AI Visibility Index
AI search optimization, defined
Research summary
The AI Visibility Index uses 13 terms, each defined the way methodology v1 measures it: from visibility (the share of category answers naming a company) and position to citations, engine agreement and co-occurrence. Each term has its own page with a worked example from the data.
310 answers
Data as of MethodologyCorrections
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AI search optimization (AEO, GEO) | The work of getting a company named, cited and recommended in the answers of AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overview, as opposed to ranked on a page of links. Also called answer engine optimization (AEO) or generative engine optimization (GEO). |
| Visibility | The share of category answers that name a company at least once. An answer counts once however many times it names the company. A visibility of 25% means one category answer in four names the company. |
| Category question | A question a buyer asks without naming any company, such as "Which wealth management firm in Canada is best for business owners?". Visibility is measured only on these, because they are where an AI assistant chooses whom to name. |
| Brand search | A question that names a company, such as "Is Wellington-Altus owned by a bank?". These show what AI says once asked about a company by name, and are kept out of every visibility figure. |
| Position and named first | The order in which an answer first names each company, read from the answer text. The company at position 1 is named first. |
| Share of mentions | A company's mentions as a share of all company mentions in a set of answers, one mention per company per answer. Visibility asks how often a company is named; share of mentions asks how much of the naming it holds. |
| Citation | A source an AI answer links to, recorded by its web address and counted by registrable domain. Citations show which websites shape an answer, whether or not the answer names a company. |
| Own-site citation | A citation of the website of a company named in the category. The share of own-site citations shows how much of what the engines cite comes from the companies themselves. |
| Answers naming no company | Category answers that respond in general terms without naming any company. Counted per answer, per engine and per question. |
| Engine agreement | The share of category questions on which every engine names at least one company in common. |
| Co-occurrence | The number of category answers that name two companies together. A head-to-head page exists only for a pair named together in at least 3 answers. |
| Head-to-head | Two companies compared on the same answers: how often each is named, which is named first when both are, and topic by topic. |
| Topic | A group of related category questions, such as fees and cost, so visibility can be read subject by subject. A topic page exists for a topic with at least 3 questions. |
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