How to Know if ChatGPT is Recommending Your Brand

Here's a question that keeps marketing leaders up at night: Is ChatGPT telling people about your brand? With over 400 million weekly users asking ChatGPT for product recommendations, business advice, and purchase decisions, the answer to this question could be worth millions in invisible revenue, or millions in lost opportunity.

The challenge is that unlike traditional search where you can simply type your brand name and see where you rank, AI recommendations happen in the dark. There's no public leaderboard, no keyword position tracker that shows "You're #3 when someone asks ChatGPT for the best CRM." You're essentially flying blind unless you know where to look.

This guide reveals the four methods that forward-thinking brands use to uncover their AI visibility. From simple manual tests to sophisticated monitoring platforms, you'll learn exactly how to answer the critical question: Is ChatGPT working for you or against you?

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Traditional SEO gave us clear metrics: keyword rankings, organic traffic, click-through rates. You could measure, optimize, and track progress. But AI search has created a new visibility layer that operates almost entirely outside conventional analytics.

Consider this scenario: A potential customer asks ChatGPT, "What's the best project management tool for remote teams?" ChatGPT responds with a helpful list of recommendations. If your brand isn't on that list, you've lost the sale before you even knew you were in the running. The customer never visits your website, never sees your ads, never enters your funnel. They simply buy from whoever ChatGPT recommended.

The stakes are enormous. Our research shows that brands appearing in AI recommendations for high-intent queries see significantly higher conversion rates from AI-referred traffic compared to traditional organic search. These visitors arrive pre-qualified, already trusting the AI's recommendation. The question isn't whether AI visibility matters. It's whether you're capturing it or ceding it to competitors.

Method 1: Ask ChatGPT Directly (The Right Way)

The most accessible method to check your AI visibility is also the one most brands get wrong. Simply asking ChatGPT "Do you know about [Your Brand]?" tells you almost nothing useful. The real insight comes from testing the actual questions your potential customers would ask.

Why Vanity Queries Are Worthless

Many marketers make the mistake of testing brand-aware queries: "What is [Brand Name]?" or "Tell me about [Brand Name]." But this fundamentally misunderstands how AI recommendations work. The valuable visibility isn't when someone already knows your name. It's when they're discovering solutions to problems and your brand appears in the consideration set.

How to Test Real User Intents

Start by mapping out the questions your actual buyers would ask. Think in terms of problems, not products:

• Problem-based queries: "How do I improve my team's productivity?" or "What's the best way to track expenses for a small business?"
• Comparison queries: "What are the alternatives to [Competitor]?" or "Best tools for [use case] in 2026"
• Category queries: "What project management software should I use?" or "Best CRM for startups"
• Recommendation queries: "What do experts recommend for [problem]?" or "Top-rated solutions for [need]"

The Testing Protocol

For each query type, follow this systematic approach:

1. Run the query multiple times: AI responses vary. A single test is meaningless. We recommend at least 10 repetitions per query to identify consistent patterns versus random mentions.
2. Test across different AI platforms: Don't limit yourself to ChatGPT. Test Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot to get a complete picture of your AI visibility landscape.
3. Document the position: When you are mentioned, note whether you're first, in the middle, or last. Position matters enormously in AI recommendations.
4. Track sentiment and context: Is ChatGPT recommending you enthusiastically, mentioning you as an also-ran, or noting you with caveats?

This manual approach provides invaluable qualitative insights, but it doesn't scale. For ongoing monitoring, you'll need automated solutions, which brings us to the next methods.

Method 2: Look for "LLM-Shaped" Traffic

Here's something most marketers don't realize: AI-referred visitors leave distinct fingerprints in your analytics. You can detect when ChatGPT is sending you traffic by looking for specific patterns in Google Search Console and your web analytics.

What is LLM-Shaped Traffic?

When ChatGPT recommends a brand, users often follow up by searching for that brand on Google. This creates a particular pattern of branded searches that correlates with AI recommendation activity. The traffic has distinctive characteristics:

• Unusual query patterns: Searches that include conversational phrases or specific feature descriptions that match how AI systems describe products
• Sudden branded search spikes: Traffic increases that don't correlate with your traditional marketing campaigns
• Long-tail branded queries: Searches like "[Your Brand] for [specific use case]" that mirror AI recommendation language
• High-intent behavior: These visitors often convert at higher rates because they arrive with AI-validated confidence in your solution

How to Detect It in Google Search Console

Open Google Search Console and navigate to the Performance report. Look for these indicators:

1. Filter by branded queries: Examine your branded search terms for unusual patterns or new query variations you haven't seen before.
2. Analyze query language: AI-influenced searches often contain more natural, conversational phrasing. Queries like "[Brand] best for remote teams" or "[Brand] vs alternatives" may indicate AI-primed users.
3. Check for correlation: Compare your branded search volume with known AI feature updates or viral AI-generated content mentioning your category.
4. Monitor geographic patterns: AI adoption varies by region. Spikes in branded searches from AI-heavy markets (tech hubs, early adopter demographics) can indicate AI visibility.

