Three new features are now live in SD AI SEO Suite.
Grounding Lab shows how Gemini builds an answer using Google Search, Google Maps and information you provide. You can see the searches it runs, the sources it uses and which source supports each part of its answer.
Passage analysis looks at the live answers from Google AI Mode and AI Overviews. It shows which passages from other websites support the answer, why those passages are useful and what your own page could be missing.
We’ve also added an AI Mode option to the SERP checker, so you can see Google’s actual AI Mode answer alongside the traditional search results.
Why does this matter?
Knowing that a competitor is being cited in an AI answer is useful. Knowing which part of their page was used, what information it provided and why your own page wasn’t selected is much more valuable.
These new features are designed to help SEO professionals investigate exactly that.
1. What Happened?
We’ve released three new features in SD AI SEO Suite, all built around one question:
How does Google’s AI decide what to include in an answer, and which websites does it use as sources?
Until now, most AI visibility tools have focused on whether a brand is mentioned or a website is cited. That’s useful, but it doesn’t explain much about why one source appears and another doesn’t.
The new features give you more information about what happens behind AI-generated answers.
The Three New Features at a Glance
| Feature | What you provide | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Grounding Lab | A question, plus web pages, PDFs, images, YouTube videos or uploaded material. You can use Google Search, Google Maps and your own URLs as sources | Gemini’s answer, numbered citations, suggested searches, the searches it ran, which source supports each sentence, which links it could read, a thinking summary and the exact request sent |
| Passage analysis | A live Google AI Mode answer or AI Overview and the pages it cites, or competitor pages you select, together with your own page | The passages used, why they fit the question, brands mentioned, how your page compares, what’s missing and example passages you could add. Every quote is checked against the live page |
| SERP checker: AI Mode | A keyword or search query | Google’s AI Mode answer and results, alongside the traditional search results |
Grounding Lab: See How Gemini Builds an Answer
Grounding Lab lets you send a question to Gemini and choose the information it can use.
You can ask Gemini to use:
- Google Search: To find and use information from live search results.
- Google Maps: To answer local questions using a location you choose.
- Your own material: Provide web pages, PDFs, images and YouTube videos using their links, or upload your own images.
You then receive Gemini’s answer, along with the information behind it.
You can see every citation, the sources used, Google’s Search Suggestions and the searches Gemini carried out before answering.
You can also see which source supports each sentence, which of your links Gemini could access and which it couldn’t.
The result is a much clearer picture of how Gemini found the information it used.
Passage Analysis: Find Out Why Google Uses Your Competitors’ Pages
Passage analysis takes a live Google AI Mode answer or AI Overview and examines the pages used as sources.
You can also provide a list of competitor pages you want to compare against your own.
Gemini reads the pages and identifies the exact passages that support the answer.
It then explains why those passages may have been useful, whether your own page covers the same information and what you could improve.
For example, it might identify that a competing page provides:
- A direct answer to the question.
- Specific prices or figures.
- A useful comparison.
- A table containing product specifications.
- Recent information.
- A clear explanation using the same terms as the search query.
The analysis also identifies brands and products mentioned in the answer, estimates whether your page is likely to be selected and provides example passages you could use as a starting point when improving your content.
Importantly, every quoted passage is checked against the live page before it is shown. This means you can check whether the information Gemini identifies actually appears on the website.
AI Mode Is Now Available in the SERP Checker
We’ve also added a new AI Mode option to the Google SERP checker.
You can now look at Google’s AI Mode answer for a search query and see the websites it cites.
This makes it easier to compare traditional organic rankings with the sources Google uses in AI Mode.
For example, your website might rank in the top three organic results but not appear in the AI Mode answer. A competitor might rank lower but still be cited.
Being able to see both results helps identify where your traditional SEO performance and AI search visibility differ.
2. Why Does It Matter?
Most AI visibility tools tell you whether your business was mentioned. Far fewer explain why a particular website was used as a source.
That’s the difference we’re addressing.
The new features give SEO teams more information about the searches, pages and passages behind AI-generated answers.
AI Search Can Use Different Passages From the Same Page
A page can rank well in traditional Google Search but still be absent from an AI-generated answer.
One reason is that AI answers can use specific sections of a page to support different parts of a question.
For example, someone asking for the best accounting software for a UK charity might need information about:
- Pricing for charities.
- Accounting features.
- Gift Aid.
- Reporting.
- Integrations.
- Support and training.
