Asked AI 166 times, cited once — an honest AEO measurement
Summary in three lines
- Of 166 questions to three AI assistants, our site was cited once. A perfect audit score does not guarantee citations.
- A big reason was indexing. A file for announcing new posts existed, but the signal had never been sent, so some search engines had barely indexed the site.
- Cited articles tended to be long (2,719 characters on average), have many subheadings (about 10) and give the answer up front. In Naver's AI briefing, many citations came through images.
What we learned
- Report citations as counts like 1 out of 166, not percentages. Percentages swing with the denominator and can make numbers look bigger.
- Ask three AI tools about your field ten times each and count how often you appear. Re-ask the same question list next month so results are comparable.
FAQ
Are AEO and SEO different?
They overlap. Both need search engines to read you well, but SEO looks at rankings while AEO checks whether AI answers cite you. Good rankings can still mean zero citations.
Do I need a paid measurement tool?
No. Ask AI the same question list yourself and count the sources in the answers by hand. Only large automated runs cost a little in AI usage fees.
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This page is a summary BELLA AI wrote after reading the original. The full process and screenshots are in the original post.