AI is changing how people discover brands—but most companies have no idea how visible they actually are in AI platforms. And if you’re a small team, you definitely don’t have the time (or budget) to manually check every chatbot or pay a hefty amount for monitoring software.
This guide shows you how to track your AI visibility without needing a big team, complex tools, or enterprise resources.
But before that, let's understand why ignoring AI visibility is a riskier bet.
Why Small Teams Can't Afford to Ignore AI Visibility
There are a couple of reasons why you shouldn’t ignore AI visibility:
- Your competitors are getting cited while you're invisible: While you might be focused solely on traditional SEO, competitors who understand AI visibility are securing citations in AI responses.
- You're losing high-intent traffic: People using AI search aren't casually browsing—they're asking specific questions and looking for solutions. These are warm leads actively seeking answers, and if your brand isn't part of the conversation, you're missing out on some of the most valuable traffic available.
- Incorrect information about your brand is spreading unchecked: AI platforms sometimes get details wrong—outdated pricing, discontinued products, or inaccurate descriptions of what you offer. Without monitoring, you won't know when AI is telling thousands of people incorrect information about your business, potentially damaging your reputation or sending prospects away.
- You can't optimize what you don't measure. Your content strategy might be completely missing the mark for AI discoverability. Without tracking, you're creating content blindly.
- The gap widens every day you wait: Every day you ignore AI visibility is another day your competitors are pulling ahead in this new channel. And early movers lock in visibility that becomes harder to displace later.
How Can Small Teams Monitor AI Visibility?
Small teams can monitor AI visibility by using affordable, easy-to-use tools and focusing on the metrics that actually matter.
Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit is a new solution designed for small businesses to monitor their visibility in AI platforms.
Here are the key metrics small businesses should pay attention to:
- AI Visibility score: Measure how often your brand appears in AI answers compared to competitors. You’ll receive a score out of 100. The higher the score, the more visible you are in AI assistants.
- Mentions: Tracks how many times your brand name appears in AI answers to user queries. This metric gives a clear idea of how often AI systems surface your brand in relevant conversations.
- Cited pages: Tracks the number of pages on your site that are cited or referenced in AI-generated answers. This metric helps evaluate how well your content performs on AI platforms and which assets drive visibility.
Which Free or Starter Tools to Experiment with for AI Visibility Tracking?
You can experiment with the AI Visibility Toolkit by Semrush, Otterly AI, Peec AI, Nightwatch, and AI Search Watcher for tracking visibility without paying any upfront cost.
Here's more about each tool:
- AI Visibility Toolkit by Semrush: Offers a 7-day free trial that lets you track your brand across major AI assistants, analyze sentiment and accuracy, and compare visibility against competitors.
- Otterly AI: Provides a 14-day free trial that lets you monitor your brand mentions and share of voice in AI search platforms and assistants
- Peec AI: Offers a limited free trial that includes core visibility tracking and lets you monitor how AI assistants reference your brand in their responses
- Nightwatch: Offers a 14-day free trial with AI visibility monitoring alongside traditional SEO tracking, giving you a combined view of search performance
- AI Search Watcher: Provides a free plan that allows basic tracking across AI search platforms
If you’re on a small budget or looking for the simplest ways to get started with AI visibility tracking, these tools are great options.
How to Fix Outdated, Missing, or Incorrect Information About Your Brand
Are AI platforms sharing wrong information about your brand? You need to fix this as soon as possible.
Follow these steps to fix outdated, missing, or incorrect Information about your brand:
- Find where AI is getting its information: The misinformation could be coming from your own website, your social profiles, business listings, or external websites or blog posts. Identifying the cited sources is the first step in correcting the issue.
- Fix inconsistencies on your own properties first (if any): Make sure everything you control—your website, social accounts, and business listings—has the accurate, up-to-date information about your brand
- Add missing information to your website: Sometimes, AI gets things wrong because the right information simply isn't on your site (or available anywhere else). In that case, create a dedicated page that covers the missing information. For example, if AI can't accurately explain how your product differs from competitors, publish a clear comparison page that highlights key differences.
- Reach out to fix external misinformation: When third-party sites have wrong or outdated information that AI is citing, contact them. Share the right information and politely ask for an update. Although it takes time, ensuring information about your brand is accurate everywhere is essential.
Start Monitoring Your AI Visibility with Semrush
AI is becoming a major discovery channel, and the teams that adapt early will have an advantage.
But you can’t optimize your presence until you know how AI platforms cite and describe your brand. Plus, how your content is performing in AI answers.
Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit gives small teams everything they need to track their visibility. Monitor your brand across ChatGPT, Google, and other major AI platforms.
Get started with a 7-day free trial and see exactly where your brand stands in the AI era.
