Write down the questions your customers ask before buying, ask each one in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google, and record whether your business is mentioned or cited and which competitors appear. Repeat monthly with the same questions, because AI answers vary from run to run.
- Use the questions customers really ask, including location.
- Record mentions, citations and competitors, not just yes/no.
- Pair live checks with a reproducible readiness score.
Build your question list
Ten to twenty questions is plenty: “best [service] in [city]”, price questions, “who offers [specific service] near me”, comparison questions and questions about your business by name.
Test consistently
Use a private or logged-out session where possible, ask each question exactly the same way each time, and note the date. Record whether you’re named, whether your site is linked as a source, and who else appears.
Why results vary
Generative answers are probabilistic and their sources change. A single test is a snapshot; trends over several months are what matter.
Turn findings into fixes
For every question where a competitor is cited and you aren’t, compare their page with yours. Usually they answer more directly, state more facts or are easier for crawlers to read. AIRankSurge’s AI Answer Simulator tests the same questions against your pages and shows exactly which passage would — or wouldn’t — be quoted.