How to check whether Google and ChatGPT can find your business

9 September 20265 minute readBy Dan, Foundlab

Start with three questions: can a search engine reach your pages, has it indexed them, and does your business appear when someone asks a relevant question? Each needs a different check.

You do not need to buy a visibility tool to make a useful start. Pick your homepage, your main service page and one helpful article. Keep a short record of the date, the check and what you found. The point is to identify your next action without turning a handful of searches into a misleading score.

Keep these results separate

1Accessible

A crawler can retrieve your page.

2Indexed

A search engine has included the page in its index.

3Cited or mentioned

An answer uses your page or names your business.

4Enquiry

A person contacts you about your service.

These are different observations. Passing one does not establish the next; an enquiry can also arrive through other channels.

1. Inspect your pages in Google Search Console

Open Search Console and select the property for your website. Paste the full page address into URL Inspection. Start with the indexed result and read the explanation under page indexing. Note Google’s selected canonical address and the last crawl date where available.

If the page is not indexed, investigate the reason shown. A redirect, a noindex instruction and an undiscovered URL require different responses. The live test can help check the current page after a fix, but it does not prove the page is in Google’s index.

Check the Sitemaps report as well. A sitemap helps discovery. Its successful submission is not confirmation that every listed page is indexed. Where appropriate, request indexing after fixing the issue and keep the request date in your notes.

2. Check Bing separately

Open Bing Webmaster Tools, choose your site and inspect the same priority pages. Check the sitemap’s processing status. Do not assume that an action in Google also completed an action in Bing.

If your site supports IndexNow, it can notify participating search engines about changed URLs. That is a submission mechanism, not a promise of inclusion. Record the submission response separately from any later indexing result.

3. Search for your business as a customer would

Search for your exact business name, then its domain. Try a service-and-location question if location matters to the offer. Record whether the result is your business, a similarly named organisation or something else.

A site: search is a quick clue, not a complete inventory of indexed pages. Search Console is the more useful place to investigate a particular page you own. Search results also vary with context, so retain the date and location used for any comparison.

4. Test AI answers with web search enabled

Use a fresh conversation and enable web search where the assistant offers it. Avoid giving the assistant your website as a source before a discovery test; that would test whether it can read a supplied page rather than whether it finds you independently. Personalisation may still influence a fresh conversation, so note the settings.

Three questions to adapt

What does [business name] in [location] do?
Who provides [specific service] for [type of customer] in [service area]?
What should I compare before choosing a [service provider]?

Use the same wording when repeating a check. Keep brand questions and unprompted buying questions in separate records.

Save the answer and open the cited sources. Does the answer name you? Is the description accurate? Does it recommend you, merely mention you, or cite your content? Record those separately. Also note the platform, model label if shown, search setting, date and relevant location.

Repeat a small, consistent question set over time. Answers can change even when your site has not. One omission is not proof that your business is invisible everywhere, and one appearance is not proof of sustained visibility.

5. Check access before rewriting everything

Your developer can check robots.txt, page-level indexing instructions, page responses and hosting restrictions. A rule that allows crawling in robots.txt does not override a firewall that blocks the request. A test using a crawler’s name from your laptop is not proof that the real crawler’s IP addresses can reach the site.

OpenAI’s crawler documentation distinguishes OAI-SearchBot, used for search, from GPTBot, used for potential model training. You can allow search while disallowing training. Google’s AI search guidance also says there is no special AI file required to appear in its search experiences.

6. Choose a small, verifiable next step

If an important page is blocked, investigate that first. If an answer describes the wrong business, check whether your name, service and location are clear on your site and relevant public profiles. If people arrive but cannot tell what you offer, improve that page before adding more articles.

Write down what a successful fix would look like. “The live page no longer has noindex” is a technical check. “Google reports the page as indexed” is a separate outcome. “An enquiry arrived” needs its own record.

Your first visibility check

Tick off the checks as you go. Your selections stay on this page and reset when it reloads.

I checked the homepage and main service page in Search Console.I recorded the sitemap status and inspected a page in Bing.I searched for the exact brand name and domain.I tested a customer buying question with web search enabled in an AI assistant.I saved the date, question, answer and cited sources.I chose one action and a way to verify it.

0 of 6 checks completed

This tracks tasks you have completed. It is not an SEO score or a test of your website.

For help interpreting the findings, read what an SEO and AI visibility audit includes. Foundlab’s Findability Audit turns those checks into a researched order of work, with the evidence and limitations kept alongside each recommendation.