Why does AI Visibility only track mobile, and how often does it update?

Mobile only: “near me,” emergency, and local-intent searches happen mostly on phones, so the mobile AI Overview is the representative surface for a local business — and keeping the scan single-device keeps it affordable, the same reasoning behind the geo-grid being mobile. Full desktop citation coverage may be added later.

Monthly: unlike your Map Pack rank, which can move day to day, the set of sources an AI Overview cites is fairly stable — so checking monthly captures the real changes without over-scanning. Citations are resolved the first time your dashboard sets up, so the page is populated from day one; after that, whether an overview appears at all updates with your regular keyword scans, while who it cites is refreshed on the monthly pass — which is why the cited sources on a keyword can be up to about a month old between refreshes. That's expected, not stale.

There's a technical reason the citations need their own pass: Google often returns local-business AI Overviews “asynchronously” — the answer is shown, but the list of sources isn't included in the fast scan. Resolving those citations costs a little more per query, so we do it deliberately on the monthly scan rather than on every rank check. Running “Scan all keywords” refreshes your ranks and AI-Overview presence, but it doesn't re-resolve citations — those stay on the monthly rhythm.