How to Track Your Visibility in AI Overviews and AI Search
Google and Bing now report on AI search visibility. Here is what the new reports show, what they miss, and how we build them into UK small business SEO.
By Ollie Hempsall · 14 October 2026
Web developer and digital marketer based in Derbyshire, helping small businesses get more from their websites.
The question I get asked most by clients right now is not about rankings. It is some version of: "Are we showing up in AI answers, and what should we be doing about it?"
Until recently, the honest answer was that we could not properly measure it. There was almost no first-party data, meaning data straight from Google or Microsoft rather than estimated by a third-party tool.
That has changed. Both Google and Bing now report on AI visibility directly. This post covers what each report shows, where the gaps are, and how I am building AI visibility into SEO reporting for Hempsall Digital clients.
Why clients keep asking about AI search
A scaffolding contractor in Nottinghamshire got in touch after his nephew Googled "scaffolding company near me" and the result was an AI Overview naming three competitors, none of them him, despite him ranking on page one for that phrase for two years. He had not changed anything on the site. His position had not moved. But the introduction of an AI-written answer above the normal results meant his listing was now below the visible fold for a growing share of searches.
That is a typical starting point. Clients usually mean one of three things when they ask about AI visibility:
AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries that appear above Google's normal results. AI Mode is Google's full conversational search interface, where you ask follow-up questions instead of scanning ten blue links. GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the industry term for getting your business cited inside those AI answers, and inside tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot.
For most of the past two years, no one could tell you precisely whether a site was appearing in these formats or not. First-party reporting simply did not exist.
What Google and Bing now report on AI visibility
Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools both include free reports on AI search. Between them, you can see which pages appear in AI answers and which topics competitors are being cited for instead of you.
Google Search Console: Generative AI performance reports
On 3 June 2026, Google added dedicated generative AI reports to Search Console, its free tool for monitoring how a site performs in Google Search. The announcement on Google Search Central describes two views:
- Generative AI in Search, covering AI Overviews and AI Mode
- Generative AI in Discover, covering AI features in Google's Discover feed
The Search view shows impressions, how many times your pages were shown inside an AI answer, broken down by page, country and device. According to Search Engine Journal, the reports have now rolled out to all sites worldwide.
The practical value is straightforward. For the first time you can see which of your pages Google's AI is actually pulling into its answers, and whether that is growing month on month.
Bing Webmaster Tools: AI Performance and Topics Portfolio
Bing's AI Performance report shows where your site is cited in Microsoft's AI search answers. It works from "grounding queries", the searches an AI system runs behind the scenes to find sources for its answer.
On 13 October 2026, Microsoft introduced Topics Portfolio, a beta view that groups those grounding queries into topics. As Search Engine Land reported, each topic comes with three measures:
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Topic Size | Roughly how many citations all sites received for the topic: how much AI search demand it represents |
| Sites Cited | Roughly how many sites appear for the topic: how crowded it is |
| Queries | Roughly how many distinct grounding queries sit in the topic |
The most useful part sits underneath: Top Opportunity Queries. This lists searches where other sites are cited and yours is not. For a client report, that is the difference between "here is a number" and "here is what we should work on next".
What the new reports do not show
These reports are a real step forward, but they are not the full picture. If an agency tells you otherwise, ask to see the data.
There is no click data. Google's report shows impressions inside AI answers, not how many people clicked through to your site. Bing reports citations, not visits. You can prove a page is being used as a source. You cannot yet prove it sent you a customer from these reports alone.
Google does not show the queries. The initial rollout has no query-level data. You can see which pages appear in AI Overviews, but not which searches triggered them.
Small sites may see nothing in Bing. Microsoft says topics with too little site presence or activity are hidden. For a local business with a modest site, the Topics Portfolio tab may be short or absent. That is not a failure; it is a threshold. It tells you the site needs more presence first.
The numbers are approximate. Bing's topic groupings are AI-generated and can occasionally put a query in the wrong category. Branded searches for competitors can also surface as opportunities you cannot realistically target. Treat the figures as direction of travel, not exact counts.
For most UK small businesses, the last two points matter most. The first-party data will be thin to begin with, so it needs backing up with other evidence.
