# AI Visibility: What the Numbers Mean

> A glossary for your AI visibility report. How to read Visibility, Share of Voice, Citation Share, Mention Rate, Avg. Position, Top-1 Rate and the rank columns, what the Platforms, Sentiment, Competitors, Search Expansions and AI Citations pages show, which AI engines each plan checks, adding questions and competitors, and how Revnu turns gaps into work.

Canonical: https://revnu.com/docs/ai-visibility
Last updated: 2026-10-18

AI visibility is how often AI assistants such as ChatGPT name your business when someone asks the kind of question your buyers ask. Revnu asks those questions on your behalf, on a schedule, and reads every answer. The results are on the **Visibility** pages of the dashboard. This is the measurement side of what's called AEO (answer engine optimization) or GEO (generative engine optimization). [What are AEO and GEO?](/docs/what-are-aeo-and-geo) explains the idea.

In plain words:

- **Visibility** is how often AI answers to your buyers' questions mention you.
- **Share of Voice** is how much of the talk about your category is about you, not your competitors.
- **Citation Share** is how often the links in those answers point at your own pages.

## The numbers, read correctly

Every number below counts measured answers: one AI engine's answer to one of your tracked questions on one run.

| Number | What it counts | Where |
|---|---|---|
| **Visibility** | The share of answers that mention you. Each topic counts equally, so one topic with many questions can't swamp the rest. | The big percentage on **Overview** |
| **Share of Voice** | Your mentions divided by your mentions plus every competitor's, in AI answers. | **Overview**, **AI Visibility**, **Platforms** |
| **Citation Share** | Links to your own pages divided by every link the answers cite. | **Overview**, **AI Citations** |
| **Mention Rate** | For one question: the share of its answers in the period that mention you. | **Tracked Prompts** |
| **Avg. Position** | Where you appear among the brands an answer names, averaged over the answers that mention you. 1 is first. Answers that leave you out don't count. | The **AI Visibility** pages |
| **Top-1 Rate** | Answers that name you first, divided by all answers, including the ones that leave you out. It can never be higher than Visibility. | The brand comparison on the **AI Visibility** pages |
| **Visibility Score Rank** | Your place among the tracked brands, ordered by visibility. Opening one question shows the same idea as **Visibility Rank**. | Beside the Visibility Score chart on **AI Visibility** |
| **Position Rank** | Your place among the brands on one engine, ordered by average position. A brand needs at least three answers on that engine to hold a place. | **Platforms** |

Three things trip people up:

- **Visibility and Mention Rate can disagree.** Visibility weights every topic equally. Mention Rate is the raw share for one question. A strong question in a big topic moves Mention Rate more than Visibility.
- **A good position can hide a low visibility.** Position only counts answers that mention you. You can average 1.5 and still be missing from most answers.
- **Top-1 Rate and Avg. Position tell different stories.** Say 6 of 10 answers mention you and 3 of those name you first. Visibility is 60%, Top-1 Rate is 30%, and Avg. Position might be 1.5. Top-1 Rate counts every answer; position counts only the ones that name you.
- **Citation Share can be low while you're mentioned.** An AI engine can name you while linking to a review site or a list. Citations to old domains, aliases or a separate blog host only count if you add them under **Your Domains** on the **AI Citations** page.

The headline numbers always use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, so they mean the same thing on every plan. That set is called **Core 4** in the **Platform** picker at the top right of the Visibility pages. Pick one engine to see it alone, or **All Platforms** for every engine your plan measures.

![The Visibility Overview page with the Core 4 platform picker at the top right. This account is new, so the page says Picking Your Prompts](/docs/screens/visibility.webp)

## A worked example: which number to report

Say **Overview** shows **4%** visibility with **Last 7 Days** selected, but when you hover one day on the **Daily Visibility** chart it shows **8%**.

- **4%** is the whole window: of every answer measured in the last 7 days, 4 in 100 mentioned you.
- **8%** is one day. On Pro most measurements happen on your weekly day, so single days jump around.

Report the window number, with the window: "4% visibility over the last 7 days, Core 4." Compare it with the same window, the same engines and the same questions next time.

> **Tip:** **Last 30 Days** gives a steadier number than **Last 7 Days**.

**Is this the same as share of voice in SEO tools?**

They measure different things. SEO tools measure share of voice from Google search rankings and estimated clicks. Revnu's Share of Voice counts mentions inside AI answers: your mentions against your competitors' mentions. The two can move in opposite directions, so don't compare one with the other.

Revnu's Google numbers are on **Visibility > Google Search**, from your own Search Console. Your links and link authority are on **Visibility > Backlinks**.

