Position, AI Overview and citation together
Ranking and citation are now two different games. You see both signals side by side, so a number-one position that is absent from the AI Overview above it never slips past you.
Content, SEO and AEO · Free check
See if you show up when Google answers the question for you.
A live Google search for your keywords: your position, whether an AI Overview appeared, and who it cited. No cost, no card.
The problem
AI Overviews are quietly taking the click you already earned.
You can rank number one and still lose the visit, because Google answered the question first and cited someone else.
This is not “SEO is dead”. Google is still roughly 89.9% of search, and classic ranking still matters more than anything. But when an AI Overview appears, it sits above your result and often satisfies the searcher before they scroll. Ahrefs measured the top of the curve flattening under AI Overviews, reporting a fall of roughly 58% in position-one click-through rate between December 2023 and December 2025.
The question is no longer only where do I rank. It is: when Google answers for me, am I one of the sources it trusts, or is my competitor?
See an example
Example
what is the best conveyancing software
AI Overview
The leading options balance case management, quotes and Land Registry integration. Most teams shortlist tools with strong onboarding and clear pricing before booking a demo.
Sources it cited
- competitor-a.com
- industry-guide.org
- competitor-b.co.uk
Your site is not cited in this answer.
Captured from live Google.
An illustrative example, not your data. Your live check is timestamped and captured at the location you choose.
How it works
How the AI Overview Visibility Check works
You tell us a domain, keywords and a country
Give us your domain, a few keywords, and a location. City-level is available, because AI Overviews differ by place.
We run one live Google search per keyword
Each keyword triggers a single live Google SERP capture through DataForSEO, to depth-100, on desktop or mobile, at your location. It is the page a searcher there would actually be served.
We read the AI Overview block directly
When Google returns an AI Overview, we read the block itself: its answer text and its list of cited sources, not a model's impression of it.
We resolve three honest states, timestamped
Cited, shown but not cited, or no AI Overview shown, with who was cited instead. Every result is stamped with the time and place it was captured.
What you get
What the AI Overview Visibility Check gives you
Your position, whether an AI Overview appeared, and who Google cited, in one result.
For every keyword, you get a result card built from the live SERP: your organic position, whether an AI Overview appeared, and whether Google cited you inside it. When you are not cited, we show you who was, so you can see exactly which competitors Google treats as the trusted answer.
Who is cited instead
When you are not cited, we rank the domains Google pulled into the AI Overview, with yours highlighted or shown as absent, so you know precisely which competitors to catch.
Timestamped and located
Every result carries the time and place it was captured, because AI Overviews change by moment and by location. It is verifiable, not vibes.
Full capability list
Everything the AI Overview Visibility Check does
The cards above cover the three things people ask about first. This is the complete list of what the check reads and what comes back to you.
Data collection
- One live Google result per keywordeach keyword gets its own fresh capture, run at the moment we check rather than pulled from a store
- One hundred positions deepthe same full-depth pull as our rank check, so your organic position is there whatever it is
- Desktop or mobile, your choicethe check runs on the device type you care about, because the answer can differ between them
- City-level location targetingAI Overviews vary by place, so we check from the city you actually sell in
- The AI Overview block read directlywe take the answer's own text and source list, not a language model's impression of what Google probably said
Analysis
- Three clearly separated outcomescited, shown but not cited, or no AI Overview shown at all, each labelled as its own state
- Organic position alongside the citationyour classic ranking sits on the same card, so you can see where the two disagree
- Ranked list of who was citedthe domains Google pulled the answer from, in order, with you highlighted or shown as absent
- One keyword, one named answerthe unit is a specific Google AI Overview you can go and look at, not a blended visibility score
What comes back
- A result card per keywordbuilt from the live results page rather than rolled up into a single headline number
- Timestamp on every resulteach card carries the moment it was captured, because these answers change
- Location stamp on every resulteach card also carries the place it was captured from
- A batch sized with youhow many keywords go into the check is agreed between us, not metered by a plan
- Your check saved for a re-runthe keyword set is kept so the same check can be run again later and compared
Access and data
- Free, and no cardthe check costs nothing and asks for no payment details
- A work email to receive itwe need somewhere to send the result, so a work email is the one thing we ask for
- Nothing to connectno access to your site, Analytics or Search Console, because only public Google results are read
- Minimal data keptwe hold your email and the saved check, and nothing else
Why it is different
One keyword, one answer, read properly.
