Visibility in AI answers
When your customers ask ChatGPT,
does your business come up?
Cardon Digital checks whether your business comes up when your customers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google, how each answer describes it, and whether it links to your site. The check is part of the free diagnostic. Where something is missing, we fix your site so these engines can read it, understand it and cite it.
We ran it on our own business first: 10 questions in 4 engines, results below.
What is AEO?
AEO, answer engine optimization, is the work of preparing a website so ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers can find it, understand it and cite it when someone asks about what you sell.
| SEO: ranking on Google | AEO: showing up in AI answers | |
|---|---|---|
| The goal | Your page near the top of the results list. | The answer names your business and links to your site. |
| What the customer sees | Ten links, and they pick one to open. | One written answer that cites a handful of sources. |
| What the engine reads | The whole page and the links pointing to it. | Short passages that make sense on their own, from several sources at once. |
| How it is measured | Position, visits and clicks from Google. | Mentions and links in the answers, and visits that arrive from ChatGPT or Perplexity. |
Both rest on the same base: a fast site, original content written by people who know the trade, and a business that other pages recognize.
How do ChatGPT and Google decide which business to mention?
An answer engine such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google's AI answers splits a question into smaller ones, searches the web for short passages that answer each, and writes one answer out of the passages it trusts most.
It reads in passages
It lifts single paragraphs out of a page. A paragraph that answers the question by itself has a better chance of being used.
It breaks the question apart
“Restaurant website in Ensenada” becomes several questions: who builds them, what they cost, how long they take. Each one can be answered from a different source.
It looks for signs of trust
It favors sources with a named author, their own data and first-hand experience, and businesses that other pages, directories and reviews also mention.
It has to be let in
A site that blocks AI crawlers, loads slowly or builds its content in the browser may never be read at all.
It favors what is current
Pages with a date and up-to-date content weigh more than pages that have not changed in years.
What does the diagnostic check in AI answers?
The Cardon Digital diagnostic includes an AI visibility check: we ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google the questions your customers would ask, and record what each answer says about your business. It is free, and the results come in the written diagnostic memo.
How the check is done
- 01
We write about ten questions the way a customer would: the service and the city without your business name, plus one with the name.
- 02
We ask each question in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google, from a fresh session every time.
- 03
We keep the full text of every answer, exactly as it came out.
- 04
You get a table by question and by engine with what each answer said about you.
What we record from each answer
- Whether your business comes up.
- How it is described: what you do, where and for whom.
- Whether the answer links to your site.
- Which other businesses it names.
We ran it on ourselves first
On October 20, 2026, we asked 10 customer questions about websites, ads and software in Ensenada, Valle de Guadalupe and Baja California, in 4 engines. Cardon Digital came up in 4 of 40 answers, and in 1 of 36 once the question with our name is set aside. That is our starting point.
What changes on your site so an AI can cite it?
When the check shows your business missing or described wrong, these are the fixes we make. They come as one of our website packages, at the prices already published.
- Structured data: a machine-readable profile of your business, your services and your common questions, matching the page word for word.
- The answer first: every page opens with a short, direct answer to the question that brings people to it.
- Common questions: what your customers ask, each answered on its own.
- Access for AI crawlers, and an accurate map of your pages.
- Google and the map set up for your area, with your name and hours.
What a Cardon Digital website includesWebsite package prices
Which business an answer mentions is up to each engine, and nobody can promise it. What we promise is the work and the measurement.
Who runs the check?
The person who runs your check holds HubSpot Academy's certificate on answer engines. Every detail below can be checked on HubSpot's own page.
HubSpot Academy AEO Fundamentals Certification
It certifies that the holder can check how answer engines find and show content, measure how often a brand appears in them, and structure content so AI answers cite it.
- Holder
- Daniel Hack
- Issued by
- HubSpot Academy
- Valid
- to
- Code
- bdbd83da48704002855820786ace136e
Questions about visibility in AI answers
Can you guarantee my business shows up in ChatGPT?
No. Each engine decides which businesses its answers mention, and nobody can honestly promise that. Cardon Digital measures where you stand today and does the work on your site that lets the engines read it, understand it and cite it.
What does the AI visibility check cost?
Nothing. It is part of the free Cardon Digital diagnostic. If you then want the fixes, they come as a website package, at the prices on the pricing page.
Which AI engines do you check?
Four: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google, where we read the AI-generated summary shown above the results. Every question is asked in all four, word for word.
What questions do you use for the check?
The ones a customer who does not know you yet would ask: the service and the city, like “dentist open Saturdays in Ensenada”. One more carries your business name, to see how the engines describe you to someone already looking for you.
Is the check useful if my business already has a website?
Yes, that is who it is for. The diagnostic memo says what your current site is missing for an AI to read it. The fixes come as one of our website packages, which carry all of it as standard, and you decide whether to go ahead.
How long until the answers change?
Nobody can put a date on it: each engine updates what it knows about a business at its own pace. What can be done is to ask the same questions again later and compare them with the first check.
The Growth Diagnostic
Ten business days on your site, how your business comes up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google, and your operation, and a written memo that is yours: what is true, what is broken, what to build first.
Free. No retainer, no obligation. It includes a check of whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google mention your business when your customers ask them. If the memo shows work worth doing, we propose the build and you decide.