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See where Google's AI Overviews and AI tools show you
AIO, as we use it, covers Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and checking what the main AI tools say about you. Each month we ask a short list of your most important customer questions by hand in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and record who gets named and which sources get cited. You see the evidence, not a guess.
What is AIO?
The term means different things to different people. Some use it for “AI optimization” in general. We use it for two specific things: showing up in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, and proving where AI tools show your business. In plain English: we prove where AI shows you.
| Question | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Gemini | AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question 1 | named, position 2 | not named | named, position 1 | no AI Overview shown |
| Question 2 | not named | not named | named, position 3 | not named |
| Question 3 | named, position 1 | named, position 2 | not named | named, position 2 |
Q1 to Q3: your customers' questions. #1 to #3: named, in that position. No: not named. n/a: no AI Overview shown.
- Reason 1
- Reason 2
- Reason 3
What are Google AI Overviews and AI Mode?
AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries that appear above some Google results, with links to the pages they draw from. AI Mode is a separate, chat-style way to search in Google that handles follow-up questions. Both draw on pages in Google’s index.
How does a business get into AI Overviews?
By doing the basics well. Google says there are no extra requirements or special optimizations for AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet. Google also points to familiar basics: let crawlers in, link your pages together, keep important content in text, and make sure your structured data matches what’s on the page. So our AIO work rests on SEO and AEO, and adds measurement.
Why measure AI visibility at all?
Because you can’t see it any other way. Search Console doesn’t show what ChatGPT says about you, and one screenshot proves nothing, because AI answers change from run to run. A fixed set of questions, asked the same way every month, shows the trend. It also helps explain a pattern many owners notice in Google: impressions rising while clicks fall, as some questions get answered on the results page itself.
What do you do for AIO?
- Pick your questions (Otto): a short list of your most important customer questions, written the way buyers ask them, such as “car accident lawyer in Plano with free consultations”.
- Check Google: for each question, is there an AI Overview, are you cited, and which pages are?
- Check the AI tools: the same questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, asked by hand in a clean, logged-out session.
- Log every answer: who got named, whether you were one of them, and which sources were cited.
- Look for patterns: AI answers vary, so we compare months and report what holds over several of them, not single results.
- Hand off the fixes: wrong facts to Juno, missing answers to Quinn and Penn, blocked crawlers to Ada.
- Track AI referrals: visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com in Google Analytics. These undercount, so we treat them as direction only.
- Record the method: every result notes the date, the AI tool and that it was a hand-run check.
What do you need from me?
- Google Search Console and Google Analytics access, by invite.
- The competitors you lose customers to.
- The questions customers ask before they buy, and the area you serve.
- A “How did you hear about us?” question on your intake form, booking flow or at the counter, if you can add one. It catches AI referrals that analytics miss.
How do you report AIO?
In Max’s one-page monthly report:
- Who got named for your questions in each AI tool, and whether you were one of them, compared with earlier months.
- One or two example questions, with the sources cited.
- AI Overview citations for your most important questions.
- AI referral visits, and any leads who said they found you through an AI tool.
AI answers vary, so we report patterns over several months, not single results.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my results look different from what you showed me?
AI answers vary by run, location, account history and settings like memory. We ask each question in a clean, logged-out session and note the date and location. That’s why we report patterns over several months, not single results. Your own logged-in account may show something different, and that’s normal.
Does AIO replace SEO?
No. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode have no special requirements beyond being indexed and eligible to show in Search. SEO is what gets you there. AIO adds measurement and the AI-specific fixes on top.
Will AI Overviews take traffic away from my website?
They can mean fewer clicks on simple informational questions, because the answer appears on Google. For a local business, the searches that matter most are usually from people ready to call, book or visit. That’s why we report leads and visibility, not just clicks.
Which AI tools do you check?
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. We can add others if your customers use them.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
No. Google says you don’t need new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in its AI features. We treat llms.txt as optional and give it no weight in our audits.
Free AI Visibility Snapshot
We ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews the questions your customers ask, and show you who gets recommended and why.