Search Is Changing, and the Rules Keep Moving
For years, getting found online meant one thing: ranking on Google. That’s no longer the whole picture. Today, millions of people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google’s AI Overviews for answers instead of scrolling through a list of links.
That changes how people discover brands. An AI tool might recommend your business by name, mention a competitor instead, or answer the question so fully that nobody clicks through to any website at all.
The tricky part is that the rules keep changing. AI tools update their models often, add new features, and change which sources they trust and quote. What worked six months ago might not work today. There’s no single “page one” to aim for, and the same question can get a different answer from one day to the next.
That’s why tracking matters more than ever. Traditional SEO KPIs like rankings and click-through rate still count, but they don’t tell you whether AI tools are talking about you. For that, you need a new set of measurements, and a new set of tools.
AI Visibility is a measure of how likely brands are to talk about you, but are not yet an exact science like SEO and ad words.
AEO vs. SEO: What’s Different About Tracking
Optimizing for AI answers is often called AEO, short for answer engine optimization. The goal is simple: get AI tools to mention and recommend your brand when people ask questions.
The good news is that every traditional SEO KPI has an AI-era counterpart:
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But tracking AEO is fundamentally different in a few ways:
- There are no fixed positions. Google results stay fairly steady from day to day. AI answers can change every time someone asks, so instead of tracking one position, you track how often you appear across many questions.
- There’s no official data. Google gives you Search Console. Most AI companies don’t give brands reports on how often they’re mentioned. AI tracking tools fill the gap by asking questions and recording the answers, so their numbers are samples, not exact counts.
- Being seen doesn’t always mean a click. AI often answers the question completely. Someone can learn about your brand, and even decide to buy, without ever visiting your website.
- Keywords become questions. People type short phrases into Google, like “running shoes beginners.” They ask AI full questions, like “What running shoes should I buy if I’m new to running and have flat feet?” Track the questions your customers actually ask.
AI search is implemented across various devices and mediums, such as Amazon Alexa, Google Search, Siri, and more.
Start With the Right Tool: Semrush AI Visibility
You can’t see what ChatGPT tells every user, so you need a tool that checks for you. Semrush’s AI Visibility tool is a great place to start, especially if you already use Semrush for SEO.
It gives you an AI visibility score, a single number that shows how often your brand appears in AI answers across tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI features, Perplexity, and Gemini. It also shows which questions (called prompts) bring up your brand, which competitors show up instead, and how your visibility changes over time.
Semrush isn’t the only option. A few other tools are worth knowing:
Whichever tool you pick, stick with it. AI answers vary a lot, so the trend over several months tells you far more than any single check.
AI Mentions: Is AI Talking About You?
An AI mention is any time an AI tool names your brand in its answer. If someone asks “What’s the best project management software for small teams?” and ChatGPT lists your product, that’s a mention.
Mentions are the new rankings. In traditional search, you fight for a spot on page one. In AI search, you fight to be part of the answer at all. If you’re not mentioned, you’re invisible, even if your website ranks well on Google.
When you track mentions, look at more than just the count:
- Mentions vs. citations. A mention is your brand name in the answer. A citation is a link to your website as a source. Both are good, but citations can also send visitors your way.
- Share of voice. How often you’re mentioned compared to your competitors for the same questions. If a competitor shows up in 60% of answers and you show up in 10%, you know where you stand.
- Sentiment. Is the AI saying good things? Being mentioned as “a pricier option with mixed reviews” isn’t the same as being called “a top pick.”
- The prompts. Which questions bring you up, and which ones don’t? Gaps here show you what content to create next.
A low mention rate usually means AI tools don’t see enough trusted sources talking about you. We’ll come back to how to fix that below.
People are converting through AI 4.4x more than traditional search results
AI Referral Traffic: Visitors Sent by AI
AI referral traffic is the number of people who land on your website by clicking a link inside an AI tool’s answer. It’s the AI version of organic traffic.
This number is often small today, but it tends to be high quality. People who click through from an AI answer have usually already done their research. They’ve read a summary, seen your name recommended, and want to learn more or buy.
You can track most of it in Google Analytics. Look at your referral traffic and filter for sources like chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, and copilot.microsoft.com. Many marketers set up a custom “AI” channel group so all these sources show up together in one place.
There are a few catches to know about:
- Google’s AI results are hard to separate. Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are mostly counted as regular Google search traffic, so you can’t easily pull them out on their own.
- Some visits go uncounted. Clicks from AI apps don’t always pass along where they came from, so some AI visitors may show up as “direct” traffic instead.
- Many people never click. AI often answers the question right there. That’s why AI mentions matter just as much as traffic: someone can learn about your brand without ever visiting your site.
Watch which pages AI tools send people to, and how those visitors behave. If they stay longer or convert better than other visitors, that’s a strong case for investing more in AI visibility.
Customer Mentions Matter Most
Here’s the most important thing to understand about AI visibility: AI tools trust what other people say about you more than what you say about yourself.
When an AI tool builds an answer, it looks for signals across the web. Your own website helps, but it’s just one voice. When real customers talk about your brand in lots of places, AI tools take that as proof you’re worth recommending. That makes customer mentions the most important factor in getting AI to recognize you.
These are the places that matter most:
- Reddit. AI tools quote Reddit threads constantly, and Google and OpenAI both have deals to use Reddit content. When people recommend your brand in a discussion, AI notices. Join conversations in your niche honestly and helpfully, but don’t spam or pretend to be a customer.
- YouTube. Videos are a major source for AI answers, especially Google’s. Reviews, tutorials, and comparisons that mention your brand all count, whether you make them or your customers do.
- Reviews. Google reviews, Trustpilot, G2, Yelp, and industry review sites give AI a clear picture of what people think of you. Make it easy for happy customers to leave a review, and respond to the ones you get.
- Instagram. Public posts from business and creator accounts can now show up in search results, which makes them easier for AI to find. Customer posts, tags, and creator content that mention you all add to your footprint.
The common thread is that you can’t fake this. The best way to earn customer mentions is to give people something worth talking about, then make it easy for them to share it. Ask for reviews, encourage customers to tag you, work with creators, and show up in the communities where your customers already hang out.
Your own website still plays a supporting role. AI tools pull facts from your site, so make them easy to find and quote. Answer common customer questions clearly, keep your pricing, product details, and contact information up to date, and make sure your site matches what customers say about you elsewhere. Your website won’t earn recommendations on its own, but it helps AI describe you accurately once people are talking about you.
Low visibility can affect your rankings and will stop you from showing up in AI search results.
Start Tracking Your AI Visibility
AI search is still new, and the rules will keep changing. The brands that win will be the ones that start measuring now. Pick a tool, track your mentions and AI referral traffic each month, and put real effort into getting customers talking about you online.
Want to know how often AI tools recommend your brand? Get in touch and we’ll help you find out, and help you show up more.