How we build AI visibility into SEO reporting
Every SEO report at Hempsall Digital now includes an AI visibility section built in five layers. The first two use the new first-party reports. The other three fill the gaps they leave, which matters most for smaller sites where the platform data is sparse.
1. Google AI impressions. From Search Console, we report the monthly trend in AI Overview and AI Mode impressions, plus the pages appearing most often. This shows whether Google's AI is using your content more or less over time.
2. Bing citations and opportunity queries. Where Bing has enough data, we report citations by topic and pull out the Top Opportunity Queries worth acting on. Where it does not, the report says so plainly. "Not enough data yet" is a valid finding.
3. A fixed prompt panel. We agree 15 to 20 realistic questions your customers might ask an AI tool, for example "best accountant in Chesterfield for a small limited company". Each month we run them in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode. We log whether you are cited, mentioned or absent, and which competitors appear. This is the only query-level view currently available, and it works regardless of how big your site is.
4. AI crawler access. AI tools can only cite pages their crawlers can reach. We check server logs to see which AI bots are actually visiting, rather than relying on robots.txt alone. That distinction matters: OpenAI, for example, runs separate crawlers for training its models and for powering search in ChatGPT, and blocking the wrong one can remove you from ChatGPT search results entirely.
5. Outcomes. In Google Analytics 4, we track sessions and enquiries arriving from AI tools such as chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai. This is where visibility gets connected to revenue rather than impressions.
The prompt panel is the most time-consuming layer. It is also the part clients find most convincing, because they can see their competitors named in answers they are currently missing from.
What this means for your SEO approach
GEO is not a separate service you need to buy on top of SEO. It is SEO done properly, with adjustments for how AI tools read and quote pages. Google's own guidance on AI features and your website says the same SEO best practices apply, and that there is no special markup or file needed to appear in AI Overviews.
Three things move the needle in practice:
Strong organic foundations. Fast, crawlable pages that already rank well are the pages AI tools have to choose from. Technical fixes, Core Web Vitals (Google's page speed and stability measures) and clear site structure still come first.
Content an AI can lift. Each section should open with a direct answer of a few sentences, then expand. Clear headings, specific facts and named experience make a passage easy to quote on its own. Vague introductory paragraphs that circle the point are exactly what AI systems skip.
Off-site reputation. AI tools check who is behind a claim. Genuine Google reviews, local press coverage and mentions on credible sites all count, which is why we prioritise them early for new clients.
What the new reports change is accountability. Instead of assuming GEO work is paying off, we can show which pages are being used, which topics competitors own, and what to fix next. Bing's Top Opportunity Queries in particular translate directly into a content plan.
One caution: be wary of anyone promising guaranteed placement in AI answers. No one controls what an AI chooses to cite, and the reports above are the closest anyone gets to measuring it honestly.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see if my website appears in Google AI Overviews?
Yes. Search Console now includes a Generative AI report showing impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country and device. It does not yet show clicks or the searches that triggered each appearance.
Is the Bing AI Performance report worth checking if most of my traffic comes from Google?
Yes. It is free, and it is currently the only first-party report that shows which topics competitors are cited for when you are not. Small sites may not have enough data for Topics Portfolio yet, but it costs nothing to set up Bing Webmaster Tools and check.
Do I need a separate GEO strategy?
No. AI visibility sits on top of solid SEO rather than replacing it. The adjustments are in how content is structured and how much off-site reputation you build, not in a separate set of tactics.
How often should AI visibility be reported?
Monthly works for most small businesses. AI answers change frequently, so a single snapshot can mislead. A consistent monthly prompt panel alongside the Google and Bing data shows the real trend.
Want to know whether your business appears in AI answers, and who is being cited instead? We run a full AI visibility check with one fixed price, confirmed before any work starts. Or get in touch to talk through where your site stands.
Sources
- Bing Webmaster Blog: Introducing Topics Portfolio beta in AI Performance
- Search Engine Land: Bing Webmaster Tools AI performance report new Topics Portfolio
- Google Search Central Blog: Generative AI performance reports
- Collective Measures: Search Console Generative AI performance reports
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website
- OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Search Engine Journal: worldwide rollout of Generative AI reports (TODO: replace homepage link with specific article, 31 August 2026)
