Does Google's AI Mention Your Business? Here's How to Check

Google's AI now answers a good share of searches by itself, at the top of the page, before anyone clicks through to a website. Those answers are assembled from real websites, and until recently there was no way of knowing whether yours was ever one of them. Now there is: a free report, inside a free Google tool, and checking it takes about ten minutes.

Where the report lives

It sits inside Google Search Console, the free tool that shows how your site is doing in Google search. If your site is already set up there, sign in, open Performance, and choose Generative AI features. That's the whole journey. The report appeared for everyone at the end of August 2026, so if you've never noticed it, that's why.

If your business has never used Search Console, you'll need to add your site and prove you own it first. It's a one-off job your web person can do in minutes, and it's worth doing regardless: Search Console is also where Google tells you about indexing problems, security issues and how your ordinary search results are performing.

What the report tells you

It counts how often pages from your site have been used inside Google's AI answers. That covers AI Overviews, the summary that appears above the results on many searches, and AI Mode, the conversational version. Each impression means one thing: somebody asked a question, Google's AI wrote an answer, and your page was one of the sources it used.

Two things stop the number being misread. An impression is not a visit: it means your page helped write an answer somebody read, and Google reports no clicks for these features at all, so don't go hunting for a click column. And being a source still counts for plenty. Your business surfaced at the exact moment someone asked about the thing you do, whether or not they clicked anything.

Our own ten-minute check

In the three months to the end of August 2026, pages from this site appeared inside Google's AI answers roughly 1,700 times, across about 45 different pages.

The number was less interesting than the pattern. Around 70% of those appearances came from a series of plain-English beginner guides to AI that we published two years ago. Our service pages, portfolio and contact page managed next to nothing between them. The pages that explain things get quoted. The pages that sell things don't. We've seen the same split, with variations, on every site we've checked since.

If yours says zero

A report showing nothing, or next to nothing, doesn't mean your site is broken. It usually means your site gives an AI nothing quotable: every page describes the business, and no page answers a question. AI answers are built from pages that explain, define and instruct, so a site without that layer simply never gets picked.

The fix is content-shaped rather than technical. No plugin or setting will earn citations. Pages that answer your customers' real questions will, and they tend to earn more the longer they're live.

Making the number useful

• Write it down, with the date. The report is new and your first look is your baseline. Next quarter's look tells you the direction.
• Look at which pages are earning, not just the total. A page already being cited is proof of demand for that topic, and the strongest hint available about what to write next.
• Don't judge anything in week one. In our data, visibility accrues to useful pages over months. A new page earning nothing in its first fortnight is on schedule.
• Re-check quarterly. More often than that and you're reading noise.

Ten minutes, four times a year

Search has changed shape more in the last two years than in the previous fifteen, and this report is the first time Google has shown small businesses where they stand in the new part. Most of your competitors don't know it exists. Ten minutes once a quarter, and you're better informed than nearly everyone you compete with.

We've written before about showing up in AI search and how AI half-decides before it recommends anyone. This report is where you find out how those ideas are playing out on your own site.

If you'd rather someone ran the check, read the result and told you what it means for your site, that's exactly the kind of thing we do. Get in touch and we'll take a look together.