Measuring AI citation rate — our 16.7% was namesakes, really 0%
Summary in three lines
- Our brand showed up in 16.7% of AI answers, but all four hits were namesakes: the real citation rate was 0%.
- We ask 12 customer-style questions to two AI services, 24 queries in total, save every full answer, and run it twice a week for about 1.44 dollars per run.
- When asked by name, one AI cited our site in all three tries; when people only describe a problem without our name, we do not show up yet.
What we learned
- A mention is our name appearing in the text; a citation is our site URL in the sources. Count them separately so namesakes cannot inflate the score.
- Keep the raw AI answers, not just the numbers. Let the machine count, and have a person read them once a month.
FAQ
How do you measure an AI citation rate?
Pick questions customers would ask, put the same wording to several AI tools, and search the raw answers for your name and URL. Only answers that list your URL as a source count as citations.
How can I get my brand into AI answers?
Put your own distinctive names and numbers into every post and place the target keyword early in the title. Research found that adding statistics, quotes and sources raised visibility in AI answers by up to 40%.
This page is a summary BELLA AI wrote after reading the original. The full process and screenshots are in the original post.