A competing page might contain a short, clear explanation of charity pricing, while your page only provides a general overview of your software.
Even if your page ranks higher in traditional search, the competing page may provide information that is more directly useful for part of the AI answer.
This is where Passage analysis helps.
You can see the passages used from competing websites, understand what information they provide and compare them with your own page.
It gives you something more useful than knowing that a competitor received a citation.
The Searches Behind an AI Answer Can Be More Important Than the Original Keyword
When Gemini answers a question using Google Search, it can carry out additional searches to find the information it needs.
These are often called fan-out searches.
They may be worded differently from the original question and cover several related topics.
For example, a buyer might ask:
“What’s the best accounting software for a UK charity?”
Gemini may then look for information about charity accounting, Gift Aid, reporting features, pricing, reviews and specific software providers.
Our previous research into AI buyer journeys showed that these searches can include technical terms, years, words such as “reviews” and “official”, and other details that weren’t included in the original question.
Grounding Lab shows you the searches Gemini carried out for your prompt.
This gives content teams another source of information when planning pages. Instead of relying only on the keyword someone originally typed, you can investigate the additional questions the model searched for.
If Gemini Can’t Read Your Page, It Can’t Use It as a Source
Another important part of Grounding Lab is checking whether Gemini can actually access the pages you provide.
You can supply a URL and see whether Gemini was able to read it.
This turns a general concern about AI accessibility into something you can test for individual pages, PDFs and videos.
For example, a business might have detailed product information in a PDF, but the document may not be accessible to the system being used.
Similarly, a website page might be blocked, require a login or contain information that isn’t available in the version Gemini can access.
Knowing which links Gemini could and couldn’t read helps identify problems that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Knowing Which Source Supports Each Sentence Changes How You Investigate Competitors
It’s useful to know that a competitor appeared in an AI answer.
It’s much more useful to know what information their website provided.
For example, one source might support a claim about pricing, another might provide a product specification and a third might support a recommendation.
Sentence-level source information makes it easier to understand what each website contributed.
You can then decide whether your own content needs:
- More detailed specifications.
- Original data.
- Better comparisons.
- Clearer explanations.
- More recent information.
- Direct answers to specific questions.
This helps turn competitor research into practical work for your SEO and content teams.
Verified Quotes Are More Useful Than Plausible Quotes
AI models can sometimes produce quotes that don’t match the original page exactly.
This creates a problem when you’re using the analysis to make content decisions.
A recommendation based on a passage that doesn’t actually exist on the website isn’t particularly useful.
That’s why Passage analysis checks every quote against the live page.
Each passage is marked as:
- Found word for word: The quoted text appears on the page exactly as shown.
- Close match: The wording is similar, but not identical.
- Not found: The quoted passage could not be found on the live page.
This gives you a way to check the evidence before acting on the recommendations.
What These Features Do and Don’t Tell You
It’s important to understand the difference between investigating Gemini’s answers and knowing exactly how Google AI Mode works internally.
Grounding Lab uses Gemini with Google’s own grounding services. It provides a controlled way to see how Gemini uses Google Search, Google Maps and information from URLs.
However, it is not an exact copy of Google AI Mode. Google’s consumer product has its own processes, and answers can vary between runs.
Passage analysis uses live Google AI Mode answers or AI Overviews and examines the pages they cite. It estimates how well your page compares with the sources used, but it does not reproduce Google’s internal ranking or source-selection systems.
Gemini’s explanations of why a source was chosen are its interpretation of the available information, not a statement from Google about its ranking systems.
Used together and repeated over time, the features give SEO teams evidence to investigate rather than relying on assumptions.
3. Who Is This For?
The new features are particularly useful for businesses that want to understand and improve how their websites appear in Google’s AI answers.
Different teams will get value from different parts of the platform.
| Team or business | Most useful feature | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Heads of SEO and in-house SEO teams | Passage analysis | Find out why competitors’ pages appear in AI Mode and identify the changes your own pages need |
| Content teams | Passage analysis and Grounding Lab | Understand the questions Gemini searches for and write content that answers them |
| Agencies | All three features | Show clients the sources and passages behind AI answers, then compare AI Mode with traditional rankings |
| Ecommerce and product brands | Grounding Lab with URL context | Test whether product pages, specification PDFs and demonstration videos can be read and used as sources |
| Local and multi-location businesses | Grounding Lab with Google Maps | Investigate how Gemini answers local questions and which businesses and sources it uses |
| B2B, SaaS and professional services | Passage analysis | Find the pricing, comparison and service information that appears in answers to buyer questions |
| Finance, healthcare and other regulated sectors | Grounding Lab | Check which sources support claims about a brand and identify potentially inaccurate information |
| CMOs and marketing directors | SERP checker with AI Mode | Compare traditional organic rankings with the brands and sources appearing in AI Mode |
The common theme is that these teams need to understand more than whether a brand appears in an AI answer.
