How Do You Track Rankings in AI Answer Engines?
Replace “rank” with measurable visibility: presence, citation share-of-voice, and assisted conversions across Perplexity, Google SGE, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT. Use compliant monitoring, structured UTMs, and dashboards by topic cluster.
Core Metrics for AI Answer Engines
Metric | Formula | Target/Range | Where to Measure | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Presence Rate | Questions with your citation ÷ Questions checked | Rising MoM | Perplexity/SGE/Copilot/ChatGPT checks | Segment by cluster and engine |
Citation Share-of-Voice | Your citations ÷ All citations in panel | >25% in focus clusters | Answer panels | Weight by position if shown |
Top-Position Citations | Citations in first slot ÷ Your citations | Growing over time | Answer panels | Proxy for prominence |
Refresh Win Rate | Citations gained after an update ÷ Pages updated | >20–30% | Change log + panels | Shows impact of maintenance |
AI-Assisted Sessions | Sessions with `utm_source` = engine | Upward trend | GA4/Looker | Use distinct UTM per engine |
AI-Influenced Pipeline | Opp value with AI-UTM touches | Increasing with coverage | CRM/Attribution | Report by cluster |
5-Step Setup (Compliant & Practical)
Create a spreadsheet of target questions per cluster; include intent, primary URL, and UTM’d share link.
Example: utm_source=perplexity|sge|copilot|chatgpt, utm_medium=ai_answer, utm_campaign=cluster-name.
In GA4/Looker, group AEO pages, add AI-UTM filters, and create tiles for presence, SOV, sessions, and pipeline.
Use each engine’s built-in citations and allowed exports where available; otherwise perform periodic human spot checks. Respect terms of service.
Join citation logs with analytics and CRM to show AI-assisted sessions, meeting requests, and influenced opportunities.
Engine-Specific Tips
Operations: Who Does What Weekly
Role | Responsibility | Cadence | Output |
---|---|---|---|
AEO Strategist | Own question list and target URLs | Weekly | Updated cluster map |
Analyst | Update presence/SOV logs and dashboards | Weekly | Visibility scorecard |
Content Lead | Queue refreshes for pages losing presence | Biweekly | Refresh backlog |
RevOps | Attribute AI-UTM sessions to pipeline | Monthly | Influenced pipeline report |
Want to operationalize this? Start with the AEO overview and the in-depth Complete Guide to AEO.