METRICS
AI Search Metrics
What each metric means, how it is calculated, where the data comes from, and how it is commonly misread.
22 pages
Mention Rate
Mention rate is the share of answers in a fixed question set where an AI names a given brand; its comparability depends entirely on the denominator staying fixed.
Updated 2026-08-10Average Position
Average position is a brand's mean placement across the AI answers that mentioned it; answers with no mention are excluded from the calculation.
Updated 2026-08-10Share of Answer / Share of AI Citations
Share of answer is the proportion of citation sources across a question set's AI answers that point to one domain — it measures who the AI trusts, not who it names.
Updated 2026-08-10How to Track Brand Mentions in AI Search
Brand mentions in AI search can be tracked, but the unit of measurement is a fixed question set sampled repeatedly — not the position of any single result.
Updated 2026-08-10How to Monitor AI Search Visibility
The point of AI visibility monitoring is not seeing the numbers — it is being able to tell whether a change happened at the mention, position, citation or conversion layer.
Updated 2026-08-10AI Visibility Audit
An AI visibility audit works through four layers in order: can it be crawled, is it retrieved, is it mentioned and cited, and does that visibility convert.
Updated 2026-08-10How to Measure GEO
The primary commitment in GEO is measurable organic traffic growth; mention rate and average position are supporting metrics that explain the process, not the result.
Updated 2026-08-10AI Referral Traffic
AI referral traffic is still small in absolute terms, but it is the clearest evidence that AI visibility turned into visits — so it needs its own channel rather than being folded into direct traffic.
Updated 2026-08-10Prompt Set Design
The prompt set is the denominator behind every AI visibility metric; change it and two periods stop being comparable.
Updated 2026-08-10Share of Voice in AI Answers
Share of voice is a brand's mentions as a proportion of all brand mentions across the same question set.
Updated 2026-08-10Competitive Benchmarking in AI Search
Competitive benchmarking in AI search means putting every brand's mention rate and position for the same question set side by side, rather than each reporting its own numbers.
Updated 2026-08-10Zero-Click Rate
Zero-click rate is the share of searches where the user reads the results and clicks nothing — AI summaries pushed it up a level.
Updated 2026-08-10Impressions versus Clicks
Impressions show the content entered the result set; clicks show the user chose it. In AI search the relationship between the two has been rewritten.
Updated 2026-08-10Branded Search Lift
Branded search lift is the hardest AI visibility outcome to fake: someone saw the brand in an answer and then went looking for it by name.
Updated 2026-08-10Attribution: First-Party Data First
Attribution for AI visibility runs on first-party analytics and server logs; third-party tools are for cross-checking only.
Updated 2026-08-10Crawl Log Analysis
Crawl log analysis answers a question nothing else can: did the AI crawlers actually come, and what did they get.
Updated 2026-08-10Citation Rate
Citation rate is the share of answers that carry a link to you. It is not mention rate: being named is not the same as being cited.
Updated 2026-08-10Cited Source Mix
Cited source mix is the distribution of domain types across the sources in a batch of answers — it tells you which kind of source the AI trusts on this question.
Updated 2026-08-10Answer Inclusion Rate
Answer inclusion rate is the share of answers that incorporate a specific page's content — measured at page level rather than brand level.
Updated 2026-08-10Measuring Conversion from AI Traffic
Conversion from AI traffic deserves its own channel, but should not be presented as a multiple — off a tiny base, multiples persuade no one.
Updated 2026-08-10Brand Accuracy in AI Answers
This metric measures how much of what AI answers say about a brand is factually right — being described wrongly hurts more than not being named.
Updated 2026-08-10Mention Rate vs Share of Citations
High mention rate with low share of citations means the visibility rests on third-party content and is weakly controllable — a risk mention rate alone cannot show.
Updated 2026-08-10