Unlike SEO, AEO does not yet have a clean, built-in analytics dashboard. Google Search Console tells you what organic queries your pages ranked for. It does not tell you when an AI cited you without anyone clicking through. This is a genuine gap in the discipline. But there are ways to track it.
Start with manual testing
The simplest method is also the most instructive. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini. Ask the questions your ideal customers would ask:
- “What is the best [your service] in [your city]?”
- “How do I [problem your business solves]?”
- “Who are the reliable [your type of business] in South Africa?”
See if you appear. See who does. Take note of which sources the AI cites. This tells you what your competition looks like in AI search. Do this once a quarter, across the same set of queries. You will see patterns over time.
Check Google Search Console for AI Overview signals
Google Search Console does not label AI Overview clicks separately, but you can infer patterns. If your pages show high impressions for informational queries but lower-than-expected click-through rates, you are likely appearing in AI Overviews (or featured snippets) without getting the click. Cross-reference your top informational queries with manual AI Overview testing to confirm.
Use a dedicated AI monitoring tool
A growing category of tools tracks AI citations specifically. The most relevant ones as of 2025:
- Otterly AI: runs queries across multiple AI engines and shows you which brands are cited, how often, and in what context
- Rankability: tracks brand visibility across Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Google AI Overviews from a single dashboard
- Profound and Omnia: enterprise-focused options with deeper competitive analysis
For most small businesses, manual testing plus Otterly AI is a practical starting point without a large tool budget.
What metrics to track
When you do start monitoring, track these:
Citation rate: what percentage of relevant AI responses mention your business?
Share of voice: compared to your competitors, how often do you appear in AI answers for your category?
Sentiment: when AI tools do mention you, how do they describe your business?
Source type: which pages of yours are being cited? If it is always the same blog post, that tells you something about your content gaps.
A realistic expectation
AI citation tracking is still an emerging discipline. The tools are improving rapidly, but none of them are perfect yet. Manual testing is still the most reliable method for most small businesses.
The goal is directional data. Are you being mentioned at all? In which categories? Are you gaining or losing ground on competitors? That is enough to make useful decisions.
Read next
What is AEO?
How Google AI Overviews work
Full guide: AEO for South African Small Businesses: The Complete Guide.
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