AI Search Metric
Prompt visibility
Also known as: prompt coverage
The percentage of monitored prompts in which a brand or domain appears at least once in the generated answer. The AI-search analogue of keyword ranking coverage.
What it is
Prompt visibility is the percentage of monitored prompts in which a brand or domain appears at least once in the generated answer, whether cited or merely mentioned. It measures presence rather than dominance.
Why it matters
It is the AI-search analogue of keyword ranking coverage, telling you how much of the relevant question space your brand shows up in at all, which is the precondition for any AI-driven discovery.
How it works
A practitioner defines a representative prompt set, runs it on a schedule, and counts the share of prompts where the brand surfaces, then widens coverage by addressing the topics and questions where it is currently absent.
When it applies
Use it as the headline coverage metric whenever you are establishing or auditing presence across a category of AI queries.
Examples
- A brand appearing in 60 of 200 monitored prompts has visibility across roughly a third of its question space
- A new entrant tracking which buyer questions it is still invisible for
- A team prioritising content for the prompts where competitors appear but they do not
How it is measured
- Count of prompts with at least one brand appearance divided by total prompts
- Prompt visibility split by funnel stage or intent
- Visibility gap against named competitors
- Change in visibility after publishing new coverage
Related terms in AI Search Metric
- AI-referred trafficSessions referred from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and other LLM surfaces. Often under-counted in standard analytics because referrers are stripped or labelled as direct.
- Answer attribution rateThe proportion of AI answers that explicitly link back to source pages versus those that summarise without attribution. Attribution rate varies materially by platform and query type.
- Bounce-back rate (AI surface)The rate at which users return to the SERP or refine the prompt after seeing an AI Overview. Google's internal signal that an Overview failed, high bounce-back is associated with Overviews being silently removed for that query cluster.
- Brand mention rateThe frequency at which an LLM mentions a brand by name in answers across a prompt set, with or without citation. Brand mentions without citation are an early indicator of model-internalised brand awareness.
- Citation depthHow early in an AI-generated answer a source is cited. Earlier citations correlate with higher click-through from AI surfaces and stronger user trust signals.
- Citation diversity indexThe number of distinct domains an LLM cites across a prompt set, normalised by prompt count. Falling diversity in a category signals consolidation, and a closing window for new entrants.