AI-powered search is transforming the way people discover information. Platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini now generate direct answers instead of showing only traditional search results.
Note: This is only about LLM tracking. AI Overviews (AIO/SGE) are detailed in the dedicated article.
How It Works
AI Search Tracking allows you to see:
AI Search Presence: the percentage of Search Volume where the site is mentioned calculated from the total search volume of keywords in this group that trigger AI to mention brands.
AI Search Cited: the percentage of Search Volume where the site is cited.
Citation Rank: the position among AI-generated citations (#1, #2, etc.).
Context Analysis & Sentiment: whether the brand is mentioned positively, negatively, or neutrally.
AI Response Examples: actual snippets of how AI presents the site's content.
Why this matters:
Mentions reflect how often the model recommends your brand within the narrative.
Citations reveal the evidence the model leans on (your pages and credible third-party sources).
At topic (keyword) level, this tells you where you have authority and where you need deeper content, stronger topical coverage, or better citations.
How SEOmonitor queries AI models
For each keyword in your campaign:
SEOmonitor sends the exact tracked keyword to ChatGPT or Gemini in a fresh, neutral session (no user history, no personalization).
If the model asks for clarification, SEOmonitor provides short, neutral brand context so the answer is complete and comparable.
The system then detects:
Whether your brand is mentioned (and sentiment)
Whether your site is cited
Which other brands and sources are mentioned or cited
Why this approach:
LLMs do not expose real prompt volumes (there is no “GSC for LLMs”), so any “prompt demand” would be synthetic.
Keywords already represent the underlying lookups LLMs run in the background when they go to search engines to collect sources.
Using the same keywords as for Google ranking keeps AI Search tracking standardised and comparable across brands and campaigns.
One-time Snapshot vs. Ongoing Tracking
AI Search Snapshots are free:
One-time processing of all campaign keywords.
Includes your AI presence, citations, and basic context.
Limitations: no history, no exports, no automatic updates.
AI Search Tracking comes as a paid add-on:
Weekly automatic updates.
Historical trend charts and export options.
Continuous monitoring of your and competitors presence.
Integration with your existing keyword tracking.
Getting Started
1. Run your first snapshot
Open the campaign in Rank Tracker and click "Get free snapshot"
Instantly see your presence, citation ranks, and context.
Review your brand terms: SEOmonitor will suggest detected terms, and you can confirm, add, or remove them before the snapshot runs.
Note: Any brand term changes made later (in Campaign Settings) will take effect after the next data refresh (up to 24 hours).
2. Enable ongoing tracking
Turn on weekly tracking for historical trends, exports, and continuous monitoring.
When you first activate AI Search or add new keywords, these go through a separate async processing. During this time, you’ll see progress indicators until the fresh data becomes available.
Note: Processing time varies depending on your keyword volume and the overall queue. Large campaigns and busy periods may take longer to complete.
Some keywords may be automatically excluded if they can’t return meaningful results (e.g., no AI citations or no search results). Excluded keywords are flagged accordingly in your list and do not count toward billing.
Data for Performance reporting:
This section explains the data model, frequency, and where to find the most useful charts and views for reporting.
Weekly update cadence
AI Search visibility updates once per week (per crawl).
Charts show one data point per crawl.
If you select dates between crawls, the line will simply jump from one crawl to the next; there is no interpolation.
Trends and percentage deltas are calculated between actual crawl points.
New keywords added between crawls appear on the previous crawl date once they have data.
Where to see AI Search reporting data
You can surface AI Search performance for your domain in two main places:
Scorecards
In the Rank Tracker Strategy view, check AI Search Mentioned card for:
AI Search Mentioned
AI Presence Sentiment
AI Search Cited
AI Search Citation Rank
These represent your domain's visibility for AI Search. For competitors AI Search mentions and citation share switch to the Competition view.
Charts and Trends
Review how your brand's performance in AI Search is changing WoW through dedicated charts and compare this with organic and AIO metrics:
Competitive Analysis & Reporting
Use the Competitors panel to compare how your performance compares against competitors for Google, AI Overview, and AI Search.
What each column means
For each competitor and for the same keyword set:
Google
Organic visibility and rank metrics (as usual).
AI Overview (AIO)
Mentioned: % of search volume where the brand is named.
Cited: % of search volume where the site is linked in AIO.
AI Search
Mentioned: % of search volume where the brand is named in the LLM answer.
Cited: % of search volume where the site is cited as a source.
Deltas show the change vs the previous crawl.
All of these rates are weighted by search volume, so wins on high-volume topics matter more than lower Search Volume topics.
