How to Measure Your Practice's AI Visibility
You cannot fix what you do not track. A simple monthly routine for checking whether AI tools recommend your practice, and what to do with what you find.
Most practices track website traffic, calls, and new patient exams. Very few track whether AI tools mention them. That's understandable, because there's no dashboard that does it for you out of the box. But you can't improve something you never look at, and the checking isn't complicated.
Why this is harder to measure than rankings
With Google rankings, you search a phrase and see where you land. AI answers don't work that cleanly. The answer changes with the wording of the question, the tool, the location, and sometimes the day. Whitespark's 2026 guide to Google's AI Mode notes that results can vary by user even for the same query and location.
So one check proves very little. A consistent routine, repeated monthly, shows you the trend.
A monthly routine you can run in 30 minutes
1. Pick your questions once
Write down 8 to 10 questions a parent or adult patient would really ask. Mix them up:
- "Who is the best orthodontist in [your town]?"
- "Orthodontist near [neighborhood] for a 9-year-old"
- "Where can I get Invisalign in [your town]?"
- "Which orthodontists in [your town] have evening appointments?"
Use the same questions every month so the results are comparable.
2. Ask them in the major tools
Run each question in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and a regular Google search to see the AI Overview. Use a private browser window where you can, so your own history doesn't shape the answer.
3. Record three things
- Were you named? Yes or no.
- Who was named instead?
- What sources did the tool cite or link?
A simple spreadsheet is enough: questions down the side, tools across the top, and a yes or no in each box.
4. Look at what's being cited
The sources are the most useful part. If the tools keep citing a local news site, a directory, or a competitor's FAQ page, you've learned where the evidence comes from in your market.
Also check Search Console: Google says visits from its AI features are counted in the Search Console Performance report under the regular "Web" search type. You can't separate them out yet, but your overall Google traffic still tells you whether the foundation is healthy.
What to do with what you find
| What you see | Where to look first |
|---|---|
| You're never named | Google Business Profile, homepage clarity, details matching across listings |
| Named for general questions, not specific ones | Dedicated pages for early treatment, aligners, adult treatment |
| Described inaccurately | Outdated listings and pages the tool is citing |
| The same competitor wins every time | Their cited sources: reviews, mentions, FAQ pages |
Or let a tool do it
Running this by hand works, and it's a good way to understand what parents see. It's also tedious, which is why we built AI Smile Score. It asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude the questions parents ask, ranks you against the other specialists near you, and shows who gets named instead. Whichever way you do it, do it on a schedule. The practices that track this will be the ones that improve.
Questions orthodontists ask
How often should we check our AI visibility?
Monthly is enough for most practices. AI answers fluctuate day to day, so the monthly trend is more meaningful than any single check.
Can we see AI traffic in Google Analytics?
Partly. Some AI tools pass along referral information that shows up as a source in Analytics, and Google counts its own AI feature traffic within Search Console's regular Web results. Neither gives a complete picture yet.
What is a good result?
Being named for most of your core questions in at least two or three tools, with an accurate description. If competitors are consistently named and you are not, that is the clearest signal of work to do.
Find out where your practice stands.
Run a free AI Smile Score, or ask us for a free audit of your website, search, and AI visibility.