Search Engine People launches AI visibility tracking for brand mentions

Search Engine People has started treating AI search as a measurement problem, not just a ranking problem. Its new AI Visibility Measurement system is built to show how often a brand appears in generated answers across ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and AI Mode, with visibility broken into brand mentions, link inclusion and citations.

That shift matters because classic keyword tracking was built for a world where the blue link list was the whole game. Search Engine People says AI search behaves differently, so the old model of monitoring hundreds or thousands of keywords no longer tells the full story. The company’s new approach narrows the focus to a smaller set of high-value prompts, the kind of bottom-of-funnel queries users actually type into AI systems when they are asking for recommendations. One example the agency highlighted was “best SEO company in Toronto,” a query that is closer to purchase intent than a broad keyword spreadsheet ever was.

The launch, announced on May 22, 2026, is a clean example of how traditional SEO vendors are rebuilding their measurement stacks for an environment where rankings are no longer the main unit of value. Search Engine People said the system extends its longstanding SEO tracking into generative surfaces, giving marketers a single view of brand visibility across both search results and AI answers. Two days earlier, the agency had already laid out the framework in a blog post and a YouTube explainer featuring President Wisam Abdulaziz, who the company says has more than 18 years of digital marketing experience.

Search Engine People is using the launch to position itself as more than a campaign shop. The agency describes itself as a full-service digital marketing firm in the Greater Toronto Area, with more than 20 years in business and 3,000-plus satisfied clients. That background helps explain why the measurement pitch is landing now: in-house teams and agencies still need SEO reporting, but they also need to know whether AI systems mention them, cite them or leave them out entirely.

The timing is no accident. Google rolled out AI Overviews in the U.S. on May 14, 2024, and OpenAI launched ChatGPT search in November 2024, pushing brands to look beyond classic search positions and toward answer-engine visibility. Search Engine People’s move reflects that broader reset. If rankings were the old scorecard, prompt-based mentions, citations and link inclusion are starting to look like the new KPIs agencies will have to report.