AI Share of Voice measures your share of influence amongst competitors selected on an 'Impression Score' for each keyword.
How the Score is Calculated:
- If your brand is mentioned in AI Search, you get 1pt for a mention or
0.5pts for a citation.
- If no brands are mentioned, you get 1pt for a citation.
The same calculation is used to calculate the score for every competitor you select.
Scores are multiplied by search volume, and your Share of Voice is your
share of the total score among all analyzed competitors.
How to apply AI Search insights in reports and analysis
1. Start at the overall level
In All keywords, review:
AI Search Mentioned %
AI Search Cited %
Average Citation Rank
Sentiment distribution (positive / negative / neutral)
Compare with:
Google visibility
AIO metrics
Questions to answer:
Is AI Search visibility broadly aligned with organic visibility, or lagging?
Is sentiment mostly positive or neutral?
Are your citations in line with your mentions, or are you “mentioned without being cited”?
2. Benchmark against competitors
Go to the Competitors panel (All keywords).
Compare your AI Search Mentioned/Cited against key competitors.
Use this to label your situation:
You lead in both mentions and citations.
You lead in citations but lag in mentions.
You lag in both.
This helps you position AI Search in reporting:
“We are strong in citations but behind in pure brand visibility.”
“Competitor X is gaining SoV in AI Search for our core topics.”
“We gained AI Search visibility while Google visibility stayed flat.”
3.Group drill-down
Use your existing keyword groups (e.g. product lines, themes, funnel stages) to see where LLMs see you as an authority.
Select groups in the sidebar
Compare for that group:
AI Search Mentioned / Cited
Google visibility
AIO Mentioned / Cited
Look for:
Groups where AI Search visibility is higher than organic:
The model already recognises you as a strong source. Protect and expand.
Groups where AI Search visibility is lower than organic:
You rank well in Google but are underrepresented in LLM answers.
These are prime candidates for optimisation (content depth, citations, PR).
You can also open the group-level Competitors view to see who dominates AI Search for that topic cluster.
4. Keyword-level drill-down & gap analysis
From the keyword table for any group or for all keywords:
Use filters to find strategic sets:
Examples:
“We are absent, competitors present”
Filter:
Only other brands mentioned
Sort keywords by:
Search volume (highest first)
Difficulty (start with “easy” or “medium” topics)
These are high-impact gaps where LLMs already talk about competitors, and you have topical authority.
“Negative sentiment”
Filter where:
Your brand is mentioned negatively
Review the AI response and cited sources to understand why.
5. Read AI responses and citations for content ideas
Once you have a filtered keyword list:
Open the AI response for the top topics.
Check:
How your competitors are described.
What features, benefits, or content formats the LLM highlights.
Whether the response is purely informational or brand-led.
Switch to the Citations panel:
Identify which sites are cited besides you (retailers, publishers, comparisons, guides, blogs, etc.).
Flag high-authority third-party sites repeatedly cited across important topics.
Use this for:
On-site content planning
Add missing content types (guides, comparisons, FAQs, styling tips, etc.).
Make pages more complete and aligned with what the LLM emphasises.
Digital PR & partnerships
Target the repeatedly cited third-party domains as priority outreach targets.
Aim to earn mentions and links where competitors are already present.
Tip! Use the API for bulk content analysis
6. Use trends to validate impact
After you implement changes:
Track AI Search Mentioned and AI Search Cited over the next weeks.
Check if the affected groups or keywords show:
Increased mentions for your brand.
More citations in the AI response.
Monitor competitor curves on the same trend chart to see if gains come from:
Market growth, or
Share taken from specific competitors
Billing & availability
Pricing
Charged per campaign, per 1,000 keywords (rounded up). See the dedicated pricing page in the Help Center for the latest details.Trials
AI Search is enabled for the first campaign (up to 10,000 keywords).Compatibility
Available for Pro plans and above.Not available
Legacy / grandfathered plans and Content Writer–only plans require an upgrade.
Notes:
Free snapshots reserve tracking slots for the entire billing cycle; archiving campaigns or keywords does not free them mid-cycle.
You can choose which campaigns to enable the add-on for and roll out gradually across your client base.
Limitations & known constraints
One AI source per campaign
You can choose ChatGPT or Gemini, not both at once.
Switching source resets AI Search data for that campaign; there is no backfill.Draft campaigns
AI Search is not supported on draft (free) campaigns, since processing costs are higher than standard Google tracking.Snapshots
Require regular Google tracking to be active and do not include exports or history.Other modules
AI Search will be integrated later into Research and Forecast, following Organic Traffic enhancements.