What is the AI Visibility Index?

It's an open methodology for measuring whether AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — recommend your business when customers ask for one. It defines the exact queries to run, the engines to check, and what to record (whether you're named, whether you're cited, and how you're described) so any business can measure its own AI share of voice.

Do you have measured data — actual percentages by city or industry?

Not yet, and we won't publish numbers we haven't measured. The first edition of the Index is in progress. Until we have a real, repeatable dataset, this page is the honest reference framework: the method, the queries, and the dimensions. When we have measured findings, we'll publish them here with the methodology attached. We hold ourselves to the same audit we sell — no statistics that lie.

How do I measure my own business's AI visibility for free?

Run your top customer questions through ChatGPT (with browsing), Perplexity, and a Google search that triggers an AI Overview, then record three things for each answer: were you named, was a page of yours cited, and how were you described. Repeat monthly. The five-step protocol on this page walks through it, and our free AI-visibility checker automates the first pass.

Which AI engines should I track?

Start with the three a local customer actually uses: ChatGPT with browsing, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. Perplexity always shows its citations, which makes it the easiest to read; ChatGPT and AI Overviews show sources less consistently. Tracking all three gives you a fuller picture than any single engine.

Can you guarantee the Index will get my business named by AI?

No, and anyone who guarantees AI placement is selling something that doesn't exist — nobody controls these engines' output. The Index is a measurement framework, not a ranking promise. What it does is show you, honestly, where you stand today and whether the white-hat work you do over time moves that baseline.

How is AI visibility different from regular SEO ranking?

Traditional SEO ranking is about your position in the list of blue links. AI visibility is about whether the AI names and cites you inside its answer — often before anyone scrolls to those links. The underlying work overlaps heavily (consistent business info, real reviews, clear source-backed content), but the thing being measured is different, so it deserves its own measurement.

Guides · Methodology

The AI Visibility Index: how to measure whether AI recommends your business

By The SEOmonster Team · 2026 methodology · first edition in progress

The short answer

The AI Visibility Index is an open method for measuring whether AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — recommend your business. You run a fixed set of customer questions, record whether each engine names you, cites you, and describes you correctly, and track that share of voice over time. It defines the measurement; it never guarantees placement.

Honest note

The first edition of the Index — measured share-of-voice data across real cities and industries — is in progress. We have not published numbers we haven't measured, and we won't. This page is the reference framework: the engines, the queries, the dimensions, and a protocol you can run yourself today. When we have a real, repeatable dataset, the findings will appear here with this methodology attached. We hold ourselves to the same audit we sell — no statistics that lie.

What "AI visibility" actually means

AI visibility is whether AI answer engines name and cite your business when a customer asks them for a recommendation. It's a different question from where you rank in the list of blue links: increasingly, the customer reads the AI's answer and never scrolls to those links at all.

That shift is why it's worth measuring. Google's AI Overviews now appear in roughly 45% of searches (industry estimate), and AI answers can reduce clicks to websites by up to about 58% (industry studies). If the AI answers the question and only names a few businesses, being one of those names is the whole point — and you can't improve what you don't measure.

The work that earns AI visibility is the same white-hat work that earns rankings. The Princeton "GEO" study (KDD 2024)found that citing credible sources can lift a page's AI visibility by around 40%, adding relevant statistics by about 37%, and adding quotations by about 30% — while keyword stuffing actually hurts visibility by around 10%. Comparison-style content earns roughly 33% of AI citations and definitive guides about 15% (industry analyses of AI search results). This page measures the result of that work; it doesn't replace it.

The engines we measure

The Index scopes to the three answer surfaces a local customer actually encounters. Each reads slightly different signals, so we check all three.

ChatGPT (with browsing/search)

We ask it for a recommendation the way a customer would and record which businesses it names, whether it links a source, and how it describes you. Its answer leans on what it can read across the open web and its connected search index.

Perplexity

Perplexity answers with visible citations, so we record both whether you're named and which sources it cited to get there — a clean read on which pages are actually feeding the answer.

Google AI Overviews

The AI answer box at the top of Google results. We record whether your business surfaces in the generated answer and which local signals (Business Profile, reviews, cited pages) appear to drive it.

The queries we run

For each engine, we run a fixed set of question shapes — filling in your service and city. These mirror how real customers ask.

Best-of recommendation

"Who is the best [service] in [city]?"

