Google AI search: How to check whether your brand appears
· PION
Check whether your brand is cited in AI Overviews above Google's search results or in the AI Mode tab below the search box. Keep a weekly citation record and compare it with Search Console's performance report.
When I typed a question about our industry into the search box, a paragraph appeared first, above the list of links. The source cards next to the paragraph carried a competitor's domain and a news outlet's address, but not our site. These are the links Google AI Search selected while composing its answer.
You can check the search results to see whether your domain appears in those links. Search Console does not report those citations separately. Google has folded the impressions and clicks generated by AI features into the web search results of the performance report, and it doesn't give you a filter that isolates only AI Overviews. The following steps show how to record what appears on screen and compare it with Search Console data.
1. Where Google AI search appears
There are two places Google AI Search appears: the AI Overview at the very top of the search results, and AI Mode, which you enter through a tab below the search box. Both screens pick their links from the ordinary search index, and in its brand diagnostics PION records the source links from these two screens separately from chatbot answers.
The AI features and your website document in Google Search Central spells out the conditions for being pulled in as a reference link (updated December 31, 2025). "To be shown as a reference link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and must meet the technical requirements of Search so that it can appear in Google Search with a snippet."
AI Overviews don't appear for every search query. The Google Search Help article Find information more easily and quickly with AI Overviews in Google Search explains that "AI Overviews appear in Google Search results when Google's systems determine that generative AI would be especially helpful," and adds, "You can't turn the feature off, but you can select the Web filter after searching." That means to bring back the older screen that shows only a list of links, you have to click the Web filter.
AI Mode has appeared in Korean-language searches without a separate sign-up since September 2025. The Google Korea blog post Google Search: AI Mode is now available in Korea too (September 8, 2025) announced, "Over the next few days, you'll be able to see the newly added 'AI Mode' tab in the search box within the Google app and in Google Search." Because the same question sometimes surfaces different sources in AI Overviews and in AI Mode, we record the two screens separately.
2. A weekly record of your brand's citations
Pick 10 brand-category questions, enter them one by one on the same day of the week each week, and record in a table whether an AI Overview appeared, the domains of the links shown in the overview, and whether your domain is on that list.
| Column | What to record | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Question | The exact sentence a customer would type | Same sentence, same order every week |
| AI Overview | O if it appeared, X if not | Same day of the week, same time slot every week |
| Source domains | All domains of the links carried in the overview | In the order they appear on screen |
| Our domain | O if it's on the list | Separate columns by engine |
| AI Mode | The result of repeating the same question in the tab | Whether domains different from the overview appear |
Keep the conditions consistent so you can compare one week with another. Because login status and location settings change the results, enter the queries in an incognito window, on the same day of the week and in the same time slot, with the same regional settings. You need at least four weeks of data to see a trend.
There is a separate procedure for counting brand names in a chatbot conversation window. 5 Ways to Check Whether Your Brand Appears in ChatGPT Answers covers the chatbot screen, while what this record table counts is only the links attached inside the Google search results screen.
3. Requirements for appearing in AI Overviews
There is no dedicated markup or separate file. Google requires the page to be indexed and eligible to display a snippet. Check whether past settings still prevent either of these.
As a way to manage content, the AI features document advises, "To limit the information about a page shown in Google Search, use the nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, or noindex controls." If you have pages where you've capped the snippet length to something short or applied data-nosnippet to part of the body text, those settings are the first thing to inspect.
People sometimes ask whether a site that put Google-Extended in robots.txt to block training also gets dropped from AI Overviews. Google's list of common crawlers (updated April 29, 2026) states, "Google-Extended does not affect whether a site is included in Google Search, nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search." This token is a training setting on the Gemini app side and is not connected to the search results screen.
For the distinction between weekly work and one-time fixes, see A GEO Agency to Handle ChatGPT and Gemini Visibility: The Line Between What to Do Yourself and What to Hand Off.
4. How Search Console counts AI search impressions
You can't query them separately. The impressions and clicks generated in AI Overviews and AI Mode are mixed into the web search results of the performance report, and there is no option in the search type filter for selecting AI Overviews.
The rules for each metric are in the What are impressions, position, and clicks? help article.
| Metric | How it's counted in AI Overviews (help article's original text) | What to watch for when comparing |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | "Standard impression rules apply" | Added into the same column as impressions from ordinary results |
| Position | "An AI Overview has a single position in the search results, and every link within the AI Overview is assigned this same position" | Where a link ranks within the overview doesn't show up in this value |
| Clicks | "When you click a link in AI Mode that leads to an external page, it counts as a click" | The same rule applies to AI Overview links |
Because of the position rule, you can't isolate AI Overview citations using average position. Whether an overview carries five links or one, the same value goes in, and even if your link is at the end of the list the value is the same. The two usable Search Console signals are therefore impressions and clicks. Compare them with the record table from the previous section.
5. What to compare when citations do not bring more visits
Write the record table's O marks and the same week's Search Console web impressions and clicks in adjacent columns and compare them for at least four weeks. How these values change tells you what to check next.
| Record table | Same-week Search Console value | What to compare next |
|---|---|---|
| Our domain's O count rose | Impressions rose, clicks stayed flat | Whether the answer was complete within the overview paragraph, and where our link appeared in the order |
| Our domain's O count rose | Both impressions and clicks stayed flat | Whether the incognito window and regional settings varied, and whether it was an overview that appeared only that week |
| Our domain's X continues | Only impressions rose | Whether the impressions came from ordinary search results, and the index and snippet control settings |
Anything outside Google isn't captured in this table. The Overview of OpenAI Crawlers document assigns separate roles to OAI-SearchBot (search) and GPTBot (training). It states, "Each setting is independent of the others." Google's AI Overviews follow the ordinary search index, but ChatGPT search follows the range that OAI-SearchBot has read, so allowing one doesn't apply to the other. Even if you keep the two records in one file, keep the columns separate.
For PION's service covering question selection and consistent weekly recording, see the GEO agency service overview. When you want to sort out your index and AI-search-bot access status before building the record table, work through the 5-Minute GEO Readiness Diagnostic items in order.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to do to get our site to appear in Google AI Search?
You just need the same index status as ordinary search; there is no additional file or markup to add specifically for AI Overviews or AI Mode. The Google Search Central documentation lists the conditions for appearing as a reference link as whether the page is indexed and whether a snippet can be shown. In its brand diagnostics, PION first compares the index status and the snippet control settings.
How do I check whether our domain has been cited in a Google AI Overview?
The only way is to enter brand-category questions into Google in an incognito window and write down the domains of the links attached to the AI Overview. Search Console has no screen for querying only AI Overviews, so use your record of the citations shown on screen. You have to repeat the same question set on the same day of the week each week for a weekly comparison to be possible.
Where do I turn on Google AI Mode?
You click the AI Mode tab in the list of tabs above the Google search results. The Google Korea blog announced that since September 2025 this tab appears in Korean-language searches without a separate sign-up. Because the sources attached to AI Overviews and AI Mode differ even for the same question, we record the two screens separately.
Can I query only Google AI Search impressions separately in Search Console?
No. The impressions and clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are aggregated into the web search results of the performance report, and there is no separate item in the search type filter. All links inside an AI Overview receive the same position, so you can't isolate them by average position either.
Is it okay to handle Google AI Search results and ChatGPT answers in the same table?
You should separate the columns. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode follow the ordinary search index, while ChatGPT search follows the range that OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot has read. Being cited on one side doesn't automatically make you appear in the other, so record them in separate columns by engine.