Understanding AI Visibility
AI visibility measures how often your brand appears in responses from AI-powered search engines and assistants. As more users turn to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI tools for answers, being mentioned in these responses becomes critical for brand awareness.
What We Track
Surva.ai monitors your brand across five major AI platforms:
- ChatGPT - OpenAI's conversational AI (GPT-4)
- Perplexity - AI-powered search engine with citations
- Claude - Anthropic's AI assistant
- Gemini - Google's AI model
- Google AI Overviews - AI-generated summaries in Google Search
How Tracking Works
For each keyword you add, Surva.ai:
- Queries each AI platform with your keyword as a search prompt
- Analyzes the response for brand mentions and citations
- Identifies which brands are mentioned in the answer
- Extracts citations (URLs) that the AI references
- Calculates visibility scores based on mention frequency and position
What Counts as a Mention
A brand "mention" is detected when:
- Your brand name appears in the AI's text response
- Your domain is cited as a source
- Your product name is recommended
- You're included in a list of options
Mention Quality Factors
Not all mentions are equal. Surva.ai considers:
- Position - First mention vs buried in a list
- Sentiment - Positive recommendation vs neutral mention
- Context - Primary recommendation vs alternative option
- Citation - Whether your URL is cited as a source
Data Refresh Schedule
AI visibility data is refreshed on a rolling schedule:
- High-priority keywords - Daily updates
- Standard keywords - Every 2-3 days
- Low-activity keywords - Weekly updates
This hybrid approach balances data freshness with API efficiency.
Why AI Visibility Matters
Studies show that users increasingly trust AI recommendations:
- AI-recommended brands see higher click-through rates
- Being cited improves domain authority signals
- First-mentioned brands get disproportionate traffic
- AI visibility correlates with organic search improvements
Improving Your Visibility
To improve AI visibility:
- Create comprehensive, authoritative content
- Structure content for easy AI parsing (clear headings, lists)
- Build topical authority through content clusters
- Get cited by authoritative sources
- Maintain accurate business information across the web
See our Improving AI Visibility guide for detailed strategies.