Think about a question one of your customers might ask before they buy.
“Who can look after my cat while I’m away?”
“What’s a good daily greens powder?”
“Which Cambridge business could help improve my website?”
They might type it into Google. They might also ask ChatGPT or another AI tool and get an answer that names businesses, compares options and links to sources.
If your business is missing from that answer, it’s useful to know. But the first question isn’t simply, “How do we get mentioned?” It’s “What is the customer trying to decide, and how well does our business answer that need?”
Start with real customer questions
It’s easy to test broad prompts such as “best business in Cambridge”. They can be interesting, but they may tell you little about the people most likely to become customers.
A better starting point is the questions you hear in enquiries, sales conversations and customer emails. What are people comparing? What do they need to feel confident about? What might stop them buying?
For a local service, that could include location, availability, experience and how the service works. For a product, it might include ingredients, suitability, delivery, subscriptions or the difference between two options.
Those questions give you a more useful picture of whether your business is appearing at the moments that matter.
Look beyond whether your name appears
An AI answer may mention your business without linking to your website. It may link to a directory, a review site or an article instead. It may describe your offer accurately, or miss something important.
So when we review an answer, we look at more than a yes or no:
- Is the business mentioned for a relevant question?
- How is it described?
- Which competitors appear alongside it?
- Which websites are being used as sources?
- Is there anything a customer would need to know that the answer leaves out?
A single answer is a snapshot. Looking at the same set of questions over time makes it easier to spot patterns and decide whether anything needs attention.
Turn what you find into a decision
Sometimes the next step is clear: a service page needs a better explanation, a product page needs to answer a common buying question, or information about where you operate is hard to find.
Sometimes a competitor appears because a respected third-party source features them. That might point to an opportunity beyond your own website.
And sometimes the sensible response is to keep watching. AI answers can change, and one missing mention does not justify a new marketing project.
That’s how we approach our AI Visibility Review. We track a focused set of customer questions, look at what has changed, and give you a short list of actions worth considering. The aim is to help you make a better decision about what to improve next.
If you’re curious how your business comes across when customers ask AI for recommendations, get in touch with Le Claires.