The question of whether your business appears in ChatGPT can be answered in half an hour. You don't need any tools for it, only a fixed way of working. That way of working determines whether your measurement is worth anything, and that's where most self-tests go wrong.

The full step-by-step plan, followed by an explanation of each step:

1. Formulate five questions in your client's words, from different stages of the decision.
2. Put each question to ChatGPT with the search function on, to Perplexity and to Google, each time in a new session.
3. Note for each question whether you appear, which businesses do appear, and which pages the sources link to.
4. Put the results into a scorecard: the questions as rows, the platforms as columns.
5. Repeat the measurement monthly with the same questions and the same method, and keep every version.

01 / preparationFormulate five questions your client actually asks

Don't start with your business name but with your client's question. Anyone who types in their own name is only testing whether ChatGPT knows them. The measurement that matters is whether you appear when someone who doesn't yet know you puts forward a problem that you're the answer to.

Write down five full questions, in the client's own words. Not "accountant Eindhoven" but "which accountant in Eindhoven is good for a sole trader". The questions clients ask you on the phone are usually the best source. Record the five questions in a document, because you're going to use them again.

When doing so, choose questions from different stages of the decision. An orientation question ("what does an accountant for a sole trader cost"), a comparison question ("what should I look out for when choosing an accountant") and a recommendation question ("which accountant would you recommend in Eindhoven") each produce a different kind of answer, and therefore a different picture of where you do and don't appear.

02 / the measurementAsk the questions and note who appears

Put each question to three places: ChatGPT with the search function on, Perplexity, and Google. On Google, look out for the AI answer block above the results, if it appears.

Use a new, empty session without logged-in history for each question, where possible. An assistant that knows your earlier conversations colours the answer with what it already knows about you, and that distorts the measurement.

Note three things for each question: whether your business appears in the answer or in the sources, which businesses do appear, and which pages the source citations link to. That last column in particular is informative. You see not just who appears, but also what kind of page: a knowledge article, a comparison, a review page.

The names of your competitors in the answer are more valuable than your own score: they show what does get cited.

03 / the pitfallWhy a single one-off test tells you nothing

An AI answer is not a fixed outcome. The same question produces a different answer in a new session, sometimes with different sources. Anyone who tests once and sees themselves appear may be gone a week later; anyone who doesn't see themselves may well appear in the next session.

That's why a single snapshot doesn't count as a measurement. What does count: the same questions, the same platforms, the same way of recording, at a fixed point in time. If you change the questions along the way, you're comparing two different measurements with each other, and the difference proves nothing. Also be cautious about asking follow-up questions in the same session: the conversation steers the answers, and a steered measurement isn't a measurement.

04 / repeatingFrom snapshot to measurement series

Put the results into a simple table: five questions as rows, three platforms as columns, a tick where you appear. Repeat the measurement every month in the same way and keep every version. After three months you have a series, and a series shows whether there's movement in your visibility, which a single test can never do.

This is what that scorecard looks like, filled in fictitiously for illustration:

Also note the date and the precise way of working for each measurement: which platform, search function on or off, new session or not. That may seem excessive for a table with fifteen ticks, but it's the difference between an impression and a measurement. Anyone who wants to be able to say in four months' time that something has changed needs to be able to show that it was measured in the same way.

If you want to take this further, first read what AI visibility is for the wider picture, and then how you measure AI visibility for the step from self-test to a fixed benchmark. If you see competitors appearing on every question where you're absent, why ChatGPT does mention your competitor and not you explains what's usually behind that.

This self-test has deliberately been kept simple, and is enough for a first impression. Anyone who measures five questions and doesn't come across themselves anywhere knows what they need to know, and doesn't need to hire anyone for that.

This text was produced with AI assistance and checked and approved by a human before publication.