AI visibility tracking
Track buyer questions across six platforms and inspect the answers.
AI visibility tracking asks six AI assistants the questions your buyers ask, saves every answer, and shows whether your business was mentioned, recommended or linked. The full tracker is part of Pro, under AEO + SEO Tracker → AI visibility. Simple tracks five questions for you and shows a summary on Results.
Why it helps
- You find out whether AI assistants bring up your business when a buyer asks about what you sell.
- You read the exact answers, so you know what AI says about you and which sources it trusts.
- You see which competitors AI recommends when it leaves you out.
- You get a ready list of questions worth answering on your website.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Prompt | A question a buyer might type into an AI assistant, such as "Which payroll apps suit small construction firms?" |
| Discovery prompt | A prompt that does not name your business. It shows whether AI brings you up on its own |
| Brand prompt | A prompt that names your business, such as "Is Acme Payroll any good?" Shown in the list as Brand perception |
| Mentioned | The answer names your business |
| Recommended | The answer suggests your business as a good choice for the buyer, for example in a shortlist. A mention or link alone is not a recommendation |
| Cited | The answer links to your website as one of its sources |
| Visibility | The share of checked answers that mention your business |
| Sentiment | How answers that mention you describe you: Positive, Neutral or Negative |
Before you start
- A workspace in Pro (including a Pro trial). For Simple, see In Simple below.
- Enough credits. Each prompt costs 6 credits per run (one per platform).
- The right website, market and language in Brand. Every question is asked as if by a buyer in that market, in that language.
Set up your first prompts
- Open AEO + SEO Tracker → AI visibility.
- Choose Find prompts for me. outwrite.ai suggests buyer questions based on your Brand. Browsing suggestions is free. If your Brand names the town, city or region you serve, every suggested question includes it, because AI answers are not collected from your buyer's location ("near me" questions are never suggested).
- Tick the suggestions you want, or choose Select up to 12. Choose Dismiss on any that don't fit, and optionally pick a reason (Too broad, Wrong audience or Not an offering). Undo brings the last one back. Find more loads another batch.
- Read the credit summary at the bottom of the window, then choose Track 3 prompts (the number matches what you picked).
- To add your own wording instead, choose Add prompts, type one question per line (or import a CSV or text file) and choose Track these prompts.
Start small. Three good questions cost up to 18 credits per run, and about 180 credits over 30 days.
Write good prompts
Write the question the way a real buyer would ask it, for your real market.
- A bike shop: "Where can I get an electric bike repaired in Bristol?"
- A marketing agency: "Which agencies help B2B software companies get more leads?"
- An accountant: "What should a restaurant owner look for in an accountant?"
Tips:
- Use plain language, 5 to 700 characters. Search tricks such as
site:don't work. - Mostly use discovery prompts. They show whether AI recommends you to people who don't know you yet.
- Avoid long lists of job titles, instructions to the AI, or questions that only ask it to praise you.
- Duplicate prompts are skipped and not charged.
Change or remove a prompt
- Change the wording: choose the pencil button on the prompt's row, edit the question and choose Save wording. The new wording is added as a new prompt and checked right away (up to 6 credits), and the old prompt is removed. Earlier answers stay with the old wording, so results are never mixed across different questions.
- Remove a prompt: choose the pencil button, then Remove prompt. To remove several, tick their rows and choose Remove. Removed prompts leave your list and stop costing credits. Answers already saved stay in your charts and reports. To track a removed question again, add the same wording with Add prompts; its earlier answers come back with it.
- Pause a prompt: choose the pause button on its row (or tick several rows and choose Pause). Paused prompts stay on your list and keep their past answers. Choose Resume to start them again.
To stop all checks, open the settings icon at the top right, turn off Automatic tracking and choose Save settings.
outwrite.ai already recognizes common short forms of your name, such as "Blue Bottle" for Blue Bottle Coffee or a short name that matches your website address, and your name written with a curly apostrophe. The settings window lists those under Other names for your brand. If AI calls your business something else (another short name or a product name), add it there, one per line, up to 8. A short name only counts when the answer clearly describes your business. New names apply to new checks. Answers already saved keep their result.
Run checks yourself
Checks run automatically every three days, but you can run them sooner:
- Click the play button on a prompt's row.
- Tick several prompts and choose Run selected.
- Choose Run all prompts (up to 1,000 at a time; the button then reads Run 1,000 prompts).
A window shows the maximum cost before anything starts. Choose Run now to confirm. The next automatic run is then three days later. Manual runs need Automatic tracking turned on.
What it costs
| What you do | Credits |
|---|---|
| One prompt, one run on all six platforms | 6 |
| One prompt for 30 days (about 10 runs) | About 60 |
| Five prompts for 30 days | About 300 |
| Ten prompts for 30 days | About 600 |
- Failed checks and duplicate prompts are not charged.
