How to Check If Your Business Shows Up in Google AI Overviews

The quickest way to check whether your business shows up in Google AI Overviews is to search the questions your buyers ask, signed out and set to your target location, and record whether an AI Overview appears, whether your website is cited as a source, and which competitors are. Repeat it monthly. It takes about ten minutes to start, and it tells you more than most dashboards will.

Google doesn't offer a dedicated AI Overview report. Here's a simple manual method that works for any business, what to record, the tracking tools worth knowing when you outgrow it, and what to do if you're missing.

Why there's no simple report

AI Overviews have been available in New Zealand and Australia since Google expanded them to more than 100 countries in October 2024, and AI Mode launched in New Zealand in August 2025. Search Console counts clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode, but it folds them into the standard "Web" search type. You can't filter for them separately.

That means you can see your overall search performance, but not whether you were cited in a specific AI answer. For that, you have to look.

The 3-step manual check

Step 1: Build your question list

Write 10 to 20 questions your buyers actually ask. Good sources:

• Search Console: look for queries phrased as questions ("how", "what", "best", "vs").
• Sales calls: the questions prospects ask in the first conversation.
• Your competitors' FAQs: the questions they're trying to answer.

Mix informational questions ("how much does a commercial fit-out cost in Auckland") with commercial ones ("best commercial fit-out companies Auckland"). Add your location where buyers would.

Step 2: Search clean and look closely

Results change with location, sign-in status and search history, so make each check as neutral as you can:

1. Use a private or incognito browser window, signed out of Google.
2. Search on google.co.nz (or google.com.au for Australian markets).
3. Type each question exactly as a buyer would.

For each search, look for:

• Does an AI Overview appear? Not every query triggers one.
• Is your website cited? Expand the AI Overview and check the source links.
• Is your business named in the text, even without a link?
• Who else is cited? Note competitors, directories, review sites and media.

Then switch to the AI Mode tab and run the same question. AI Mode often cites a wider set of sources.

Step 3: Record it and repeat monthly

Keep a simple spreadsheet with one row per question per month:

Take a screenshot of each AI Overview. Answers change often, and screenshots let you see what moved.

After three months you'll have a clear picture: which questions you win, which you're missing, and which sources Google trusts in your industry.

A worked example

Say you run a commercial fit-out business in Auckland. Your first check might look like this:

• "How much does an office fit-out cost per square metre in Auckland?" An AI Overview appears and cites a cost guide from a competitor and a property news site. You have a pricing page, but it doesn't give a range. That's a fixable gap.
• "Best office fit-out companies Auckland." An AI Overview cites a directory and a "top 10" article. You're in neither. That's an off-site gap.
• "Do I need consent for an office fit-out?" No AI Overview appears. Normal rankings decide this one.

Three questions, three different jobs. That's why the record matters more than any single check.

What to do if you're missing

Your results will usually fall into one of three patterns:

No AI Overview appears. Normal search results still decide who gets the click. Focus on ranking well for that question.

An AI Overview appears, but you're not cited. Open the pages that are cited and compare them with yours. Do they answer the question in the first sentence or two? Are they more specific, with numbers, examples and sources? Are they more recently updated? Close those gaps on your page. Our guide to the zero-click problem covers how to win the mention.

Competitors and directories are cited, but not you. That points to off-site signals: reviews, directory listings and mentions on other sites. Tuesday's post on the six signals AI trusts and Friday's post on reviews, directories and Reddit cover how to build them.

When to use a checking tool

Manual checks work well for up to about 20 questions. Beyond that, a tracking tool saves time. Two of the better-known options at the time of writing:

• Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: tracks visibility, mentions and cited sources across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
• Ahrefs Brand Radar: tracks mentions and citations across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot.

Both are paid, and both sample results rather than seeing exactly what each buyer sees. Check how well they cover New Zealand or Australian searches before you commit, and keep doing a few manual checks each month to sense-check the numbers.

Where this fits

Checking AI Overviews is one part of seeing your whole search picture: traditional rankings, AI answers and the off-site sources AI relies on. Inside a Growth System, DigitalArchitect® benchmarks that picture against your competitors as the first step, and our search team works across the full search stack from there.