The short version: Google Sheets costs $0 with a Google account, and Google makes it. Here it is not a tracker. It is the place where you write down what AI assistants say when you ask your buyers’ questions by hand. It sits at #1 on our AI SEO software scoreboard because you can start today for free, and it scores 3/5 stars because every step is your job.
Google Sheets is a general spreadsheet from Google. The AI search method on this page is yours to run.
Our verdict: 3/5 stars. The position rewards the $0 start. The stars say what you give up: no automation, a small sample, and no advice on what to fix. We did not run it through our June and July 2026 test cycle, because there is no product to test. There is only your own routine.
What the manual method is
You act as the tracker. Write down the questions your buyers would ask an AI assistant. Open each assistant, type each question, and read the full answer. Then log what you saw. Do that on a schedule, and you get a rough picture of where your brand shows up and where a rival shows up instead.
That is the whole method. No software watches anything for you, and nothing happens between your runs.
Pricing: $0, plus your hours
The sheet costs nothing with a Google account. Your time is the real price. Ten prompts across four assistants makes 40 rows per run. Run that weekly and you log about 160 rows a month, by hand, before you add a single competitor prompt.
Bottom line: the bill says $0, but somebody on your team pays in hours.
Build the sheet in six columns
Make one row per answer. Keep the columns plain so that anyone can fill them in:
| Column | What you log | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt | The exact question you typed | Best CRM for a small law firm |
| Engine | The assistant you asked | ChatGPT |
| Date | The day of the run | 2026-11-05 |
| Brand named | Yes or no, plus any rivals named | No, two rivals named |
| Cited source | The page the answer links to | A review roundup URL |
| Position | Where your brand appears in the answer | Third of five |
Use the same prompt wording on every run. If you change the words, you cannot compare the rows.
How often to run it
Pick one day a week and protect it. A weekly run gives you enough rows to spot a pattern within a month or two. If that is too much, run monthly and keep the prompt list short. Skip a few runs and the log loses most of its value, so choose a pace you can hold.
Do not read too much into one answer. The same question can name different brands on different days. Look for what repeats across runs.
Where it stops scaling
The sheet breaks in four places:
- Hours. Every new prompt, engine, and brand adds rows. The work grows faster than the insight.
- Sample size. You can only run so many prompts by hand, so one odd answer can fool you.
- Gaps between runs. A rival can take your spot on Tuesday, and you find out next Monday.
- The next step. The sheet shows a gap and stops. It never says which page to fix or what to write.
Who should use it
Use it if you are a brand or a small team and want answers today with no budget. Use it if you need proof before you ask for money. Skip it as a long-term system if you need daily data or if nobody on the team can protect the hours.
Paid trackers start at $29 a month with Otterly.AI, and the full scoreboard shows what each one adds. Read how we test for the scoring rules.
Bottom line: 3/5 stars. Start here today for free, and stop when logging takes more time than reading. When the sheet gets too big, an agency that runs Temso takes over.
