Practical Experiments in AI Search Visibility
Practical experiments examining how brands, products and websites appear in AI-generated answers. These tests explore recommendation variability, mentions, citations and share of voice across repeated searches.
AI search is changing how people discover information online. But for many business owners, the first challenge is simply understanding what is happening. What is AI search? How is it different from traditional Google search? Why can AI answers change when the same question is asked more than once? What does it mean when a … Read more
AI visibility testing is the process of checking how a business, brand, product or website appears in AI-generated answers. That can include Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and other AI search platforms. At first, the obvious question seems to be: Does my business appear? But a single AI answer can be misleading. A business may be … Read more
A single AI search can hide a surprising amount of complexity. Ask Google AI Mode something like: “I’m looking for an accountant in Birmingham for a manufacturing business that uses Xero. Which accountancy firms should I consider, and why?” To the person asking the question, that is one search. But answering it well may require … Read more
Choosing which prompts to monitor is one of the most important parts of AI visibility testing. It is also easy to overcomplicate. You could ask an AI tool to generate 100 questions about your business. You could collect phrases from search tools. You could create dozens of slight variations of the same query. But none … Read more
It is tempting to reduce AI visibility to a number. You test 50 prompts. Your business appears in 18 answers. Your AI visibility is 36%. That number may be useful. But on its own, it tells you surprisingly little. Which prompts did you appear for? Were they broad research questions or searches from someone close … Read more
A business can update the information on its own website and still have older or conflicting information elsewhere online. Opening hours are a simple example. A restaurant might show one set of hours on its own website, while Google, OpenTable, TripAdvisor or a local directory shows something different. That raises an important AI visibility question: … Read more
A business owner looks at their website with knowledge a customer does not have. They already know whether the restaurant opens on Bank Holidays. They know whether children are welcome. They know whether vegan dishes are available. They know whether the refurbishment mentioned on the website has finished. They know how the booking system works. … Read more
When we started testing AI visibility, the question seemed fairly simple: Does the business appear in the AI-generated answer? Our experiments increasingly suggest that this is only the first layer. A useful assessment also needs to consider which query produced the appearance, how consistently it occurs, whether the business is mentioned or actually recommended, how … Read more
Getting cited by an AI system can feel like a clear visibility win. Your page appeared in the answer. The AI associated your page with the topic. But there is an important complication: A citation shows that the AI system associated your page with the answer. It does not prove that every nearby statement came … Read more
An Interpretation Gap occurs when the relevant facts are available, but the conclusion drawn from them misses an important condition, distinction or exception. Finding one comes down to four questions: That is the practical method. You do not need to hunt for random AI mistakes. Start with an answer that matters to a real customer, … Read more