The Limitations of This Method

While traffic analysis provides valuable signals, it's an indirect measurement. You're inferring AI visibility from downstream effects rather than measuring it directly. This method works best as a confirmation signal alongside direct monitoring methods, not as your primary visibility metric.

Method 3: Monitor Brand + Category Mentions Across AI Models

ChatGPT isn't the only AI that matters. Your potential customers are using Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Copilot too. Monitoring where your brand appears across multiple AI models gives you the complete picture of your AI visibility landscape.

Why Multi-Model Monitoring Matters

Each AI model has different training data, different biases, and different recommendation patterns:

• ChatGPT: Heavily influenced by Wikipedia, Reddit, and major publications
• Claude: Strong emphasis on authoritative sources and nuanced recommendations
• Gemini: Integrated with Google's knowledge graph and real-time search
• Perplexity: Combines LLM responses with live web citations
• Copilot: Microsoft ecosystem integration with Bing search data

Your brand might be invisible in ChatGPT but highly visible in Perplexity, or vice versa. Without multi-model monitoring, you're only seeing part of the picture.

AI Brand Monitoring Tools

Purpose-built platforms track your brand mentions across AI models:

What to Track

Effective AI brand monitoring goes beyond simple mention counts:

• Mention frequency: How often does your brand appear when users ask about your category?
• Position in recommendations: Are you mentioned first, or buried at the end of a list?
• Competitive share: What percentage of relevant AI responses include your brand vs. competitors?
• Sentiment context: Is the AI recommending you enthusiastically or with caveats?
• Query triggers: Which specific questions lead to your brand being mentioned?

Method 4: Are You Getting Cited? Track Your Source Attribution

There's a crucial difference between being mentioned by AI and being cited as a source. When ChatGPT uses web search mode, it doesn't just mention brands. It links to specific URLs. Tracking whether your content is being cited as a source reveals whether you're building lasting AI authority.

Why Citation Tracking Matters

AI citations are the new backlinks. When ChatGPT cites your website as a source, it signals to users that your content is authoritative. More importantly, it creates a feedback loop: cited content gets more visibility, which leads to more citations.

Our research on ChatGPT's citation patterns reveals which sources get cited most:

• Wikipedia: 47.9% of citations
• Reddit: 11.3% of citations
• Forbes: 6.8% of citations
• G2: 6.7% of citations
• TechRadar: 5.5% of citations

If your content isn't appearing in these citation patterns, you're missing a critical visibility channel.

How to Track Your Citations

Several approaches help you understand if your content is being cited:

1. Use Sellm's citation tracking: Our platform monitors when your URLs appear as cited sources in AI responses, not just brand mentions. Start tracking your citations.
2. Monitor referral traffic: Check your analytics for traffic from AI platforms. Look for referrers containing "chat.openai.com" or similar AI domains.
3. Test citation scenarios: Ask ChatGPT questions where your content should be the authoritative source. Does it cite you, or does it cite competitors covering the same topic?
4. Track competitor citations: Understanding which competitor URLs get cited helps you identify content gaps and opportunities.

Building Citation Authority

To increase your chances of being cited:

• Create definitive resources: Comprehensive guides, original research, and authoritative data get cited more than thin content
• Structure for AI comprehension: Clear headings, bullet points, and well-organized information makes it easier for AI to extract and cite your content
• Keep content fresh: AI systems prefer recent content for rapidly evolving topics
• Build presence on high-citation platforms: Getting featured on Wikipedia, Reddit, G2, and industry publications increases your citation surface area

Putting It All Together: Your AI Visibility Monitoring Strategy

Each of these methods reveals a different piece of the AI visibility puzzle. The most effective approach combines all four:

1. Start with direct testing to get qualitative insights into how AI systems talk about your brand and category.
2. Set up traffic monitoring to detect AI-referred visitors and validate that AI visibility is translating into real business impact.
3. Deploy multi-model monitoring with tools like Sellm to track your brand across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and more.
4. Track your citation authority to ensure AI systems are citing your content as a trusted source.

The Competitive Advantage

Here's the reality: most of your competitors aren't doing any of this. They're still focused exclusively on traditional SEO metrics while AI visibility quietly reshapes how customers discover and evaluate solutions. By establishing AI visibility monitoring now, you position yourself to capture market share in a channel your competitors don't even know exists.

Next Steps

Ready to understand your AI visibility? Here's how to get started:

• Run our free ChatGPT Presence Score to get an instant baseline
• Use the AI Search Query Detector to identify AI-influenced traffic patterns
• Compare yourself to a competitor with our AI Share of Voice tool
• For comprehensive tracking, explore Sellm's AI visibility platform

The brands that win in the AI era will be the ones who measure what matters and act on what they learn. Is ChatGPT recommending your brand? Now you know how to find out.

Frequently Asked Questions