Broad multi-engine monitors answer a different question from this one. They track how often your brand is mentioned across many assistants and aggregate that into a visibility score. It is a real and useful category, and this check is not a replacement for it.
The difference is the unit of analysis. They report a score aggregated across engines and prompts. We report one named Google AI Overview per keyword: whether it appeared, whether it cited you, and which domains it cited instead, captured at a real location and a real moment so it is dated and checkable against what a searcher there would see. And we say what it does not do: it does not yet track ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Mode. Those are rolling out.
The direction is backed by real research. Ahrefs found position-one click-through rate fell about 58% under AI Overviews. The KDD 2024 GEO paper found that citing sources and adding statistics lifted AI visibility by roughly 30 to 40%, which is the kind of on-page work this check tells you where to do.
Compare
One answer, read properly, with someone to act on it.
Free AI Overview checkers exist and they are fine. The question is what happens after the screenshot.
| MxD AI Overview Check | AI visibility monitors (Profound, Otterly, Scrunch) | Free AI Overview checkers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | One named Google AI Overview per keyword | Brand mentions aggregated across engines | One named Google AI Overview per keyword |
| Google AI Overview citation | Reads the cited-sources list | Covered, alongside other engines | Reads the cited-sources list |
| Names who is cited instead | Yes, ranked competing sources | Varies by vendor | Often yes |
| Distinguishes no AI Overview shown | Yes, distinct from not cited | Not published | Varies |
| Timestamp and location on every result | Yes, to city level | Varies | Rarely, location seldom exposed |
| Keywords per check | A batch, agreed with you | Metered prompts on entry tiers | Typically a few a day |
| Other engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) | Rolling out | Yes, their core claim | No |
| Someone who acts on the result | Yes, managed service on request | No, software only | No |
Swipe the table to see every column.
Competitor capabilities and pricing checked against vendor pricing and product pages on 22 July 2026. Vendors reprice and rename features often, so reverify before relying on any figure.
Common
Questions
Does it check ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini?
Not today. This check is scoped to Google AI Overviews, read live from the real search result, because that is the one we can capture from the source and stand behind. Visibility in other answer engines is rolling out. We would rather be precise about what we measure than sell you a number we cannot verify.
What does “not cited” actually mean?
We separate two things people often blur. If an AI Overview appeared and your domain is not in its cited sources, you are shown but not cited. If Google returned no AI Overview for that query at all, we say no AI Overview shown, not that you lost. You always see which of the three states applies.
How is this different from the AI visibility tools I have seen?
Most of them fire the same question at a chatbot thousands of times and average the answers. We read the actual Google AI Overview from a live, timestamped, located search. It matches what a real searcher sees, and you can verify it.
What does it cost, and what is the catch?
The check is free. We ask for a work email so we can run it and send you the result, and from there you can decide whether you want MxD to run this as an ongoing service. No obligation, no card.
Is my data safe? What do you store?
The check reads public Google search results for the keywords and domain you enter. We do not need a login to your site or your analytics. We hold your email and your saved check so you can re-run it. That is it.
Is AI Overview visibility replacing SEO?
No, and we would not position it that way. Google is still around 89.9% of search and classic ranking still does most of the work. This is a complement: it shows you where the AI era is changing the result above your ranking, so your existing SEO effort keeps paying off.
Prefer we run this for you, every fortnight?
The free check is a snapshot. Our managed Content, SEO and AEO service tracks your AI Overview citations alongside classic rankings on a regular cadence, works out which pages to change to earn the citation, does the work, and reports the movement back to you.