How to Find *Real* AI Prompts & Use Them for Your SEO/GEO/AEO Strategy
Google's AI Mode is leaking real prompt data... Let's see how we can find and use it!
How are your customers prompting AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or AI Mode?
This question has been one of the biggest ones in the SEO industry for a few years now, because we are taught to live in the “keyword-based” world.
The answer came from Google, albeit an unofficial one.
A few days ago, John Mueller confirmed that Search Console recorded AI Mode prompts as queries.
So now we have an official confirmation that some of Search Console’s Performance section could give us a glimpse into real people’s prompting.
>>>>> Please join us to discuss this topic and bring your questions!
So let me share how to pull that prompt data from Google and how to use it (I’d welcome some more ideas here):
How to find real prompts in Google’s Search Console
1. Search Console query filters
Prompts are likely to be longer, so you can easily find those by using a regex:
([^” “]*\s){10,}?
There’s another regex shared by Jean-Christophe Chouinard on Linkedin that filters likely “follow-up” queries, like “yes”, “please”, etc..
Note: For high-traffic properties, you will only be able to see queries that send at least some clicks. Since AI Mode might be sending none, you will miss those unless you access the SC data through the API.
Which brings us to a free API-based solution:
2. A Google Spreadsheet extension
I’ve been using this Google Spreadsheet extension for many years, and it turns out to be useful for this task as well. All you need:
Install and authenticate it
Choose the website you want to run the report
Group by query and use the regex above
From there, you can pull 25,000 queries that use the built-in Gemini capabilities to analyze and group the data:
3. A free tool
This may be a vibe-coded tool, but it is a very useful one! It is free; it pulls data from your Search Console (so it does need access to your account), but it does some useful things:
Pull likely queries that are AI Mode prompts
It categorizes prompts by topics and intent
It shows impressions for each prompt
It blocks “likely bot” prompts
You can export everything into a spreadsheet for further analysis:
Use it on your own discretion as it does access your SC data through its API.
Prompt impressions: How to find *real, human* prompts
The major question I had: “Why do some of these prompts have such insane impression numbers? How many types can the same prompts be logically used by different people?”
Well, these are likely to be prompt tracking software running these prompts in the AI Mode. So these may not be actual human prompts. Instead, these are what marketers *think* the prompts may be. This is still a good insight into what your possible competitors are focusing on.
If you really want to know what people type as a prompt to an LLM, keep an eye on 1- or 0-impression queries.
Bing’s AI query report vs Google’s query report
Another popular confusion: Bing AI section already reports on AI prompts.
No, it does not.
Bing Webmaster Tools gives you the grounding query report, i.e., what its LLM (Copilot) searches when a human being asks a question. There’s no report on what people are actually prompting.
While this is still quite a useful report, it gives no insight into real human interactions with an AI platform.
What to do with the prompt data
The answer to this question is going to keep evolving because this is the new data we are dealing with.
From my personal perspective, so far:
Use AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) to categorize and understand the prompt trends
Better optimize the ranking URLs to address those questions
Refine your prompt tracking strategy (chances are, you have some essential prompts missing), but don’t try to track each and every one of those prompts.
If you need help with brainstorming and analysis, let me know!