Monitoring AI search presence

AI search monitoring tracks how your brand appears in responses from AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI assistants. As more people use AI for research and recommendations, understanding your AI presence is critical for visibility.

ConvertMate lets you monitor multiple domains simultaneously—track your own website alongside competitors to see how you compare across different AI platforms.

Plan requirements

Growth plan and above required - AI search monitoring is available on Growth, Business, and Enterprise plans.

If you're on a Free or Starter plan, you can upgrade to access AI search monitoring.

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Why AI search matters

Traditional search shows a list of links. AI search synthesizes information and provides direct answers—often without showing URLs.

The challenge: Your website might rank well in traditional Google search but never get mentioned by AI tools, meaning you miss out on a growing channel of discovery. The opportunity: If AI tools consistently recommend or cite your brand, you gain visibility among users who prefer AI-assisted research. Tracking AI presence helps you:

• Understand how AI tools describe your brand
• Identify when competitors get mentioned instead
• Find opportunities to improve AI visibility
• Measure the impact of content optimizations on AI citations

What gets tracked

AI search monitoring tests various queries related to your business:

Brand queries:

• Direct brand name searches
• Product name searches
• Company + category combinations

Category queries:

• "Best [your product category]"
• "Where to buy [product type]"
• "[Problem] solutions"
• "Compare [category] options"

Recommendation queries:

• "What should I buy for [use case]"
• "Recommend [product type]"
• "Top [category] brands"

Question queries:

• Common questions your target audience asks
• Industry-specific questions you can answer

For each query, ConvertMate tests it against multiple AI platforms and tracks whether your brand appears in the response, how prominently, and in what context.

Accessing AI search monitoring

To view your AI presence:

1. Go to Insights in the main navigation
2. Select AI visibility
3. View your monitored domains and their metrics
4. Click Add domain to start monitoring a new website

Monitor AI search presence

The dashboard displays:

• Table of all domains you're monitoring (your site and competitors)
• Per-domain visibility scores with trend indicators
• Last check date and next scheduled check
• Summary metrics across all monitored domains
• Quick actions to view details or run new checks

Understanding your AI visibility score

Your score (0-100) reflects:

Mention frequency - How often your brand appears in AI responses across tested queries. Prominence - Whether you're mentioned first, in the middle, or at the end of responses. Context quality - If mentions are positive, neutral, or negative. Platform coverage - How many different AI tools mention you. Query diversity - Whether you appear for brand searches only or also category and recommendation queries.

Scores above 60 indicate strong AI visibility. Scores below 30 suggest AI tools rarely mention your brand.

Adding domains to monitor

You can monitor multiple domains—your own website and competitors—to track and compare AI presence.

To add a domain:

1. Go to the AI visibility dashboard
2. Click Add domain
3. Enter the domain to monitor (e.g., "yourwebsite.com")
4. Provide a brief description of what the site does
5. Review the suggested queries (or add your own)
6. Select which AI platforms to check (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini)
7. Choose monitoring frequency:

- Daily - Check every 24 hours - Weekly - Check once per week - Monthly - Check once per month

1. Click Start monitoring

The first check runs immediately. After that, ConvertMate automatically runs checks based on your chosen frequency.

Credit usage: Each check costs 30 credits multiplied by the number of queries and platforms selected. For example, 5 queries × 4 platforms = 600 credits per check.

Managing monitored domains

From the dashboard, you can:

View domain details - Click any domain to see full check history, query performance trends, and platform comparison data. Update configuration - Change monitoring frequency, queries, or platforms for any domain. Pause monitoring - Temporarily stop scheduled checks without losing historical data. Delete domain - Remove a domain from monitoring (this deletes all associated check history).

Each domain tracks its own metrics independently, making it easy to compare performance across your site and competitors.

Running one-off checks

In addition to scheduled monitoring, you can run one-time checks:

1. Click Run new check from the AI visibility dashboard
2. Enter the domain and description
3. Add queries to test
4. Select AI platforms
5. Click Start check

One-off checks are useful for:

• Testing a domain before adding it to regular monitoring
• Checking a specific set of queries without changing your monitoring configuration
• Running additional checks between scheduled monitoring periods

How long it takes: 3-5 minutes for checks with 5-10 queries, 10-15 minutes for larger sets.

Results update in real-time as each query completes. You can leave the page and return later.

