Does Google's AI still recommend you when the buyer narrows?
A near-me search is a funnel, not a query. Buyers start broad — “best plumber near me” — then narrow on price, hours and reviews, and most businesses silently vanish from the answer. Local AI Visibility measures whether you survive to the final pick — and which follow-up drops you.
What Local AI Visibility measures
Local AI Visibility is whether Google's AI answer surfaces name your business for a near-me search — and keep naming it as the buyer narrows. The category has three rungs: are you mentioned, are you recommended (and where in the list), and — the one nobody else measures — are you still the recommendation when the buyer asks who to actually call. That last rung is recommendation survival.
The buyer journey, in four steps
The broad ask
“best {category} in {town}” — the widest net. If you're not here, you never entered the funnel (an association gap).
The constraints
“…open this weekend”, “…affordable with good reviews” — each follow-up trims the list. Most eliminations happen here.
The comparison
The buyer weighs the shortlist head-to-head. A missing differentiator quietly loses you the slot.
The forced pick
“which one should I call?” — Google's AI names one business. Recommendation survival is whether that business is you.
The free Local Scan runs the two ends of that journey — the broad ask and the forced pick — so you see, in your own answer, whether you make it to the call and who takes it if you don't.
What we measure — and what we don't
Simulated journeys
Each turn is a real Google AI query that encodes the constraints so far. We never replay a private user's conversation — the copy says “simulated buyer journey” because that is what it is.
The answer, not the map
We read Google's AI-generated answer text and its citations — the layer that names a shrinking set of businesses. The traditional map pack is a separate surface we don't claim to measure.
Re-earned every step
Composed turns have no memory, so you must re-earn the slot at every constraint level. That makes survival a cleaner read than a chat that carries you forward out of inertia.
Go deeper with Entidex
The full entity intelligence platform — beyond Explore Entidex
- Continuous multi-source entity observation
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- Cross-surface consensus + visibility over time
- Evidence-anchored intelligence reports
Frequently asked questions
What is Local AI Visibility?
Local AI Visibility is whether Google's AI answer surfaces — AI Mode and AI Overviews — name your business when someone searches for what you do near them, and whether they keep naming you as the buyer narrows with follow-up questions. It is the local, near-me version of AI visibility: not just are you mentioned, but do you survive as the recommendation to the final pick.
How do I check if Google's AI recommends my business?
Enter your business name, your town or city, and what you do, then run the free Local Scan above. It asks Google's AI a broad "best {category} in {town}" question and a forced-pick "which one should I call?" question, then shows where you land in each answer — named and ranked, or gone, with the competitor that took your slot. No signup is required to see the result.
What does 'recommendation survival' mean?
A real buyer's search is a funnel, not a single query: they start broad and narrow with follow-ups on price, availability and reviews. Recommendation survival measures whether your business is still the recommendation at the end of that narrowing — and, when it isn't, exactly which follow-up eliminated you and who took the slot.
Does this measure Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, or the map pack?
The scan reads Google's AI-generated answer text and the sources it cites — the AI Mode and AI Overview answer layer, where a shrinking set of businesses gets named. It does not read the traditional map pack; that is a different surface. The methodology says so plainly: we measure the generated answer, not the local pack.
Is it free? Do I need to sign up?
The Local Scan is free and needs no account — the four-line journey result renders immediately. An email unlocks the full report and the fix guidance; monitoring your business weekly (with drift alerts when you drop out of a turn) is a paid plan, starting at the single-entity Watch tier.