How to check if AI recommends your law firm

A check any firm can run on its own, and how to read what comes back. Written by Joe Ashta, a GEO / AEO consultant for law firms.

What to ask

Ask what a client would ask, not what a marketer would type. The questions that matter have three parts: the practice area, the place, and the situation the person is actually in. Someone who has just been charged asks who to call, not for a list of firms. So the shape is "I was charged with impaired driving in my city, who should I call", or "my landlord kept my deposit in my province, which lawyer handles that". Law firm AI search sets out how these questions reach a platform in the first place.

What counts as an answer

Three different things can happen, and they are worth three separate columns.

• A citation. The platform links your site as a source beside the answer. It proves the platform read you.
• A mention. Your firm is named in the answer text, with or without a link. This is what the reader sees.
• A recommendation. Your firm is named as someone to call. This is the one that produces an enquiry.

They are never added together. Mentions, citations and recommendations takes one answer apart and shows the three sitting side by side in it.

What a single check tells you

It tells you what happened once. Answers vary between runs, so the same question can return a different set of firms the next time it is asked. A check that names your firm shows the firm can appear. A check that does not name it shows the firm did not appear that time. Neither one tells you how often your firm is named, which is the number AI search visibility work is judged on.

What to write down

For each answer, record the date, the platform, the exact question in the words you used, every firm named, whether yours was among them, whether your site was linked as a source, and which other sites were. The last column is often the most useful, because it shows which directories, listings and publications the platform trusts for your practice area and your city. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are separate surfaces and go on separate rows.

When to bring in a consultant

Do the check yourself first, because it costs nothing and it settles whether there is a problem. Bring in a GEO consultant for law firms when you need to know how often your firm is named rather than whether it was named once, or when the check keeps returning the same competitors and you cannot see why. What such a consultant claims, and does not claim, is stated in the entity record.

Related

What does a GEO consultant do for law firms? covers what happens after the check. Is GEO different from SEO? explains why this result is not the same thing as a ranking.