AI Visibility

AI Visibility combines four signals into a single 0-100 health score:

• Mention frequency: How many different queries mention your domain across the five tracked platforms
• Citation rank: When your domain appears in an LLM response, where does it fall in the cited source list (first-cited vs. fifth-cited)
• Platform diversity: Whether you appear across all five LLMs or are concentrated on just one or two
• Source authority: Relative domain authority (Ahrefs/Semrush-style) of your domain

The composite math weights these signals proportionally — mention frequency is the dominant signal (40%), followed by citation rank (30%), platform diversity (20%), and source authority (10%).

The output is a single number (0-100) plus a per-platform breakdown showing your score on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews separately. Most operators track the composite and alert when it moves by 5+ points month-over-month.

LLM responses are now meaningful traffic sources. A brand cited in ChatGPT for "best plumber in Austin" wins clicks that would have historically gone to Google position #1. Traditional SEO visibility metrics (Ahrefs Domain Rating, Semrush Visibility Index) don't measure this at all — they only track Google organic and sometimes Bing, completely missing ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

LLMs pull from the same underlying web data Google uses, but their citation logic is different. You can rank #1 organically on a query and not be cited in ChatGPT for the same query — or vice versa. Agencies and in-house teams running local SEO now track AI Visibility alongside traditional rankings. A client with declining traditional visibility but rising AI Visibility is in a different strategic position than one losing both. Without the AI signal, you're flying blind.

An AI Visibility audit covers:

• Multi-LLM coverage: Five platforms are standard (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews). Each scans independently.
• Per-LLM mention count: How many queries your domain was mentioned on, broken down by platform
• Citation rank per mention: When you appear, where in the source list (position 1 vs. position 5 impacts the score differently)
• Top sources cited: Which of your pages are getting cited most, and in what contexts
• Competitive delta: How your AI Visibility compares to top competitors in the same category
• Monthly trend: Baseline month 1, then track deltas month-over-month

The related AI Overview metric tracks Google's specific feature. AI Visibility is broader — it's your presence across all LLMs, not just Google's one feature.

The AI Visibility API scans a standard query set (typically 200-500 queries per category, derived from search volume data). For each query:

1. Send the query to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overview endpoint 2. Parse the response to extract all cited sources 3. Record whether your domain appears and at what position in the source list 4. Aggregate across all queries per platform

Then compute: - Mention rate: (# queries your domain appeared in / total queries scanned) × 40 points - Citation rank score: (sum of inverse ranks: first source = 5 pts, second = 4, etc.) × 30 points - Platform diversity score: (# platforms you appear on / 5) × 20 points - Authority adjustment: (Your domain authority / median competitor DA) × 10 points

Final score = sum of weighted components, capped at 100. Most businesses score 15-60 depending on category competitiveness and domain maturity.

AI Visibility enables competitive tracking at scale. Run a scan for your domain, then run the same scan for your top 5 competitors. Compare:

• Absolute scores: Who has the highest AI Visibility in the category
• Per-LLM breakdown: You might dominate ChatGPT but lag on Perplexity; competitors might have the opposite profile
• Month-over-month deltas: A competitor's AI Visibility jumped 8 points last month — why? Did they publish new content, win a high-authority backlink, or optimize their existing pages for LLM citation
• Alert thresholds: Set automated alerts if your score drops 5+ points or a competitor's jumps 8+ points

The AI Visibility API returns the full composite plus per-LLM breakdown as structured JSON, making it suitable for agent chaining. Most operators now run weekly AI Visibility scans via cron, flag significant deltas, and route the investigation to an agent or analyst. The scan itself takes 3-5 minutes; interpreting the results used to take days.