Stop guessing whether AI recommends you. Asking the engines directly takes an afternoon and tells you exactly where you stand.
You can test whether AI recommends your business directly, by asking the major answer engines the questions your buyers actually ask and recording what they say. There’s no need to guess: a structured pass across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and the others, using real buyer-intent questions, shows you exactly whether and how you’re represented — and who’s being recommended instead. This is the citation layer of AEO made concrete, and it’s something any business can do.
The point of testing is to replace assumption with evidence. Most businesses have never actually checked what AI says about them, and the results are usually clarifying — sometimes reassuring, often a wake-up call.
Start by writing down the real questions a prospect would ask — not your brand name, but the buyer-intent questions: “who’s the best [your service] in [your area],” “what should I look for when hiring a [your category],” “recommend a [your service] for [specific need].” These buyer-intent queries are the ones that matter for revenue.
Then ask each engine those questions and record what happens: Are you mentioned? Are you recommended? Who else is named, and how are they described? Note the sources the engine cites. Run each question across multiple engines, since they behave differently, and repeat a few times since answers vary. The result is a clear map of where you stand on the questions that count.
The pattern in your results points to the fix. If you’re absent everywhere, the issue is likely foundational — access or entity establishment. If you appear for branded questions but not buyer-intent ones, you have an entity but lack the corroboration and recommendation signals that win the queries that matter. If competitors are consistently named and you’re not, study what the engine says about them — the sources it cites and the qualities it credits — to see what you’re missing. Testing isn’t a one-time exercise; repeating it over time is how you measure whether your AEO work is moving the needle on the only outcome that counts — being in the answer.
Ask the major answer engines the real buyer-intent questions your prospects ask — not your brand name — and record whether you're mentioned, whether you're recommended, who else is named, and which sources are cited. Repeat across engines and over time.
Buyer-intent questions a prospect would actually ask: who's the best provider in your area, what to look for when hiring your category, recommendations for a specific need. These reveal whether you're recommended where it counts.
Absence usually points to a foundational gap — crawler access or entity establishment. Run a layer-by-layer audit to find the lowest failing layer, since that's what's keeping you out of the answer.
We run this test rigorously across every major engine for your real buyer questions and hand you the map of exactly where you stand and why.