They need to know what information is being used, where it comes from and what they can do to improve their own visibility.
4. What Should Businesses Do?
The three features work particularly well together.
You can use the SERP checker to find a gap, Passage analysis to understand why competitors are being cited and Grounding Lab to investigate the searches and sources behind the answer.
Here’s how I would use them in an SEO campaign.
4.1. Grounding Lab: See How Gemini Builds an Answer
Start with a real question your customers might ask.
Don’t simply enter a keyword. Use a complete question that reflects what someone wants to find out.
For example:
“What’s the best accounting software for a UK charity?”
You can then provide Gemini with additional information or choose which sources it can use.
What goes in:
- A prompt or question.
- Web pages, PDFs, images or YouTube videos you want Gemini to consider.
- Your choice of Google Search, Google Maps or URL context.
What comes back:
- Gemini’s answer with numbered citations and a list of sources.
- Google’s Search Suggestions for the prompt.
- The searches Gemini carried out before answering.
- Which source supports each sentence of the answer.
- Which of your links Gemini could read and which it couldn’t.
- Gemini’s thinking summary.
- The exact request sent to Gemini.
How I would use it:
- Start with a question a potential customer might ask.
- Enable Google Search grounding and review the searches Gemini carried out.
- Look at the sentence-level sources to understand which websites support each part of the answer.
- Run the same question again with URL context, adding your own page, PDF or video.
- Check whether Gemini can read the material you provided.
- For local searches, enable Google Maps and review the businesses and sources Gemini uses.
- Ask follow-up questions to investigate why particular sources were selected and what your website could improve.
You can continue asking questions in the same conversation.
For example, ask:
- Why did you choose these sources?
- What information would make you cite this page instead?
- Which parts of the answer are supported by this website?
- What additional information would help answer the original question?
Your Grounding Lab history is private to your account and kept for 180 days.
One important point: treat Gemini’s explanations as its interpretation of the sources, not as Google’s explanation of its ranking systems.
4.2. Passage Analysis: Find Out Which Content Appears in AI Answers
Passage analysis is designed to investigate the actual content Google uses in AI Mode and AI Overviews.
Start with a search where your website already ranks in traditional results but doesn’t appear in the AI answer.
What goes in:
- The search query.
- The live Google AI Mode answer or AI Overview.
- The pages Google cites, or competitor pages you select.
- Your own page for comparison.
What comes back:
- The exact passages used from the source pages.
- An explanation of why each passage fits the question.
- The brands and products mentioned in the answer.
- An estimate of whether your page is likely to be selected.
- The information your page is missing.
- Example passages you could add.
- Quotes checked against the live page.
How I would use it:
- Choose a priority search where your website ranks in traditional Google results but is missing from the AI answer.
- Run Passage analysis using the live AI Mode answer or AI Overview.
- Add your own page and review the pages used by Google.
- Look at the passages that appear in the answer. Are they definitions, statistics, comparisons, step-by-step explanations or recommendations?
- Compare those passages with your own content.
- Review the missing information and use the example passages as a starting point for improvements.
- Publish the changes, allow Google to recrawl the page and run the analysis again.
The example passages are there to help you understand what could improve your content. They are not intended to be copied word for word.
Your page should use your own brand voice, subject knowledge and experience.
4.3. SERP Checker: Compare AI Mode With Traditional Search Results
The SERP checker now includes an AI Mode option.
Enter your keyword or query and select AI Mode to see Google’s live AI Mode answer and the websites it cites.
Use this alongside the traditional organic results to identify differences between the two.
For example:
- Your website ranks in the top three but isn’t cited in AI Mode.
- A competitor ranks lower but appears as a source in the AI answer.
- A website that doesn’t rank particularly well is cited repeatedly.
- Different brands appear in AI Mode for related searches.
These differences help you prioritise the searches where your traditional rankings aren’t translating into AI visibility.