Viewing check results

Each AI presence check shows:

Summary metrics:

• Total queries tested
• Queries where you were mentioned
• Average position in responses
• Top-performing query types
• Platform breakdown

Query-by-query results:

• The exact query tested
• Which AI platforms mentioned you
• Full AI response text
• Competitors also mentioned
• Your position in the response

Platform comparison:

• ChatGPT results
• Perplexity results
• Google AI Overviews
• Claude results
• Other AI assistants

Competitor analysis:

• Which competitors appear most often
• Queries where competitors dominate
• Head-to-head mention rates

Click any query result to see the complete AI response and analysis.

Query performance tracking

For monitored domains, ConvertMate tracks how individual queries perform over time across different AI platforms. This helps you identify which queries consistently generate brand mentions and which need optimization.

Query effectiveness metrics:

• Mention rate - How often your brand appears for this query
• Average quality - Quality score of mentions (0-100)
• Average position - Where you appear in AI responses
• Trend indicator - Whether performance is improving, declining, or stable
• Platform breakdown - Which AI tools mention you most for this query

Using query insights:

• Identify your strongest performing queries to create more similar content
• Find queries with declining performance that need content updates
• Spot queries where you appear on some platforms but not others
• Prioritize content optimization based on query effectiveness data

To view query performance:

1. Click any monitored domain from the dashboard
2. Navigate to the Query performance section
3. See all tracked queries with their metrics
4. Filter by platform (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini)
5. View historical trends for specific queries

Platform comparison

Compare how your brand performs across different AI platforms to understand where to focus optimization efforts.

Platform metrics:

• Mention rate per platform
• Average mention quality
• Average position in responses
• Total queries tested
• Citation rate (how often the AI includes source URLs)

What the data reveals:

If ChatGPT mentions you frequently but Claude rarely does, this indicates different training data or ranking factors between platforms. Focus content optimization on elements that improve Claude visibility.

If Perplexity consistently cites your sources while other platforms do not, your content may lack certain authority signals that prompt citation behavior.

Platform comparison shows where you have strong AI presence and where there's room for improvement.

Interpreting results

You're mentioned frequently:

Good. Your content strategy and SEO are working. Focus on maintaining momentum and expanding to more query types.

You're mentioned but not prominently:

Your brand is known but not the top choice. Create more authoritative content, get better backlinks, increase brand mentions across the web.

Mentioned for brand queries only:

AI tools know your brand exists but don't recommend you for category searches. Create more problem-solution content, comparison guides, and educational resources.

Competitors mentioned instead:

Analyze what content they have that you don't. Look for content gaps, weak backlink profiles, or lack of authority signals.

Rarely or never mentioned:

Start with fundamentals: ensure good traditional SEO, create high-quality content, build your brand presence, get industry citations.

Improving AI visibility

To increase how often AI tools mention you:

1. Create comprehensive content

AI tools favor detailed, well-structured content that answers questions thoroughly.

What to create:

• In-depth guides (2,000+ words)
• Comparison articles
• How-to tutorials with clear steps
• FAQ pages with complete answers
• Case studies with results

Structure matters:

• Use clear headings
• Answer questions directly
• Include data and examples
• Cite sources for credibility
• Update content regularly

2. Build authority signals

AI tools consider trust and authority when deciding what to mention.

Authority indicators:

• Backlinks from reputable sites
• Industry certifications
• Expert author bios
• Customer reviews and testimonials
• Media mentions and press coverage
• Social proof (followers, engagement)

3. Optimize for common questions

AI tools excel at answering questions.

Question optimization:

• Research common questions in your niche
• Create dedicated answer pages
• Use question-based headings
• Provide clear, direct answers
• Include relevant context

4. Improve traditional SEO

AI tools use search engine data as a foundation.

SEO basics:

• Strong technical SEO
• Quality backlinks
• Fast page speed
• Mobile optimization
• Regular content updates

5. Get mentioned more

AI tools learn from what's being discussed online.

Increase mentions:

• Guest post on industry sites
• Get featured in news articles
• Active on social media
• Participate in industry discussions
• Partner with other brands

Tracking trends over time

Monitored domains automatically build historical data with each scheduled check:

Score evolution - See score changes over time with trend indicators (↑ increasing, ↓ decreasing, → stable). Query performance changes - Track which queries improve or decline in effectiveness across platforms. Platform shifts - Identify if certain AI tools mention you more or less as they update their models. Competitive movements - When monitoring competitor domains alongside yours, compare how visibility changes over time. Impact measurement - Correlate content updates, SEO changes, or link building efforts with AI visibility improvements.

Each domain maintains its own historical progression. The dashboard displays current scores alongside previous scores to show momentum.