## Which engines Revnu checks, and how often

| Plan | Engines | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity | Weekly, on the same weekday each week |
| Managed | Those four, plus Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Copilot, Grok, Qwen, Mistral, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Amazon Rufus | Daily, and also from the regions you sell in |

On Pro, the **AI Visibility** page shows "Checked weekly" and the weekday under each engine. That's when the next measurement runs. Your first numbers show up within a week on Pro, and within a few days on Managed.

Grok, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Copilot are measured on Managed only. On Pro they aren't measured at all, and the Pro numbers don't estimate them. Pro also has no results by region or persona. To get those and the extra engines, see [Pro and Managed](/docs/plans).

The **Daily** and **Weekly** toggle on the **AI Visibility** page only changes how the chart groups the data. It doesn't change how often Revnu measures.

**A question you've just added** is measured straight away, usually within minutes, on the engines your plan covers. If you add a lot at once, the rest are picked up in the next day's run. After that, on Pro, it's measured with the others on your weekly day.

You can't re-run a measurement on demand, for example right after you ship a fix. When you ask Revnu about visibility, it reads the stored answers and tells you their dates. To judge a fix fairly, leave your tracked questions as they are and compare the next scheduled measurement with the one before.

## What each Visibility page shows

| Page | What you'll find there |
|---|---|
| **Overview** | Your headline Visibility, the **Daily Visibility** chart and the **Improve Visibility** card with the gaps worth investigating. |
| **AI Visibility** | Visibility, Share of Voice, Avg. Position and Top-1 Rate over time, with every tracked brand side by side. |
| **Platforms** | The same numbers split by engine, so you can see where you're strong and where you're missing, plus **Position Rank** per engine. |
| **Regions** | How answers differ by country, on Managed. |
| **Sentiment** | How engines describe you: **Sentiment by Topic**, **Sentiment by Platform**, and the **Positive Answer Themes** and **Critical Answer Themes** behind them, with the answers they came from. |
| **Tracked Prompts** | Every question you track, its Mention Rate, where it came from, and its full answer history by engine and date. |
| **Search Expansions** | The web searches engines run behind each tracked question: **Avg Queries / Execution**, **Distinct Sub-queries**, **Search Expansions by Prompt** and **Word Transformations**. |
| **Competitors** | Every tracked brand compared with you, **Where You Beat Them**, **Where They Beat You** and a **Competitor Profile** for each. |
| **AI Citations** | **Citation Share**, **Most-cited Sources**, **Citation Categories** and the **Top Citation Domains** table, with each domain's cited pages and a CSV export. |

Search expansions and citations are where the next actions come from. [How AI engines choose what to cite](/docs/how-ai-engines-choose-sources) explains both, including the five **Citation Categories**.

## Branded and non-branded questions

Revnu tracks non-branded questions: the ones a buyer asks before they know you, like "best invoicing tool for freelancers". That's where being named wins customers. If you try to add a question that names your brand, **Tracked Prompts** refuses it.

Revnu still asks branded questions in the background, but only to read how AI engines describe you. That shows on the **Sentiment** page.

**What if my name is also a common word or another company's name?**

Revnu checks each answer against your name, your domains and a description of what you do. An answer about a same-named agency, place or product doesn't count as a mention. Adding every domain you own under **Your Domains** helps it tell you apart.

If you still see mentions or citations that are about another product, tell Revnu which ones: "the Acme answers about the music app aren't us." It can reword or drop the questions that keep matching the other product. Write questions the way a buyer would, without your name, in a few words, for example "invoicing tool for freelancers".

## Add, edit and remove questions

### 1. Open Tracked Prompts

Open **Visibility > Tracked Prompts**. Clear any topic filter first: the box is off while one is set.

### 2. Type a question and click Add

Write it the way a buyer types into ChatGPT: short, four to nine words, with no brand name. For example "invoicing tool for freelancers in the UK". Long, descriptive sentences make poor questions because nobody asks them.

### 3. Edit or remove one

To change a question, click the pencil on its row. To stop tracking it, click the X.

You can also ask in chat: "track 'best CRM for dental clinics'", "stop tracking the pricing question", or "add Acme as a competitor".

With **Last 7 Days** or **Last 30 Days** selected, a small tag next to each question shows where it came from:

- **Manual**: one you added.
- **Research**: one Revnu found while researching your market.
- **GSC**: a real search from your Search Console.
- **Keyword**: a keyword you asked Revnu to target.

Removing a question stops new measurements of it. Keep hard questions on the list rather than swapping them for easy ones: a score you raised by dropping hard questions tells you nothing. Changed what you sell? Swap the old product's questions for the new one's, as [changed what you sell](/docs/changed-what-you-sell) explains.

