How to check your Gemini visibility (free tool)
Checking Gemini visibility means measuring the Gemini App directly, then diagnosing the relevant Google controls. Google-Extended governs whether Google-crawled content may be used for Gemini Apps grounding; Google Search and AI Overviews use Googlebot and Search snippet controls instead.
Key takeaway: measure Gemini App visibility with real prompts. Use Google-Extended as a content-use control for Gemini Apps grounding, then inspect indexability, content clarity and cited sources as diagnostics. Keep AI Overview snippet controls in a separate Google Search check.
Why a Google rankings report cannot answer this
Because Gemini grounds on Google, businesses assume a strong Google ranking guarantees a mention. It does not, for two structural reasons.
First, separate the controls. Googlebot governs Search crawling. Google-Extended controls whether Google-crawled content may be used for training future Gemini models and for grounding in Gemini Apps and Vertex AI. Blocking it does not affect Search ranking, but it is not an AI Overview control.
Second, a Google ranking does not guarantee a Gemini mention. Where Search grounding is used, Google’s retrieval systems can supply relevant indexed pages, but the final answer can still vary. A Gemini-specific check exists to measure that outcome directly rather than infer it from rankings.
Step 1: ask Gemini what a buyer would ask
Open the Gemini app or gemini.google.com and run the buying questions in your category:
- “What can you tell me about [your company name]?”
- “What are the best [product or service category] options in [location or niche]?”
- “Recommend a [type of business] for [specific need].”
For each answer, record whether your brand is named, whether the description is accurate, which sources Gemini cites, and which competitors appear instead of you. Repeat the questions in a fresh session; grounded answers vary, so one absence proves little but a consistent pattern is a real signal.
Step 2: confirm you are in Google’s index
Grounding retrieves from Google’s index, so index inclusion is the entry ticket. Search Google for site:yourdomain.com and check your key pages appear. Then check Google Search Console for coverage errors on the pages you most want cited. If Googlebot cannot crawl or render a page, Gemini has nothing to ground on, and no amount of content work fixes that.
Step 3: check the Google-Extended token
Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and look for:
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
If that block is present, Google says the content is opted out of specified Gemini model training and grounding uses while Search rankings remain unaffected. If Gemini Apps grounding is important to you, decide whether to remove or scope the block deliberately. SearchScore does not have evidence that this is the single most common cause of Gemini absence.
Step 4: if you also care about AI Overviews, check Search snippet controls separately
Snippet controls (nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet) apply to Google Search and its AI features. They are relevant if you are checking AI Overview visibility, not as a general Gemini App setting. Keep the two diagnostics separate.
Step 5: test whether your pages are quotable
For each key page, check whether the important facts are clear, current and easy to locate. Question headings and concise answer passages can help readers and retrieval systems, but Google does not publish a requirement that a first-paragraph sentence or question-shaped H2 determines Gemini citation.
Step 6: run the structured audit
The free Gemini Visibility Checker audits the underlying readiness signals on a URL: Google indexability, Google-Extended policy, content clarity and entity consistency. Pair it with real Gemini prompts because the audit score is not a citation probability and cannot reproduce the model’s source-selection process.
Then run it on the competitor Gemini keeps recommending instead of you. The gap between the two scores is usually the clearest brief you will ever get for what to fix first.
How to read your results
Separate the two failure modes before spending effort:
- Gemini Apps grounding policy issue. Google-Extended is disallowed where you intended to permit grounding use.
- Search/index issue. Relevant pages are not available in Google’s Search index when Gemini uses Search grounding.
- Source-selection/content issue. Gemini still prefers other sources; compare their factual coverage, evidence and entity clarity rather than assuming one formatting defect explains the gap.
The good news is that Gemini optimisation and classic Google work reinforce each other: the trust signals Google already rewards are the same ones grounding leans on. Nothing you fix for Gemini is wasted on Search.
How often should you re-check?
Re-run the check after every batch of fixes, then monthly: Google’s index moves, models update and competitors publish. For continuous measurement, SearchScore’s Tracker puts real prompts to six live engines every week, Gemini included, and counts exactly how often each one cites you, with a dedicated Gemini column. You see your citation footprint move instead of guessing from one-off spot checks.
What does a good result look like?
Read your score against the population. Across the 850,000+ websites in the SAVI Report (April 2026 edition), the average AI Visibility score is 34.1/100, average on-page structure is 23.1/100. In the live corpus, only 0.022% of scored audits reach the AI-Ready tier (July 2026). Technical foundations average 70.1/100 across the same dataset: the sites are built fine, they are semantically invisible. If your technical score is high and your citability score is low, you are looking at the classic Gemini gap, ranked but never quoted.
The pattern shows up wherever SearchScore has audited whole sectors. Across 1,038 UK accountancy firms, 97% were crawlable yet only 18 (about 1 in 58) covered all five AI-readiness basics, and 150+ London firms averaged 52.8/100. Reachable is not the same as recommended; a Gemini check exists to measure the second thing.
Related articles
- How Gemini decides which websites to cite →
- Why your website isn’t showing up in Gemini →
- Google AI Overviews: the complete guide →
- Free search visibility tools and checkers →
Sources & Further Reading
- SearchScore SAVI Report, Q3 2026 (Vol. 3, 1,000,000+ sites analysed)
- Google Developers – Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
- Schema.org – Organisation structured data reference
Frequently asked questions
Can I check Gemini visibility just by asking Gemini?
Manual prompts are the primary visibility measurement because they show whether Gemini actually names or cites you. A readiness audit can then inspect Google-Extended policy, ordinary indexability, content clarity and entity consistency, but it cannot prove which one caused an absence.
Why am I in Google's index but not in Gemini's answers?
There is no published universal order. If Gemini is using Google Search grounding, check whether Google-Extended permits your content to be used, whether relevant pages are indexed, and which sources Gemini actually cites. Then compare clarity, evidence and entity consistency with those sources.
Does checking Gemini also cover Google AI Overviews?
No. Check them separately. AI Overviews are Google Search features with normal Search eligibility and snippet controls. Gemini Apps can use Google Search grounding but are also subject to Google-Extended. The underlying content may overlap, but the controls and observed answers are not interchangeable.
Should I test in the Gemini app or in Google Search?
Test both if both matter to your buyers, but record them as separate surfaces. Gemini Apps and Google Search AI features can use different models, techniques and controls, so a brand appearing in one tells you little about whether it appears in the other.