audit is a fixed $495. We test 30 buyer questions across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity and Copilot, compare up to three competitors, map the sources the answers rely on, and give you a 90-day action list.
Questions people ask about tracking AI search
How do I track traffic from AI Overviews?
Search Console's Generative AI performance report shows how often links to your site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, date and device. Clicks from them are counted with your other Google clicks in the Performance report, so they can't be separated there; judge them by what visitors do on your site.
How do I track competitor mentions in AI Overviews?
Use the same monthly log: for each buyer question, write down every business the answer names, competitors included. Share of voice, your mentions divided by every business mention, shows who AI prefers in your market today.
How can I improve brand visibility in AI search engines?
Let the search crawlers in, make each service page answer its buyer question in the first two sentences, keep your name, services and contact details identical everywhere, and get listed accurately on the sites AI answers cite. The “Sites cited” column of your log shows which ones.
About this article
Harbourline Dental, its competitors and the log rows are fictional examples, not RankNexus clients. Platform features change, so we recheck the Google and OpenAI documents listed below when they are updated.