How to check if ChatGPT recommends your brand (the method we use)

Ask ChatGPT "What is [your product]?" and it will probably find your website and describe you nicely. That proves one thing: it can find you.

Your buyers don't ask that. They ask "what's the best tool for…" or "which one should I use for…". The real question is whether you're named in that answer.

Here's the manual method we use to get a real number, plus the mistakes that quietly inflate it.

The method

1. Write 20–30 real buyer questions. Mix category questions ("best accounting software for freelancers"), problem questions ("how do I stop late client payments") and comparisons ("X vs Y"). Leave out anything that contains your own brand name.
2. Use a clean session. Logged out, or a temporary chat with memory turned off. Personalisation and chat history change the answer.
3. Make sure web search is on. Recommendations for current products come from live search results, which is what most buyers see, not from the model's training memory.
4. Ask each question at least 3 times, ideally on different days. Answers vary from one run to the next, so one answer proves very little.
5. If you sell in several countries, ask from each one (or put the country in the question). Answers and sources differ by market.
6. Record four things for every answer: were you named (yes/no), your position in any list, which brands were named instead, and which websites were cited.

Turning the answers into numbers

• Visibility = answers that name you ÷ all answers. Named in 6 of 60 answers = 10%.
• Share of voice = answers naming you ÷ answers naming any brand you track.
• Position = where you appear when you are named (first, third, last).
• Sources = the websites cited most often. These are the pages the AI trusts for your category, and the places you most need to be mentioned.

Keep the question list fixed and re-run it every week. A change only means something if you measured the same questions the same way.

Common mistakes

• Checking once and treating it as the truth. Run it several times.
• Counting questions that contain your brand name. You will always "win" those, which inflates the number.
• Checking only ChatGPT. Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews often name different brands and cite different sources.
• Reading the answer but ignoring the sources. The cited pages tell you what to fix.

FAQ

Does ChatGPT give everyone the same answer?
No. Answers vary between runs, users, countries, and whether web search is used. That's why you ask each question several times and keep the method fixed.

How often should I check?
Weekly is enough to see a trend by hand. Daily checks help once you're changing things and want to see the effect sooner.

Why does ChatGPT name my competitor instead of me?
Usually because the pages it reads for that question (lists, reviews, comparisons, forums) mention your competitor and not you. The cited sources show you which pages those are.

Doing it automatically

30 questions × 3 runs × 2 countries is 180 answers a week by hand. That's why we built Aurvikon: it asks your buyer questions every day with live web search, records who is named and which pages are cited, and turns the cited pages into a to-do list.

*Originally published at aurvikon.com