To analyze trends:

1. Click any monitored domain
2. View the score history chart
3. Check query-level trend data
4. Compare performance across platforms
5. Identify patterns and correlations

Monitoring competitors

Add competitor domains to your monitoring to see how their AI presence compares to yours:

1. Click Add domain from the dashboard
2. Enter the competitor's domain
3. Provide a description of their business
4. Configure the same queries and platforms you use for your site
5. Set monitoring frequency

Comparison insights:

• Side-by-side visibility scores across the same queries
• Which queries competitors dominate
• Content gaps where competitors appear but you don't
• Platforms where each brand performs best
• Query strategies that work better for competitors

Monitoring multiple domains (your site plus 3-5 key competitors) provides the clearest picture of your competitive position in AI search results.

Best practice: Use identical queries and platforms across all monitored domains to ensure fair comparison. Different query sets make it harder to compare performance directly.

Setting up alerts

Configure notifications for AI presence changes on a per-domain basis:

Score drops - Alert when a domain's visibility score decreases significantly between checks. Score improvements - Notify when a domain's score increases substantially. New mentions - Alert when your brand appears in a query where it previously didn't. Mention loss - Notify if you stop appearing for queries where you previously appeared. Competitor movements - When monitoring competitor domains, alert if their scores change significantly.

Alert thresholds can be customized per domain. Future updates will include email and webhook notification options.

Credit costs

AI presence monitoring uses credits based on the number of queries and platforms tested:

Per-check cost: 30 credits × queries × platforms Examples:

• 5 queries × 4 platforms = 600 credits per check
• 10 queries × 2 platforms = 600 credits per check
• 3 queries × 3 platforms = 270 credits per check

Scheduled monitoring costs:

• Daily checks - Credits consumed every 24 hours
• Weekly checks - Credits consumed once per week
• Monthly checks - Credits consumed once per month

If your credit balance is insufficient when a scheduled check is due, the check is skipped and rescheduled for the next period. You can adjust monitoring frequency or pause domains to manage credit usage.

Credit planning: A domain with 5 queries and 4 platforms checking weekly uses approximately 2,400 credits per month (600 × 4 weeks).

Limitations

AI search monitoring has some constraints:

Not real-time - Results reflect AI responses at check time. AI models update periodically, so responses change over time. Scheduled monitoring helps track these changes consistently. Platform availability - Some AI platforms limit access or update their APIs. ConvertMate monitors ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. Additional platforms will be added as they become accessible. Geographic variations - AI responses can differ by region. Checks currently use US-based queries. Regional variations may be added in future updates. Query specificity - General queries show different results than very specific queries. Test a variety of query types (brand, category, question-based) for comprehensive coverage. Scheduled check timing - Scheduled checks run once per frequency period (daily, weekly, monthly). You cannot control the exact time of day checks execute.

Troubleshooting

Check not running on schedule

If a scheduled check doesn't run when expected:

• Verify sufficient credits available in your account
• Check that monitoring is active (not paused)
• Review the next scheduled check date on the dashboard
• Checks may be delayed during high system load

After 5 consecutive failed checks due to insufficient credits, monitoring automatically pauses for that domain.

Score fluctuations

Visibility scores can vary between checks:

• AI models update regularly, changing what they recommend
• Your content ranking in traditional search affects AI responses
• Competitors' content changes impact relative visibility
• Query phrasing matters—small wording changes affect results

Use trend indicators to identify consistent patterns rather than focusing on single check variations.

No mentions at all

If your brand never appears in AI responses:

• Your brand might be too new or niche for AI training data
• Traditional SEO foundation needs strengthening first
• Focus on building authority through backlinks and citations
• Create comprehensive, expert-level content
• Consider industry partnerships to increase brand mentions online

Domain configuration changes not saved

If updates to monitored domain settings don't persist:

• Ensure you clicked save after making changes
• Verify you have editor permissions in your workspace
• Check that no validation errors appeared (query limits, platform selection)
• Try refreshing the page and updating again

Inconsistent query performance

If query performance varies significantly:

• AI models update regularly, causing natural variability
• Track trends over multiple checks rather than individual results
• Some queries may be borderline for inclusion in responses
• Consider adjusting query phrasing for more consistent results

What's next

After monitoring AI search:

• Improve SEO with audits
• Create better content strategy
• Optimize product pages
• Track traditional search rankings

Questions about AI search monitoring? Use the chat widget in the bottom-right corner or email support@convertmate.io.