I get it. Paying someone to track your AI visibility can get expensive.
The good news is that the most useful first check is free, takes a few minutes, and you can do it yourself today.
Step 1: Ask the AI what your customers would ask
Open ChatGPT. I recommend it because it has the broadest reach: It reported about 900 million weekly users in February 2026, and it accounted for roughly 59% of web traffic to the top 50 generative AI products in December 2025.
Then type in what your customers would type to find a business like yours, and see how it answers. Try it three ways:
Broad: "mechanic near me"
Local: "auto mechanic in [your city]"
Specific: the exact service, in your neighbourhood
So…do you show up?
About those results
This is your first real indication of where you stand. If you show up in both the broad and the specific search, you're in a good place. If you don't show up in either, you have a lot of work ahead, including a fair bit of volume work to make sure the AI starts recommending you.
Either way, you now have a baseline, and it cost you nothing.
Step 2: Track your progress over time
You measure improvement over time. Pick your prompts, ask them again every week (strongly recommended) or every month, and write down what happens. A simple log is enough in a table with the following headings:
Date
Prompt
Platform
Did I show up?
What did it say about me?
Keep the prompts exactly the same each time, so you're comparing like with like.
Step 3: Check where your real traffic comes from
Being visible in an LLM is one thing. Having clients actually click through to your website, or at the very least call you, is another. So take it a step further and blend both views.
If you have access to Google Analytics, open the traffic acquisition report, switch the dimension to session source / medium, and search for "chat" to see visits coming from ChatGPT. Orbit Media walks through the full setup, including how to build a dedicated AI channel. Keep in mind that some AI traffic shows up as Direct, and Google's AI Overviews traffic is counted as organic, so you won't see everything.
If you have Google Search Console, check it too. In June 2026, Google announced generative AI performance reports that show impressions of your pages inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. According to PPC Land's coverage, they're rolling it out to a subset of sites so far, and it doesn't report clicks, so you may not see it yet.
It takes some time, but a weekly check of both your prompt log and your traffic will tell you whether your visibility is turning into customers.
Want a hand?
I'm happy to support you and help put you front and center with the clients you're looking for. I work with a broad range of businesses, from smaller startups to companies with storefronts.
At Emcrim, my AI visibility report is a one-time $125. It shows where you appear, where you don't, and what to change. If you later decide to work with me, the $125 is credited toward your first month's retainer.
Get in touch at emcrim.com and let's see how visible you are today.