The highest-intent question — the customer is asking the AI to pick. Being named here is the whole game.

Near-me / local intent

"[service] near me" / "[service] in [neighborhood]"

Tests whether your local signals (Business Profile, service area, reviews) are strong enough for the AI to place you.

Comparison / shortlist

"[Your business] vs other [service] companies in [city]"

Comparison-style answers are a large share of AI citations, so we check whether you appear on the shortlist at all.

Question + recommendation

"How much does [job] cost in [city], and who should I call?"

Mirrors how people really ask — an informational question that ends in a recommendation. Source-backed answer pages tend to win these.

What we record for each answer

Every answer is read on five plain dimensions. There's no invented composite score here — just honest observations you can verify yourself.

Presence: Across the engines and queries above, is your business named at all? This is the binary that matters most — you're either in the answer or invisible to it.
Share of voice: When competitors are named in the same answer, how often are you one of them? We track how many of your tracked queries name you versus the local field.
Citation: When the engine links sources (Perplexity always, others sometimes), is one of them yours — your site, your Business Profile, a review page about you?
Accuracy: When the AI describes you, does it get your services, location, and hours right? A confident-but-wrong answer is its own problem worth catching.
Sentiment: If the AI characterizes you ("well-reviewed," "affordable," "24/7"), is the framing fair and grounded in real signals you can see?

Measure your own AI visibility (free, five steps)

You don't need a tool to start. Here's the exact protocol — do it by hand once, then on a schedule.

1
List your real customer questions
Write down the handful of questions a customer would actually type — your top services crossed with the towns you serve, in the archetypes above (best-of, near-me, comparison, question+recommendation).
2
Ask each engine, fresh
Run each question in ChatGPT (with browsing on), Perplexity, and a normal Google search that triggers an AI Overview. Use a clean session so personalization and history don't skew the result.
3
Record name, citation, and framing
For each answer, note three things: were you named, was a page of yours cited, and how were you described. A simple spreadsheet — one row per query, one column per engine — is enough.
4
Compute your share of voice
Across all your queries and engines, count how many named you at all, and how often you appeared when competitors did. That ratio is your honest starting baseline — not a guess.
5
Re-run on a schedule
AI answers shift constantly, so a one-time snapshot lies. Re-run the same set monthly and watch the trend, not any single answer.

Frequently asked questions

What is the AI Visibility Index?: It's an open methodology for measuring whether AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — recommend your business when customers ask for one. It defines the exact queries to run, the engines to check, and what to record (whether you're named, whether you're cited, and how you're described) so any business can measure its own AI share of voice.
Do you have measured data — actual percentages by city or industry?: Not yet, and we won't publish numbers we haven't measured. The first edition of the Index is in progress. Until we have a real, repeatable dataset, this page is the honest reference framework: the method, the queries, and the dimensions. When we have measured findings, we'll publish them here with the methodology attached. We hold ourselves to the same audit we sell — no statistics that lie.
How do I measure my own business's AI visibility for free?: Run your top customer questions through ChatGPT (with browsing), Perplexity, and a Google search that triggers an AI Overview, then record three things for each answer: were you named, was a page of yours cited, and how were you described. Repeat monthly. The five-step protocol on this page walks through it, and our free AI-visibility checker automates the first pass.
Which AI engines should I track?: Start with the three a local customer actually uses: ChatGPT with browsing, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. Perplexity always shows its citations, which makes it the easiest to read; ChatGPT and AI Overviews show sources less consistently. Tracking all three gives you a fuller picture than any single engine.
Can you guarantee the Index will get my business named by AI?: No, and anyone who guarantees AI placement is selling something that doesn't exist — nobody controls these engines' output. The Index is a measurement framework, not a ranking promise. What it does is show you, honestly, where you stand today and whether the white-hat work you do over time moves that baseline.
How is AI visibility different from regular SEO ranking?: Traditional SEO ranking is about your position in the list of blue links. AI visibility is about whether the AI names and cites you inside its answer — often before anyone scrolls to those links. The underlying work overlaps heavily (consistent business info, real reviews, clear source-backed content), but the thing being measured is different, so it deserves its own measurement.

See where you stand right now

Our free AI-visibility checker runs the first pass of this method for you — asking the engines and recording who they name — so you get an honest baseline in about a minute. SEOmonster then does the white-hat work to improve it, with a real person approving every change.

Run the free AI-visibility check See a sample report