How do I track whether my business appears in Perplexity and Gemini answers?
Ask each engine the questions your customers ask, several times, in fresh sessions, and log whether you are named and which sources are shown. Perplexity cites sources in its answers; Gemini behaves differently, so log what you can see. Sightline tracks Perplexity today but does not currently scan Gemini.
How do I track Perplexity by hand?
Ask the questions a customer would ask, with and without your name. Run each three times in a new session. Perplexity's answers include links to the pages it used, so record which sites are cited and whether yours is among them.
Check that it can reach you. Perplexity says PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in its search results and recommends allowing it in robots.txt, and that changes can take up to 24 hours (Perplexity). It also describes Perplexity-User, which visits a page when a person asks a question and generally ignores robots.txt because a user requested the fetch.
How do I track Gemini by hand?
The same way: fresh sessions, repeated questions, a log. Gemini is Google's assistant, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search are related but separate surfaces. For those, Google says traffic is included in Search Console's Performance report under the Web search type (Google), so you can watch clicks and impressions there, though not as a separate line.
What should the log contain?
- Date, engine and exact question.
- Whether your business was named, and where in the answer.
- What was said about you, and whether it was right.
- The sources shown.
- Which competitors were named.
Three runs per question is the minimum, because answers vary.
What are the limits?
By hand it is slow and varies by person and location. For ongoing tracking you want a fixed question set asked the same way each time, with the history kept.
How often should I check?
Weekly is enough for most businesses, and monthly is the minimum if you are doing it by hand. Checking daily mostly measures noise, because answers vary between runs. Keep the same questions in the same order and the same engines, and note the date. Add new questions only when your offer changes, and keep the old ones so you can compare. If you notice a sudden drop on one engine only, check robots.txt and recent site changes first, since a new rule or a broken page can make a business vanish from one engine's search while the others still find it.
Frequently asked questions
Does Perplexity show where it got an answer?
Yes, answers include links to sources, which is why logging them is useful.
Can I block Perplexity from using my site?
Yes, through robots.txt for PerplexityBot. Doing so means you should not expect to be surfaced in its search results.
Is Google AI Overviews the same as Gemini?
No. AI Overviews appear in Google Search. Gemini is a separate assistant. Sightline scans AI Overviews but not Gemini.
Will you add Gemini back?
We will not promise a date. Today's scans exclude it.