AI Search Optimization
What a Good AI Visibility Score Looks Like (and How to Read Yours)
An AI visibility score answers one question: when your buyers ask an AI assistant who to hire, how often is it you? But a single number hides the story. This guide breaks down the five categories behind the score, what each one measures, and which to fix first for the fastest gain.
What the score actually measures
- Mention rate: how often you're named across a fixed panel of buyer prompts
- Share of voice: your presence relative to the competitors AI names instead
- Sentiment and accuracy: whether AI describes you correctly and favorably
- Citations: the third-party sources AI leans on when it answers
Reading the five categories
- AI Visibility — the headline: are you in the answer at all?
- Review Presence — the reputation signals AI weighs heavily
- Structured Data — whether AI can parse and trust your site
- Citation Footprint — how widely independent sources reference you
- Ad Presence — whether you're set up to capture the clicks that remain
What 'good' looks like by stage
- Invisible (0–30): you're not in the conversation — the priority is fundamentals
- Inconsistent (40–60): you appear sometimes; competitors take the rest
- Strong (70+): you're a default answer — now widen the lead
- Why context matters: a 'good' score in a crowded metro differs from a rural market
Fixing in the right order
- Start with the cheapest high-impact fixes: profile, NAP consistency, schema
- Then build citations and reviews — the signals AI trusts most
- Then publish answer-ready content for the prompts where you're absent
- Re-score monthly so it's a managed number, not a one-time snapshot
Want your own score? Run the free Visibility Check, or get the full ~25-prompt audit.