A Workflow That Combines All Three Features
The best results come from using the features together rather than treating them as separate tools.
| Step | Feature | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Find the gap | SERP checker | Identify searches where you rank in Google but are missing from AI Mode |
| 2. Investigate competitors | Passage analysis | See which passages were used, which brands were mentioned and what your page lacks |
| 3. Understand the searches | Grounding Lab | Review the searches Gemini runs, the sources it uses and whether it can read your content |
| 4. Improve the page | Content and SEO | Add useful information that answers the missing questions, supported by evidence |
| 5. Test again | Grounding Lab and Passage analysis | Re-run the investigation after publishing and compare the results |
| 6. Monitor progress | SD SEO Suite | Track the query over the following weeks and look for changes in AI visibility |
AI answers can vary between runs, so don’t judge the results based on one test.
Repeat the checks and look at the overall trend.
5. Frequently Asked Questions
Is Grounding Lab the Same as Google AI Mode?
No.
Grounding Lab uses Gemini with Google’s own grounding services. It provides a controlled way to investigate how Gemini builds an answer using Google Search, Google Maps and information from URLs.
Google AI Mode is Google’s own search experience and includes additional processes.
To see Google’s actual AI Mode answer, use the AI Mode option in the SERP checker or Passage analysis.
Who Can See My Grounding Lab History?
Only you.
Your Grounding Lab history is private to your account and kept for 180 days.
Can Passage Analysis Invent Quotes?
Gemini can produce text that doesn’t exactly match the original page. That’s why every quote in Passage analysis is checked against the live page before it is shown.
Each passage is marked as found word for word, close match or not found.
This makes it easier to check the information before using it in your SEO or content work.
Does “Likely to Be Chosen” Guarantee a Citation?
No.
It is an estimate based on how well your page answers the question compared with the passages used by Google.
It helps identify where your content may need attention. It does not predict exactly what Google will do.
What Types of Content Can I Test?
You can provide:
- Web pages.
- PDFs.
- Images.
- YouTube videos using their links.
- Your own uploaded images.
Grounding Lab can use this material alongside Google Search and Google Maps, depending on the options you select.
6. What We’re Watching Next
These three features are the start of a wider development programme for SD AI SEO Suite.
There are several areas we’re particularly interested in investigating.
More Gemini Grounding Across the Platform
Grounding Lab is our first step towards making Gemini’s use of Google Search, Google Maps and URL context a more central part of SD AI SEO Suite.
We want to make it easier for customers to investigate AI answers alongside the search and SEO data they already use.
How AI Mode Selects Passages Over Time
As we use Passage analysis across different industries and categories, we’ll be looking at which types of passages appear most often.
For example:
- Definitions.
- Statistics and figures.
- Product specifications.
- Comparisons.
- Step-by-step explanations.
- Recommendations.
We’ll also monitor whether these patterns change as Google updates AI Mode.
How the Searches Behind AI Answers Are Changing
The searches Gemini carries out before answering can become more detailed and specific as it investigates a topic.
We’ll be looking at how these searches change, which questions appear repeatedly and which sources Gemini uses to answer them.
This should provide useful information for content planning and keyword research.
More Testing for Local AI Answers
Grounding with Google Maps creates opportunities to investigate local searches in more detail.
We expect this to be particularly useful for local businesses and brands with multiple locations.
We’ll be looking at which businesses and sources Gemini uses when answering location-based questions and what information helps a business appear.
AI Mode Will Become Part of SEO Reporting
As more people use AI Mode to research products and services, businesses will need to understand how their visibility in AI answers compares with traditional rankings.
We expect AI Mode reporting to become an increasingly important part of SEO reviews and marketing reports.
We’ll continue sharing what we learn from these features through our AI SEO experiments and research.
7. About Szymaniak Digital
Szymaniak Digital is a UK-based Enterprise AI SEO Consultancy.
We help CMOs, marketing directors and heads of SEO understand, measure and improve how their brands appear across Google and AI assistants.
SD AI SEO Suite brings together keyword research, Google search results, AI Mode checks, AI visibility tracking, Grounding Lab and Passage analysis in one subscription.
Plans start at £100 per month, with Pro at £200 per month. Annual billing saves 10%, and Pro includes a 30-day free trial.
Custom plans are also available for businesses that need larger-scale AI visibility tracking.
Existing customers can use Grounding Lab, Passage analysis and the new AI Mode option in the SERP checker now.
The aim is to give SEO professionals more than a list of rankings and AI mentions. We want to show you which searches, sources and passages are behind the answers, why your competitors are being cited and what your website can do to compete.