## Turning gaps into actions

The **Improve Visibility** card on **Overview** lists the gaps worth looking at, with a count of how many are **To Investigate**. Each one has an **Investigate in Chat** button. Click it and Revnu opens a chat about that gap: it re-reads the latest answers, picks one buyer question, and proposes one next step. Once a chat is open, the button reads **Open Conversation**.

Investigating only reads and advises. Revnu asks before it creates anything for you to approve, changes your tracking or drafts content.

The next step is usually one of these:

- **Add what's missing to a page.** If the answers miss facts that your pages don't state either, Revnu proposes the exact addition and the page it belongs on. Writing it follows your [Blog Posts setting](/docs/blog-posts-control).
- **Get listed where the answers look.** If the answers cite a directory or a "best X" list that names your competitors, Revnu can submit you there. See [free directory listings](/docs/directory-listings).
- **Track a clearer question.** If the wording leads AI engines to a different kind of product, Revnu proposes a better question to track next to the old one.

Each action says what the next measurement should show, so you can tell whether it worked. Changes take weeks to show in AI answers, not days.

### Investigate: Track more queries

**Track more queries** shows up on the card when you track fewer than 25 questions, with a line like "You're watching 12." It means your score rests on a small set of questions, so one answer swings it a lot. It isn't an error.

Click **Investigate in Chat** and Revnu reads the questions you track and your business, then proposes up to three new buyer questions. Each one sits next to the nearest question you already track and says what new buying decision it covers. Nothing is added until you say so. Reply "track those" (or name the ones you want) and Revnu adds them. You can also add them yourself in **Tracked Prompts**.

[How to pick the right prompts](/docs/pick-prompts-to-track) goes deeper. In short, approve the ones a real buyer would type before they've heard of you, the way they'd type them: four to nine words, no brand name. "What do I have to ask for us to be mentioned?" has no single answer. Pick the questions your best customers asked before they found you. A new question is usually measured within minutes, then with the others on your weekly day on Pro.

### What Revnu does and what you do

| Revnu does | You do |
|---|---|
| Writes posts that answer the questions you're missing from | Approve posts, if **Blog Posts** is on **Ask Me First** |
| Proposes the exact addition for one of your pages | Make it, or merge Revnu's pull request if your repo is connected |
| Submits you to free directories and "submit your tool" forms | Paid or sponsored placements |
| Gives you the link and the pitch for a "best X" list it can't submit to | Pitch the list's author or editor, if you want to |
| Proposes better questions to track | Approve which ones to track |
| Tells you which DNS or site setting is blocking you | Change your DNS or site settings |

Revnu doesn't email list authors or editors, and it doesn't buy or trade links. Where a page is only reachable by asking a person, it gives you the link and the pitch, and you decide whether to send it.

## Track the competitors you lose deals to

The **Competitors** list starts from the brands AI answers name next to you, not from your website or your sales notes. A rival nobody's AI answer mentions won't appear until you add it, and Share of Voice only counts the competitors you track.

To add one:

1. Open **Visibility > Competitors**.
2. Type the name in the **Add competitor** row at the bottom of the table and click the plus.
3. To stop tracking one, hover its row and click the X (**Hide Competitor**).

Or ask in chat: "add Acme as a competitor." You can track up to 30. Your own brand can't be added as a competitor.

After you add one, Revnu re-checks your tracked questions straight away, usually within minutes, so the new competitor shows up in the table. After that it's measured with everything else, weekly on Pro.

## Hand AI-visibility fixes to your coding agent

If a coding agent works on your site, it can get the fix list from Revnu and make the changes. Two ways:

- **Give the agent a token.** In **Settings > Developers**, mint a token with `agent:message` and `results:read`, labelled with the agent's name. The agent then asks Revnu through the `ask_revnu` tool or the API, for example "what changes do you need on our site to show up in AI answers for 'invoicing tool for freelancers'?", and makes them. Setup: [Developers](/docs/developers).
- **Connect GitHub.** Revnu opens the pull requests itself, and your coding agent reviews and merges them like a person's. See [Connect GitHub](/docs/github-blog-posts).

> **Note:** If your agent can drive a browser, still give it a token. Anything typed into the dashboard chat is recorded as you, without the label and scopes a token gives it.

## Read the numbers alongside your pipeline

Visibility tells you how often you're named when buyers ask. Pair it with these to see the full picture:

- **Demand.** Visibility measures whether you're named on the questions you track. [Search Console](/docs/search-console) shows how many people search for those topics on Google.
- **Visits.** With the [Revnu Tag](/docs/revnu-tag) on your site, ask Revnu "how much traffic did AI engines send us?" It reports visits by engine and landing page. Some engines hide where a visitor came from, so treat the number as a floor.
- **Cause.** Revnu compares the same question on the same engine before and after each change, and tells you when a result is too small to call. Engines also change on their own, so judge over several measurements.

