Visibility Metrics

Understanding Your Metrics

SearchRank AI provides comprehensive metrics to help you understand your AI search visibility. This guide explains each metric, how it's calculated, and how to interpret it for actionable insights.

Core Visibility Metrics

Mention Rate

The primary indicator of your brand's AI search visibility.

Formula: (Prompts with Mentions / Total Prompts Executed) × 100

Example:
- 60 prompts executed
- 27 contained brand mentions
- Mention Rate: 45%

What It Tells You: How frequently AI systems recommend or mention your brand when users ask relevant questions.

Good Benchmark: Varies by industry, but 30-50% for niche products, 10-30% for competitive markets.

Total Mentions

Raw count of all brand mentions across all responses.

Example:
- Response 1: 2 mentions
- Response 2: 0 mentions
- Response 3: 1 mention
- Total Mentions: 3

What It Tells You: Overall volume of brand presence in AI responses. Multiple mentions in one response indicate stronger recommendation.

Citation Rate

Percentage of mentions where you're cited as an authoritative source.

Formula: (Citations / Total Mentions) × 100

Example:
- 30 total mentions
- 12 as citations
- Citation Rate: 40%

What It Tells You: Your authority level. High citation rates mean AI sees you as a trusted information source.

Competitive Metrics

Share of Voice

Your brand's percentage of total mentions across all tracked brands.

Formula: (Your Mentions / All Brand Mentions) × 100

Example:
- Your Brand: 45 mentions
- Competitor A: 38 mentions
- Competitor B: 27 mentions
- Total: 110 mentions
- Your Share of Voice: 41%

What It Tells You: Your relative market position compared to competitors.

Head-to-Head Win Rate

When both you and a competitor are mentioned, how often you're positioned favorably.

Scenarios:
- You mentioned first: Win
- You recommended over competitor: Win
- Competitor recommended over you: Loss
- Equal positioning: Tie

What It Tells You: Direct competitive performance in recommendation scenarios.

Competitive Gap

Queries where competitors appear but you don't.

Example:
Query: "Best tools for [use case]"
- Competitor A: Mentioned
- Competitor B: Mentioned
- Your Brand: Not mentioned
Gap Identified: Opportunity for improvement

What It Tells You: Areas where you're losing visibility to competitors.

Context Metrics

Sentiment Score

The tone of mentions (positive, neutral, negative).

Positive: "SearchRank AI is highly recommended..."
Neutral: "Tools like SearchRank AI exist for..."
Negative: "SearchRank AI has limitations in..."

What It Tells You: How AI systems perceive and present your brand.

Recommendation Strength

How strongly you're recommended when mentioned.

Strong: "I highly recommend SearchRank AI"
Moderate: "Consider SearchRank AI as an option"
Weak: "SearchRank AI is one of many tools"

What It Tells You: Quality of mentions, not just quantity.

Feature Association

Which features or capabilities are associated with your brand.

Example Feature Associations:
- "AI visibility tracking" - 85%
- "Competitor monitoring" - 72%
- "Real-time analytics" - 68%
- "Easy to use" - 45%

What It Tells You: How AI understands and positions your value proposition.

Performance Metrics

Response Position

Where your brand appears in AI responses.

Position 1: First recommended (highest value)
Position 2-3: Top recommendations
Position 4-5: Secondary mentions
Position 6+: Lower visibility

What It Tells You: How prominent your brand is within recommendations.

Query Category Performance

How well you perform across different query types.

Product Discovery Queries: 52% mention rate
Comparison Queries: 38% mention rate
Problem-Solving Queries: 45% mention rate
Industry-Specific Queries: 61% mention rate

What It Tells You: Your strengths and weaknesses by query type.

Using Metrics Strategically

Setting Goals

Current State:
- Mention Rate: 35%
- Citation Rate: 25%
- Share of Voice: 28%

90-Day Goals:
- Mention Rate: 45% (+10%)
- Citation Rate: 35% (+10%)
- Share of Voice: 35% (+7%)

Identifying Opportunities

• Low mention rate → Create more authoritative content
• Low citation rate → Build thought leadership
• Low share of voice → Analyze competitor strategies
• Poor sentiment → Address product concerns

Measuring Success

Campaign: New content marketing push
Before: 35% mention rate
After: 42% mention rate
Impact: +20% improvement

Metric Correlations

Understanding how metrics relate:

• High mention rate + low citation rate = Brand awareness without authority
• High citation rate + low mention rate = Niche authority, limited reach
• High share of voice + negative sentiment = High visibility but poor perception

Reporting Best Practices

Weekly Reports

Focus on:

• Mention rate trend
• Significant changes
• Competitive movements

Monthly Reports

Include:

• All core metrics with trends
• Competitive analysis
• Strategic recommendations

Quarterly Reviews

Comprehensive analysis:

• Goal progress assessment
• Market position changes
• Strategy adjustments needed

Common Metric Questions

Why did my mention rate drop?

• AI model updates
• Competitor improvements
• Market changes
• Content becoming outdated

What's a "good" mention rate?

Depends on market competitiveness. Compare to your own baseline and competitors rather than arbitrary benchmarks.

How quickly should I see improvements?

Content changes take 30-90 days to reflect in AI responses. Track trends over months, not days.

Learn how to analyze patterns over time in Trend Analysis.