A friend texts you that Google's AI listed a few Cedar Park bathroom remodelers, and yours wasn't one. You type the same words and no AI answer shows up at all.
Neither of you is imagining it. Here's how I'd check by hand, as of October 2026. If your real question is how to get into those answers, start with how to show up in Google AI Overviews. For how AI assistants pick local companies in general, see our guide to AI search for home service companies.
Where does Google show AI answers to your customers?
In three places: AI Overviews, AI Mode and the Gemini app.
- AI Overviews are short written answers inside ordinary search results. Google says you'll see one when its systems decide AI can be especially helpful. Its help page lists the United States as a place they're available.[1]
- AI Mode is a separate way to search: you ask, follow up, and get answers with links. Go to google.com/ai, tap AI Mode after a search at google.com, or use the Google app.[2]
- The Gemini app is Google's chat assistant, at gemini.google.com and as a phone app.[3] For places, Google says it uses public information from Google Maps, like addresses, websites, ratings and hours.[4]
Open each on your phone today and ask for your trade and town.
How do you check Google AI Overviews fairly?
Use the same words every time, put your town in them, search in a private window and repeat on three days. Google says results vary with time, context and personalization, and even searches a few minutes apart can differ.[5]
- Write three to five phrases in a customer's words. Google suggests asking more than one version of a question.[1]
- Add the town. Google says your location helps show nearby results even if you leave it out. Its tip when local results look thin is to add the place.[6]
- Use a private window, called Incognito in Chrome. It doesn't sign you in to Google on its own, though Chrome says it doesn't make you invisible.[7] I'd use one so your own account isn't part of the check.
- Read the footer of the results page. Google says it can show how your location was estimated, such as "From your internet address," and sometimes whether results are personalized.[6][5] Write down whatever it shows.
AI Mode and Gemini each need a note:
- AI Mode: Google says personalization can use your saved search history, so note whether you were signed in.[2] Write down any follow-up word for word.
- Gemini app: a temporary chat gets no personalized responses, though you must be signed in to start one.[3]
Why might you see no AI Overview at all?
Google says AI Overviews appear only when its systems decide one adds something to regular search, and that they "often don't trigger."[8]
Only about 8% of local-intent searches show an AI Overview, versus about 21% of all keywords.
Source: Ahrefs AI Overview triggers study · (opens in a new tab) · 146M desktop SERPs, Sept 2025
That's one month of desktop results pages, from September 2025, so call it a snapshot.
Google says AI Mode may show only links when its confidence in an answer's quality or helpfulness isn't high enough.[2] Google's Web filter shows only text links, without features like AI Overviews, so check you haven't picked it.[1]
A blank is still a result. Write "none shown" with the date and place, and ask again on another day.
What should you write down?
One row per search, with the same columns every time. Here's a card for a bathroom remodeler in Cedar Park, Texas. The town and the trade change, and the columns don't.
A checking card in Cedar Park
- Phrase 1: bathroom remodeler Cedar Park TX
- Phrase 2: walk-in shower installer Cedar Park
- Phrase 3: how much does a bathroom remodel cost in Cedar Park
- Phrase 4: your company name plus reviews
- Setup: date and time, phone or computer, private window or signed in, footer location line.
- Surface: AI Overview, AI Mode or the Gemini app.
- Result: AI answer shown, your company named, your page linked, other companies named or linked.
- Facts: hours, phone, services and towns right or wrong, and a screenshot saved.
- Leave every cell empty until you run the search, and fill it from the screen, not from memory.
Illustrative example
Named means your company's name is in the AI's text, and linked means one of your pages is among its links. They're different results. Take the screenshot before you close the page, because tomorrow's search may differ.[5]
What does Search Console show about Google's AI features?
Part of it: how often AI Overviews and AI Mode showed links to your pages. Google's help page describes counts, not what the AI wrote about you.
Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners.[9] Google's help page says that as of August 31, 2026, its Generative AI performance report is available to all websites.[10]
The report counts impressions, meaning times a link to your site was shown in an AI Overview or AI Mode. It groups them by page, country, date and device. Search terms aren't on that list.[10]
If the report is missing, Google says that usually means too few impressions, though you may have excluded your site.[10] The report's list of features names AI Overviews and AI Mode. The Gemini app isn't on it.[10]
Google says sites appearing in AI features count toward the search traffic in your normal Performance report, under the Web search type.[8][11] In the normal Performance report, Google's help pages list no AI Overviews or AI Mode filter.[14] The separate Generative AI report is where those impressions show.[10]
I'd open the Generative AI report once a month, copy its numbers beside your hand-check notes, and expect the two to disagree.
Do you need a tool to check?
No, but a tool can repeat searches more often than you will.
A tool that reads Google's results from outside sees only what Google shows the public, as you do. Google says no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems, so be wary of any that claim "internal" Google metrics.[12] Before you pay, I'd ask:
- Which places and phrases does it use, and can you set them?
- What date is each result from?
- Does it read the page a customer sees on Google, or ask a model behind the scenes?
- Does it keep a screenshot of each answer and the pages it linked?
- Does it separate AI Overviews, AI Mode and the Gemini app?
Our AI search visibility audit and AI search optimization plans ask the AI assistants we test (currently ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity) the buyer questions. Google's own features aren't among them, so that part is yours. To run those questions yourself, how to run an AI search audit walks through the steps, and our free AI visibility benchmark has the prompts and a scoring sheet.
What should you do with what you find?
Match each result to one next step.
- No AI answer shows. Nothing to fix. Note it and check again next month.
- An AI answer links other companies, not you. Compare their pages with yours, and read why AI names competitors. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and your site must be included in Search Console's Search generative AI setting.[8][12]
- You're named, but a fact is wrong. Find the page or listing with the wrong fact and fix it first. What to do when AI gets your details wrong walks through it.
- You're named and linked, with the right facts. Save the screenshot with its date. Getting ready for AI search has a monthly routine.
If you'd like a person to help rank the fixes, the Expert Action Plan ($149) is the Complete Visibility Report plus a 30-minute consultation.
What should you skip?
Skip these:
- Asking Gemini why it left you out. Google says Gemini can misrepresent how it works.[13]
- Searching only your company name. That tests whether Google knows you, not whether strangers are sent to you.
- Paying for special files or extra page code. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special markup to add.[8] Our guide to markup has the detail.
What a check can't tell you
It can't tell you what a customer saw. Google says search results are specific to the time, place, device and recent history of the person searching,[14] so your card is a sample.
Neither your card nor Search Console says how many customers use these features. The report counts links shown, and Google says an impression means someone saw, or potentially saw, a link.[11]
Doing all this doesn't make Google name you. Google says indexing and serving aren't guaranteed.[8]
The pages change too. The ones cited here were checked on October 15, 2026, and Google's AI features page shows a last-updated date of December 10, 2025. Four of the Google Search help pages cited here also warn that their settings are being updated and may not match what you see. Re-read them before you act.