How do you track brand mentions in ChatGPT?
With a fixed set of buyer questions, run on a schedule and logged the same way each time. It's simple, it's free, and it's the most honest measure there is.
There's no Search Console for ChatGPT. OpenAI doesn't publish how often a business is named, so the only way to know is to ask the questions your buyers ask and write down what comes back. Done once, that's an anecdote. Done every month with the same questions, it's a trend you can act on.
Why can't you just ask ChatGPT once?
Because the answer you get isn't the answer everyone gets. Location, memory, earlier chats and the exact wording all change what ChatGPT says, and models are updated over time.
Ask "best accountant in Leicester" twice and you may get different names. Ask it from a different account and you may get a third list. A single good result can make you complacent, and a single bad one can send you chasing the wrong fix. A fixed set of questions smooths that out.
Which questions should be in your prompt set?
The questions a real buyer would type, across the stages of a decision. For most small businesses, 20 to 30 questions is plenty to start.
- Category questions: "best web design agency in Leicestershire".
- Problem questions: "my website is slow and gets no enquiries, who can fix it?".
- Comparison questions: "agency or freelancer for a small business website?".
- Price and speed questions: "how much does a small business website cost in the UK?".
- Local questions, with the towns and counties you serve.
- Brand questions: "what do you know about [your business name]?", to check the facts it holds.
What should you log each time?
The same columns every month, so you can compare like with like. Our prompt tracking template has them ready.
- Date, assistant and whether it searched the web.
- The exact prompt, word for word.
- Whether you were named, and where in the list.
- How you were described, and whether the facts were right.
- Which sources were cited.
- Which competitors were named instead.
How do you run the check, step by step?
Eight steps, about an hour a month once it's set up.
- Write your prompt set once, from sales calls, enquiry emails and Search Console queries, and don't change the wording.
- Open ChatGPT in a fresh chat, using Temporary Chat or an account without memory of your business.
- Make sure search is on, so the answer reflects what's on the web today.
- Paste each prompt in turn, and save the answer and its sources.
- Log the results in your sheet: named, position, description, sources, competitors.
- Repeat the same set in Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot.
- Work out your share: how many prompts named you, by assistant, compared with last month.
- Pick the one or two sources you're missing from that come up most, and make those next month's work.
How do you see visits from ChatGPT?
In your analytics. ChatGPT search adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends, and other visits show chatgpt.com as the referrer.
Set up AI assistants as their own channel so the numbers don't vanish into "referral". Our GA4 guide walks through the setup. Mentions and visits together tell you far more than either alone, because many people read an answer and never click.
What do the results tell you?
Patterns point to causes. These are the four we see most.
- Named nowhere: ChatGPT probably can't find or check you. Start with crawler access, Bing and the facts on your site.
- Named, but described wrongly: it's working from old or mismatched information. Fix your site and listings at the source.
- Named in some assistants but not ChatGPT: look at Bing, which ChatGPT search leans on.
- Competitors named from the same list every time: that list is a source you need to be on.
Can a tool track ChatGPT for you?
Some tools run prompts automatically through the assistants' developer APIs. They save time, but the answers don't always match what a buyer sees in the app.
We use both: tools for volume, and a hand-run set in the real apps as the check that counts. If you'd rather start free, our AI visibility checker builds a prompt set from your details and keeps score while you run it yourself.