What is AI visibility? A plain guide

More buyers now start their research by asking an AI assistant. When they ask for a recommendation, they get a short list and an explanation, not ten blue links. If you’re not in that answer, you may never come up.

AI visibility is how often, and how well, your brand shows up in those answers.

The four numbers worth tracking

Visibility. The share of answers that mention you. It’s the headline number: of everything AI said across your prompts, how often were you part of it?

Share of voice. Your mentions as a share of all mentions of you and your competitors. Visibility can go up while you lose ground if everyone is rising.

Position. Where you land when an answer lists options in order. Being named fifth isn’t the same as being named first.

Citation rate. How often answers link to your own site. Being mentioned is good. Being the source is better.

How it differs from SEO

Search rankings are fairly stable and everyone sees roughly similar results. AI answers vary from one run to the next, and they’re written, not listed. That means two things.

First, you need to sample repeatedly rather than check a position once.

Second, the words matter. An answer can mention you and still steer buyers elsewhere, so read the text as well as the score.

How to start

1. Write down 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask, in their words.
2. Leave your brand name out of most of them.
3. Ask each one across the assistants your buyers use, more than once.
4. Note who appears, and which sources get cited.
5. Repeat weekly, so you can see what’s changing.

You can do this by hand for a few prompts. After that, it’s what tools like Ocita are for.