What is AI visibility, and how is it measured?
AI visibility is the share of AI answers that name a business. Wudel Consulting asks each client's 30 tracked customer questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode every day and divides the answers that name the business by all answers that month. Olympus Roofing's October 2026 visibility was 950 of 3,170 answers: 30%.
Six numbers, each with its formula.
- 01
AI visibility
Answers that name the business ÷ all answers to its tracked questions in the month. Olympus, October 2026: 950 ÷ 3,170 = 30.0%. September, computed the same way: 529 ÷ 2,816 = 18.8%.
- 02
Mentions
The count behind visibility: every answer that names the business. Olympus, October 2026: 950, up 80% on September.
- 03
Citations
Answers that link to the business's own website, counted once per answer. Olympus, October 2026: 2,626 answers linked olympusroofing.com, up from 430 in September.
- 04
Share of voice
The business's mentions ÷ mentions of every tracked competitor in the same answers. Olympus, October 2026: 20.0%, #3 of 9 tracked roofers, 0.3 points behind #2.
- 05
Average position
When an answer lists several businesses, the business's place in that list, averaged over the answers that name it. Olympus, October 2026: #2.7.
- 06
Questions covered
How many of the tracked questions name the business at least once in the month. Olympus, October 2026: 26 of 30.
How the questions are chosen and asked.
Real customer questions
We start from the questions a client's customers ask about the service and the city, and choose 30 to track: who to hire, what it costs, how to choose.
Asked every day
Each question is asked on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode every day: 150 checks a day per client. Answers change daily, so a month of answers beats one screenshot.
Recorded as given
Each answer is stored with who it names, in what order, and which websites it links. Days with a tracking gap are reported, not filled in.
One question set per comparison
When the question set changes, the months on either side aren't compared. Olympus moved to a 32-question residential set in November 2026.
What these numbers can't tell you.
Correlation, not proof
We can show visibility rising after articles go live and which pages get cited. We can't isolate each article's effect from reviews, listings and the engines' own changes.
Engines change
The engines update their models and sources without notice, so a month can dip with no change on the site. Olympus dipped from 29% in July to 19% in September before reaching 30% in October 2026.
Personal answers vary
A customer's own answer can differ with location, history and wording. Tracking shows the pattern across thousands of answers, not one person's screen.
Questions, answered.
AI visibility is the percentage of AI answers to a business's tracked customer questions that name the business. If a roofer is named in 950 of 3,170 answers in a month, its AI visibility is 30% for that month.
A mention is an answer that names the business. A citation is an answer that links to the business's own website. An answer can mention a business without citing it, and engines that link sources, like Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, cite more often.
Share of voice is a business's mentions divided by the mentions of all tracked competitors in the same answers. Olympus Roofing had 20.0% share of voice in October 2026, third of nine tracked Salt Lake City roofers.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Through October 2026 Microsoft Copilot was tracked in place of AI Mode.
Every day. Each client's 30 tracked questions are asked on five AI engines daily, 150 checks a day, and the monthly numbers use every answer from the month.