## Citations are up but leads are flat

Being named more often doesn't turn into inbound straight away. Buyers who meet you in an AI answer often come back days later, by searching your name or typing your address. To see the link:

1. **Install the [Revnu Tag](/docs/revnu-tag)** and [set up outcomes](/docs/set-up-outcomes) for trials, purchases and booked calls, so Revnu can count what visitors do.
2. **Ask Revnu "how much traffic did AI engines send us?"** It reports visits by engine and landing page.
3. **Ask new leads where they heard about you.** Add a "How did you hear about us?" field to your sign-up or booking form, with ChatGPT and other AI assistants as options. It's the only way to catch people who read an answer and came back later.
4. **Give it time.** Inbound from AI answers builds slowly. Judge it over months, not weeks, against the same questions and the same windows.

## Next step

[How do I pick the right prompts to track?](/docs/pick-prompts-to-track)

## Frequently asked questions

### Why is one engine at 0% when the others show me?

Each engine builds its answers its own way, from its own search and what it learned in training, so you can be named on one and missing on another. 0% means none of that engine's measured answers named you in the window. Pick that engine in the **Platform** picker to read its answers, and if **Improve Visibility** lists that engine, click **Investigate in Chat** on it.

### What does Track more queries mean?

You track fewer than 25 questions, so your score rests on a small set. Click **Investigate in Chat** and Revnu proposes up to three buyer questions to add. Nothing is added until you approve them.

### How do I add a competitor Revnu isn't tracking?

Open **Visibility > Competitors**, type the name in the **Add competitor** row and click the plus, or ask in chat. Revnu measures it within minutes, then weekly on Pro. You can track up to 30.

### Can my coding agent make the site changes Revnu suggests?

Yes. Give it a token with `agent:message` and `results:read` so it can ask Revnu what to change, or connect GitHub so Revnu opens pull requests your agent reviews.

### Does Revnu pitch the authors of "best X" lists?

Revnu submits the free listings it can fill in itself. For a list you get onto by asking a person, it gives you the link and a ready pitch, and you decide whether to send it.

### What are Search Expansions?

They're the web searches an AI engine runs behind one of your tracked questions before it answers, also called query fanouts. **Visibility > Search Expansions** lists them so you can see which angles your pages need to cover.

### What do the Citation Categories mean?

They group the sites AI answers cite: **Earned Media** (publications and review sites), **Social** (Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and other communities), **Institution** (Wikipedia, universities, governments), **PR Wire** (press release sites) and **Other**. Each kind calls for a different play, explained in [how AI engines choose what to cite](/docs/how-ai-engines-choose-sources).

### What is Position Rank?

Your place among the brands on one engine, ordered by average position. A brand needs at least three answers on that engine to hold a place. It's on **Visibility > Platforms**.

### What is a good AI visibility score?

A good score is one that beats your competitors on the same questions and climbs over time. Compare your score with theirs on the **Competitors** page and track it for the same questions week to week. The level to aim for depends on how crowded your category is and how hard your questions are.

### Why is my mention rate different from my visibility score?

Visibility gives every topic the same weight. Mention rate is the plain share of answers to one question that mention you. They only match when every topic has the same number of questions and the same results.

### How often does Revnu check ChatGPT?

On Pro, weekly, on the weekday shown under each engine on the **AI Visibility** page. On Managed, daily, across more engines.

### Can I make Revnu measure my visibility right now?

Revnu measures on a set schedule: weekly on Pro, daily on Managed. A question or competitor you've just added is measured straight away. To judge a fix, keep your tracked questions unchanged and compare the next scheduled measurement.

### Why does my visibility say 4% on Overview but 8% for one day?

The headline is the whole window, for example the last 7 days. A day on the chart is that one day. Report the window number and name the window.

### Is Share of Voice the same as share of voice in SEO tools?

They measure different things. Revnu's Share of Voice counts your mentions inside AI answers against your competitors' mentions. SEO tools measure share of voice from Google rankings.

### Does Pro check Grok or Google AI Overviews?

Managed does. Pro measures ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity weekly. Managed adds Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Copilot, Grok and more, daily, with results by region. See [Pro and Managed](/docs/plans).

### What does the Daily and Weekly toggle change?

Only how the chart groups the data. It doesn't change how often Revnu measures.

### Why can't I track a question with my brand name in it?

Revnu tracks non-branded questions because they show whether engines recommend you to buyers who haven't heard of you, which is what wins customers. A branded question only shows whether engines know you exist.

### Does AI visibility bring me leads?

It can. Being named in AI answers puts you in front of buyers while they're choosing. With the Revnu Tag installed, Revnu counts the visits AI engines send to your site. To link a deal to a mention, ask new leads how they heard about you.