Ever Wondered How Often AI Recommends Your Business on Google?
Ask Google's AI to recommend a business near you, and instead of the usual page of blue links, it now writes you a summary, and names actual businesses as its sources for that answer.
If you run a business, that raises one obvious question: is Google's AI mentioning you, or is it sending all those potential customers to your competitors instead?
Why "just Googling it yourself" doesn't work
It's tempting to test this by searching for your own services and seeing what comes up. The trouble is, Google shows you your bespoke answers based on your search history, your location, and even your device. So the version of Google you're looking at isn't the version everyone else sees.
Even incognito mode doesn't fix this. It only shows you one search, at one moment, from one angle. It can't tell you the thing you actually want to know: out of the hundreds of local searches happening every month, how often is Google's AI recommending you?
For that, you need to go straight to the source: Google itself.
Google Search Console: the free tool most business owners don't know they have
If you've never heard of Google Search Console, you're in good company, many people haven't. But it's worth five minutes of your time.
Think of it as a report card Google writes about your website. Where something like Google Analytics tells you what visitors do after they land on your site, Search Console tells you how Google sees your site before anyone clicks. It's free, and if you own a business with a website, you should have access to it. If you don’t have one set up, or you’re not sure where to start, feel free to drop me a message.
Real-world overall Performance report over the period of 6 months from Google Search Console for one of Roza Marketing clients.
Notice the shift partway through, both lines climb sharply and then hold at a new, higher level. That's the kind of change consistent, well-structured content can produce over time. And as you're about to see, that same content is also what gets picked up by Google's AI.
How to check whether Google's AI is mentioning you
Google has built a feature into Search Console specifically for this. It tracks every time your website is cited as a source in Google's AI Overviews or its AI-powered search mode.
Here's how to find it:
Log in to Search Console. Go to search.google.com/search-console using the Google account linked to your website.
Click "Performance" in the menu on the left.
Open the "Generative AI Features" tab near the top of the screen.
You'll see a graph, and the main number to look at is Impressions. In plain terms: every time Google's AI pulls a bit of information from your site and shows it to someone as a recommendation, that's one impression.
Google is rolling this feature out in stages. If you don't see the 'Generative AI features' tab yet, don't worry, your site is fine, Google just hasn't enabled the report on your account yet.
Real example, taken directly from Search Console. This business has seen its AI citation count grow steadily over a three-month period.
Find out which pages Google's AI actually likes
Once you're in the report, don't stop at the headline number. Underneath it, Search Console breaks impressions down by individual page, showing you exactly which parts of your website Google's AI is pulling from most often.
Real example, a report showing which pages on one website are being pulled into AI answers, and how often. (URLs blurred to protect my client's privacy.)
This is where it gets genuinely useful. If one page is cited far more often than the rest, that's not a coincidence, it's Google telling you what it considers a strong, trustworthy answer to a real question. Look at what that page does well: does it answer a specific question directly? Is it structured clearly, with headings that mirror how someone would actually ask? Does it cover a specific service, location, or topic in detail rather than speaking generally?
Whatever's working on your top page is worth applying elsewhere on your site. If your homepage is getting all the attention and your service pages are getting none, that's a signal too, it might mean those pages aren't answering things clearly enough for Google's AI to want to cite them.
Important Note: This tool specifically tracks Google’s own AI features (like AI Overviews and AI Mode). It won't track third-party platforms like ChatGPT or Claude. However, because Google handles over 90% of global search queries, this report is by far the most reliable, first-party data available today to measure real-world AI visibility for your business.
If you want to check how often Google's AI references your business, or you've already checked and the results are poor, get in touch, I'll happily take a look.