Measuring visibility without buying a tool
Three checks, ten minutes, no subscription. Search the way a customer would and note whether you appear, fetch your own identity data from every source you are listed on, and count the enquiries that mention each source. That is the whole measurement, and it is more useful than a rank tracker.
Check one: search like a customer
Use the words a customer would use, not the ones you would. Trade plus town, problem plus town, or the question as somebody would type it into an assistant. 45 percent of consumers used an AI tool to find a local business in 2026 against 6 percent a year earlier, so ask one of those too.
Note only whether you appear and roughly where. Position on a given day is noisy, and any tool selling you a precise number is selling precision that does not exist for local results.
Repeat it once a month, on the same day, with the same three phrases. The comparison over time is the information; the single measurement is not.
Do it from a phone rather than an office computer, because that is where the search happens and the results differ.
Checks two and three
Second: consistency. Open every source you are listed on and compare 4 things: name, address, telephone and hours. Across 6 sources that is 24 comparisons and about 20 minutes. Every disagreement you find is worth more than any ranking report, because it is a defect you can fix today.
Third: enquiries by channel. A sheet with date, channel, outcome and value, filled in at the moment the enquiry arrives. That takes 30 seconds each and it is the only measurement that converts into euros through your closing rate and average order value.
Note what none of this needs: a subscription. And note what no tool can give you, since Google states that clicks from AI features are included in overall search traffic and are not reported separately.
| Check | How | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Do I appear | Three phrases, from a phone, monthly | 10 minutes |
| Do my details agree | 4 values across 6 sources | 20 minutes |
| Where do enquiries come from | One sheet, filled on arrival | 30 seconds each |
| Rank position | Not worth measuring precisely | 0 |
What to write down
One page a month: the three searches and whether you appeared, the number of disagreements found across sources, and the enquiry count by channel. Twelve pages a year, and the trend is visible without a chart.
Then act on the disagreements first. They are the only part of the measurement that comes with an obvious next step.
Questions and answers
Do I need a rank tracking tool?
What should I measure monthly?
Can a tool show me AI traffic separately?
What is the most valuable of the three?
Sources
- Google Search Central, AI features in Google Search That AI feature clicks are not reported separately
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 AI use for local search and the six source average
