You’re probably expecting another “best AI visibility tools” roundup, where the #1 spot is, at best, an affiliate link and, at worst, the author’s own product. That’s understandable. The internet is full of so-called listicles that are often written not to help users make a choice, but to push certain products above the rest.
And even though this article is also written with the goal of attracting users to our product, Searcherries, I can’t call it the #1 AI visibility tool for local businesses. First, because there are some excellent free alternatives. Second, because not every business needs more detailed data than what Google and Bing can already provide.
Many of you have probably already guessed which tools I’m going to talk about first. The tools that every website owner should have.
1. Google Search Console Generative AI features
Recently, Google started sharing data with website owners about their performance in generative AI search, including AI Overviews. The data is limited, since webmasters can only see information about impressions, but that’s still better than nothing.
First, you need to connect your website to Google Search Console. I recommend doing this anyway, even if you don’t plan to use it for tracking AI visibility.
Then, under Performance, you’ll see a new Generative AI features section, where you can track overall impression trends, with breakdowns by page, country, and device.
2. Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance
Bing was the first to introduce a tool for measuring website performance in AI search. Moreover, its launch probably pushed Google to finally show at least some AI-related data to webmasters. In SEO communities on LinkedIn and Reddit, people often pointed to Bing as the example Google should follow.
And you know what? It really is a very good example.
Bing gives website owners much more complete data than Google. You can see a list of queries, their intent, the number of citations during the selected period, and citation share.
I would like to put Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance in first place, but for most businesses, Google is still the main source of organic traffic.
That said, I also strongly recommend connecting your business website to Bing Webmaster Tools, even if you plan to use another tool for measuring AI visibility. Bing is often underestimated, and for no good reason.
3. Microsoft Clarity
This is another free Microsoft tool that allows you to track AI visibility in even more detail.
In the Microsoft Clarity you can see information about pages from your website being cited in Microsoft Copilot, as well as AI bots that have visited your website.
4. Free AI Visibility Checker by Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the most popular SEO tools, and naturally, in the AI era, the product has started investing heavily in AI visibility.
Ahrefs monitors a huge number of prompts every day. At the moment, its database contains 474M prompts per month.
The free Ahrefs tool gives you a high-level picture of which AI platforms mention your website and how often it appears in AI search overall.
And while the cheapest Ahrefs plan that includes tracking for 5 prompts starts at $129 per month, their free tool is a pretty good alternative to many paid AI visibility tools.
5. Free AI Visibility Tool by Semrush
Semrush is another very well-known product among SEO specialists, although its use cases go far beyond SEO and cover many other tasks marketers deal with every day.
For a local business, it’s probably an overkill. But like Ahrefs, Semrush has the resources to collect huge amounts of citation data from AI search across a large number of prompts every day.
I won’t spend too much time on this tool.
I’ll only add that the Free AI Visibility Tool by Semrush also shows your top pages and the topics your website is most frequently cited for in AI search, which is valuable on its own.
6. Searcherries
Unlike all the tools mentioned above, Searcherries works by collecting AI search mentions every day for specific prompts defined by the user.
This allows you to see the real picture for the exact questions your customers are most likely to ask.
You can track up to six AI platforms: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Grok.
When creating a project, you can also select a country and language to get a more accurate view of AI visibility for your business.
With Searcherries, AI visibility tracking is closer to collecting unique data specifically for your business, rather than hoping your website happens to appear in a sample from a large general database of mentions, which is essentially how the free Ahrefs and Semrush tools work.
Searcherries also supports integrations with Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Bing Webmaster Tools, so you can track all your organic search data, including real visits from AI search, in one place.
7. All the other AI visibility tools (and there are a lot of them)
The truth is that this is a new market, and what used to be traditional SEO tools are now shifting their focus toward AI visibility.
We’ve already seen the major pivots: Ahrefs and Semrush are making AI visibility one of their main selling points, although they are already starting to fall behind completely new players such as Profound and Peec AI.
I’ve also tried trial versions of several other tools that seemed like very interesting alternatives to Searcherries.
Among them, I’d highlight Otterly, AIclicks, AthenaHQ, and Surfer.
Conclusion
If you’re a local business owner or a marketer working with a local brand, you don’t necessarily need to start with paid AI visibility tools.
First, explore the free alternatives: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Microsoft Clarity.
If you’re already familiar with these tools and want more personalized analytics for your own prompts, try Searcherries. You can test it free for 14 days.
And if you already use Ahrefs, Semrush, or Surfer and are happy to keep paying for them, then using the same tools for AI visibility tracking is also a perfectly good option.