- A Google check that shows no AI Overview still uses one credit, because the search was made.
- Suggestions, reading answers, the Competitors tab and exports are included.
- The box at the top of the tracker shows your active prompts, the next run and an estimate for the next 30 days or until renewal.
- In Simple, the five managed questions are included in your plan.
How it works
- Platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude and Grok.
- How often: every active prompt runs on all six platforms every three days. New prompts run as soon as you add them.
- What is saved: one answer per platform per run, with its source links and the time it was collected. Answers are saved word for word.
- Market: questions are asked for the market and language in your Brand.
This is a sample, not a view into anyone's private chats. AI answers change between runs, between wordings and over time. Your scores use the latest answer for each prompt and platform in the date range you pick. With five prompts you have about 30 answers, so one answer moves your visibility by about three points.
Read your results
At the top you see three summaries:
- Brand visibility: a percentage ring and "Mentioned in X of Y answers".
- How AI describes you: Positive, Neutral or Negative, with a score from -100 to +100. A recommendation counts +100, a plain mention 0 and a negative mention -100. Above +20 shows Positive; below -20 shows Negative.
- Active prompts: how many prompts are being tracked.
Use the controls under the summaries:
- Tabs: Prompts (your list), Visibility and Sentiment (per platform and over time), Competitors and Sources (answers that link to your website).
- Question type: Discovery prompts (the default), Brand prompts or All prompts. A prompt that names your business is a brand prompt. When you add one, the list switches to All prompts and a notice tells you, so it never looks as if it wasn't saved.
- Date range: Last 7 days, Last 28 days or Last 90 days.
- Platforms: All platforms, or one platform.
To read an answer, click the prompt's text, or click one of the six platform icons on its row. The Saved answers window shows the status, the date, the sentence that mentions you, the full answer and Sources in this answer.
| Status on a platform | What it means |
|---|---|
| Recommended | The answer suggests your business as a good choice |
| Mentioned | The answer names you without recommending or discouraging you |
| Negative mention | The answer advises against your business for this question |
| Not mentioned | The answer doesn't name your business |
| No AI Overview | Google showed no AI Overview for this search. Left out of your scores |
| Checking or Reading answer | The answer is still being collected or analyzed |
| Confirming | outwrite.ai is confirming an earlier request. It won't be sent or charged twice |
| Needs review | The check failed or the answer was unclear. It doesn't count against you |
The Next check column shows the next date, or a status such as In progress ("Checking · 3/6 finished"), Due, Overdue, Delayed (no progress for over an hour), Waiting to retry, Waiting for budget or Paused.
See who else was recommended
Open the Competitors tab (Pro) to see other businesses named in answers to your prompts. Search the list, narrow it to one prompt, or tick Recommended when we weren't mentioned to see who AI suggests in your place. Click any business to read the dated answers behind its counts. This analysis is included and does not rerun your prompts. A website that is only cited as a source does not count as a competitor.
What to do with the results
- AI names others but not you: write an article that answers that exact question, with the answer in the first paragraph. See Write and edit articles.
- AI cites other websites: open those sources and publish a clearer, more complete answer on your own site.
- AI mentions you without recommending you: read why, then add the missing facts to your website and Brand.
- A prompt is no longer relevant: remove it (or pause it) so future runs focus on useful questions.
If you use the Managed by outwrite.ai feed, it can also plan articles around tracked questions where AI answers cited other sites and left your business out, when that data is available.
In Simple
Simple picks five buyer questions from your Brand kit once your Simple setup is running, and checks them on the same six platforms every three days. Open Results to see:
- AI answers mentioning you: the share of checked answers that name your business.
- AI answers linking to you: the share that link to your website.
- Next visibility check: the date of the next run.
In Simple you can't add your own prompts or read individual answers. Switch the workspace to Pro for the full tracker. See Simple or Pro?.
Common questions
How long until I see results?
New prompts start checking right away. Answers appear one platform at a time as each finishes. If a prompt shows Delayed, nothing has changed for over an hour; it keeps trying on its own.
Why does my visibility jump around?
Each run is a fresh sample, and AI answers vary. With few prompts, one answer changes the percentage a lot. Compare the same prompts and platforms over several weeks.
Do missing or failed answers lower my score?
No. Answers that are still running, failed, unclear, or had no AI Overview are left out. They never count as "not mentioned".
Can I export my prompts?
Yes. With no rows selected, choose Export to download your prompt list as a CSV file.
Can Ask outwrite.ai manage prompts for me?
Yes. In Pro, Ask outwrite.ai can suggest, add, run or pause prompts. It shows the credit cost before it starts.
Can I share these results?
Yes. Choose Share report at the top of the tracker to create a branded report for a client. See Branded client reports.
