Core AEO Metrics

Suppose you work at Acme, a help desk company. Gauge tracks questions such as “Which help desk tools work well for an online store?” An answer is the response an AI model gives to one of those questions. It can contain written recommendations, comparisons, lists, and links to sources. Here are the numbers to watch. For answer-based metrics, use the answers Gauge collected for the selected prompts, engines, dates, and filters.

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Does AI mention Acme?

Visibility is the percentage of answers that name your brand. A brand mention means the AI names your brand in the text of its response. For example, “Acme offers a shared inbox for support teams” mentions Acme. A mention can be a recommendation, a comparison, or a criticism; it does not have to be positive. Visibility (%) = (Answers mentioning your brand ÷ Total answers) × 100 If Acme appears in 40 of 100 answers, its visibility is (40 ÷ 100) × 100 = 40%. Count each answer once, even if it names Acme several times. Start with visibility on the Rankings page, then open individual answers to see how AI describes you.

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Does AI cite your content?

Citation rate is the percentage of answers that cite a specific page or any page on a domain as a source. A citation is a link or source reference that the AI provides to show where information in its answer came from. You might see a numbered footnote beside a sentence or a source card below the answer. If that reference points to Acme’s comparison page, the page has been cited. A URL is one page’s web address; a domain is the website that contains it. For example, AI might explain how shared inboxes work and link to Acme’s guide as a source without naming Acme in the response text. That is a citation without a brand mention. Simply having an AI bot visit the page does not make it a citation. URL citation rate (%) = (Answers citing the URL ÷ Total answers) × 100 Domain citation rate (%) = (Answers citing any URL on the domain ÷ Total answers) × 100 If Acme’s comparison page is cited in 20 of those 100 answers, that page’s citation rate is (20 ÷ 100) × 100 = 20%. For domain citation rate, count each answer once, even if it cites several pages on the domain. Open Citations to find the pages being used.

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Does AI name your brand when it cites a page?

Mention rate is the percentage of answers citing a particular page that also name your brand. Mention rate (%) = (Answers citing the page and mentioning your brand ÷ Answers citing the page) × 100 If 10 of the 20 answers citing Acme’s page also name Acme, its mention rate is (10 ÷ 20) × 100 = 50%. This helps you spot pages that AI uses without naming your company. It also works for third-party pages.

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How does Acme compare with competitors?

Share of Voice is your brand’s share of all brand mentions in your comparison. Share of Voice (%) = (Your brand’s mentions ÷ Total mentions of your brand and the compared competitors) × 100 If Acme gets 40 mentions and the compared competitors get 60 combined, Acme’s Share of Voice is (40 ÷ (40 + 60)) × 100 = 40%. Changing the competitors changes the comparison. For any of these rates, a zero denominator means the metric cannot be calculated. It does not mean 0%.

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Does that lead to visits?

AI referral traffic measures people arriving at your site from AI answers. Connect Google Analytics to see it in Library. AI bot traffic measures bots fetching your pages. Connect server logs to see it in AI Traffic. A bot visit is different from a person clicking through. Some customers discover you in AI and visit later through another channel. Asking “How did you hear about us?” can help fill that gap. For filters and more calculation details, see Understanding your metrics.