Turn your AI visibility score into a clear next step.
See how often your business appears in sampled AI answers, then inspect the questions, engines and evidence behind the number. A score is a starting point for a decision, not a promise of traffic.
Start with the metric label and its denominator
AI visibility is a family of measures. Brand mentions, recommendations and website citations answer different questions and should not be added into one percentage. In CiteAgentic, inspect the metric label, reporting window, questions and completed engine responses before comparing results.
| Measure | What it tells you | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Named in AI answers | The business is explicitly named | Named responses divided by valid responses |
| Recommended | The response recommends the business | Recommended responses divided by valid responses |
| First choice | The business is classified as the top choice | Top-choice responses divided by valid responses, not simply the first name in a list |
| Website used as a source | The answer cites your website | Owned citations divided by citation-eligible responses |
| Any AI presence | Named or cited at least once | The union of mentions and owned citations, counted once per response |
Illustrative calculation: a brand named in 8 of 20 valid answers has a 40% mention rate. If six of those eight also cite its website, they are still eight responses with any presence, not fourteen. Failed requests are excluded from valid-response rates. No valid responses means unavailable, not 0% visibility.
How the windowed Presence Score differs
Where the report displays the windowed Presence Score, it combines repeated observations for each question, engine and region. For each observed combination, the calculation is (present responses + 0.5) / (valid responses + 1). It averages these values using the configured weights, defaults to equal weight per combination, multiplies by 100 and rounds.
This smoothing makes limited history less extreme. A single successful observation does not make a combination permanently 100% visible. Unobserved combinations do not become zero scores; coverage and confidence must be read alongside the result. Snapshot rates use the most recent response per question and engine; the windowed score uses the history available in its reporting window.
What a change does and does not prove
Compare the same prompts, markets, engines and time windows. Adding harder questions or a new engine changes the sample and can change the score without your existing pages becoming worse. Confidence grows with coverage and repeated valid observations. A small movement in a small sample is a reason to inspect answers, not declare a win.
A readiness score assesses a page against audit checks. A visibility score measures sampled answer presence. Neither is a Google ranking, a percentage of all AI users reached, or an estimate of sales.
Turn the number into the next useful action
Low mention rate
Mentions without owned citations
A changing score
Use the AI visibility checker for a baseline, AEO tracker for repeat observations and citation tracking to inspect sources. Fix priorities should come from evidence and business value, not the score alone.