When AI web search answers, does it mention or cite you, or a competitor?
What is AI search visibility?
AI search visibility, sometimes called generative engine optimization (GEO), describes whether an AI-generated answer mentions or cites a brand for relevant questions. Different products use different models, indexes, retrieval systems, locations, and personalization, so no single check represents every assistant. This free Verbo tool runs a sample of buyer-intent questions through OpenAI gpt-4o with web search, records brand mentions and cited URLs, and labels the provider, model, retrieval method, and time. Use the receipts to see which prompts surfaced the brand, which answers cited its pages, and where a competitor appeared instead. Comparing the same labeled method over time can show whether new content coincides with a change, but it does not prove causation or predict future answers. Treat the result as a repeatable point-in-time snapshot of that method, not a direct measurement of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews.
Paste your URL and we’ll generate sample buyer-intent questions for your category, run them through OpenAI web search, and show whether the resulting answers mention or cite your site.
Free, no signup. We run buyer questions through OpenAI web search and check whether it mentions or cites your site. This is a point-in-time snapshot; processing time varies.
- AI-generated buyer-intent questions
- Cited-URL receipts, not vague scores
- Point-in-time result with source receipts
Mentioned in 1 of 3 sampled answers
yourbrand.com was surfaced in 1 of 3 sampled OpenAI web-search answers to buyer questions in your category.
- “What are the best tools for AI search visibility?”
Competitor recommended
- “How can a brand earn AI-search citations?”
Not mentioned
- “Best platform for measuring AI web-search visibility”
Your domain cited as source #2
Sample only: your report uses your real URL and OpenAI web-search answers.
How the free AI visibility check works
Four steps, fully labeled, no black-box score.
- 1
Generate buyer-intent questions
You paste your URL. We identify your category and generate sample questions real buyers would ask an AI assistant when looking for what you sell.
- 2
Run them through OpenAI web search
Each question runs through OpenAI gpt-4o with web search enabled, the same retrieval path ChatGPT search uses. Every run records the provider, model, retrieval method, and time.
- 3
Inspect mentions and cited URLs
The report shows whether your brand was mentioned, whether your pages were cited as sources, and which competitors appeared instead, with the exact quoted answer as a receipt.
- 4
Repeat on a schedule
A single check is a snapshot. Verbo repeats the same labeled method over time so you can see whether content changes coincide with visibility changes.
Why brands get skipped in AI answers
30–40%
visibility gain from adding citations, statistics and quotations to content — measured across 10k queries in the Princeton GEO benchmark (arXiv 2311.09735).
−34.5%
organic CTR when Google shows an AI Overview for a query — the traffic erosion most sites feel as “rankings fine, traffic down”.
~26%
fresher are the URLs cited by AI assistants versus standard search results — stale pages quietly drop out of the answer funnel.
AI visibility questions, answered
Does ChatGPT recommend my business?
There is no fixed list of businesses ChatGPT recommends. When users ask buying questions, ChatGPT search retrieves web results, then generates an answer that names some brands and cites some sources. Whether your business appears depends on what its retrieval finds at that moment: your site content, third-party pages that mention you, and how well they match the question. The only way to know where you stand is to sample those questions and read the answers. That is exactly what this free check does.
How do I get my website cited in AI answers?
Research on generative engine optimization (the Princeton GEO paper, arXiv 2311.09735) found three content changes that measurably increase citation rates: quoting credible sources, adding concrete statistics, and including direct quotations, together improving visibility by roughly 30-40%. Structure matters too: self-contained sections with clear headings and quotable one-sentence answers are easier for models to extract than long unbroken prose. None of it works if crawlers cannot reach your page, so also check that GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot are allowed in your robots.txt.
Why is my organic traffic dropping if my rankings are fine?
Google AI Overviews and chat assistants answer many informational queries directly, so fewer searches end in a click even when your position is unchanged. Industry studies have measured CTR reductions of roughly a third on queries where AI Overviews appear. The defensive play is to become part of the new funnel: be cited inside AI answers so your brand stays visible at the answer stage.
What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your content more likely to be retrieved, quoted, and cited by AI-generated answers, across ChatGPT search, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and similar systems. It complements traditional SEO: rankings still decide what gets retrieved, while GEO focuses on whether your content survives extraction into the final answer.
Is one score enough to know my AI visibility?
No, and be suspicious of any tool claiming otherwise. Each assistant uses different models, indexes, retrieval systems, locations, and personalization, so the same question can produce different answers for different users. Honest measurement labels the provider, model, method, and time of every result and treats each as a point-in-time snapshot, which is exactly how this tool reports.
Already know this visibility gap exists? Skip the free snapshot.
Verbo repeats the same labeled OpenAI web-search method over time, keeps the source receipts, and lets you use saved gaps to guide content planning. 7-day free trial, no card required.