Measures
AI visibility results: how to tell if a page worked
How to compare AI answers before and after a page goes live, read the result with confidence, and know what a steady reading tells you.
Average rank in AI answers: how to move up the list
What Average rank counts in AI answers, why it can slip in a good week, how to read it beside Mention rate, and the work that moves you up the list.
On this page
Ask an AI assistant which product to buy and the answer often comes as a list. The buyer reads it from the top, and the first name gets the most attention. Being named is the first win. Being named early is the next one, and Average rank is how you track it.
What Average rank measures
How we measure defines it in one line: when you are named, how early. Rank 1 is first, so lower is better.
Say four answers name you this week, and they place you second, first, fourth and third. The positions add up to 10, and 10 divided by 4 gives an Average rank of 2.5. BotSay prints it with a hash, as #2.50, and works it out in the same order every week: your position within each question first, then the average across questions and engines.
Three details shape the figure.
- It only counts answers that name you. An answer that leaves you out gives you no position at all, good or bad.
- It needs a list. An answer that names you in a sentence of prose, with no order to it, gives no rank. So Average rank can be blank in a week where Mention rate is not.
- It leaves out questions that name you. Ask "Is [your brand] any good?" and you will be named, probably first. BotSay leaves those questions out of the five measures, so your rank reflects the answers you earned.
Read it beside Mention rate
Mention rate is the share of answers that name you. Average rank looks only inside those answers, so the two can move in opposite directions for a good reason.
Go back to the four answers above. The next week, two more answers name you, both in fourth place. Your positions now add up to 18 across six answers, so Average rank is 3.0. It moved half a place the wrong way. Yet you were named in more answers, which is the change you wanted. The two new mentions came on harder questions, where you entered the list near the bottom.
That is why BotSay shows the change in words that match the direction: 0.12 better or 0.12 worse, never "up" or "down", because a fall in the number is good news. Read a worse Average rank next to Mention rate before you report it. If Mention rate rose in the same week, you are likely looking at a good week with a worse-looking rank.
The opposite also holds. If Average rank improves while Mention rate falls, check which answers dropped you. Losing the questions where you came last lifts your average without moving you up anywhere.
Where you stand against rivals
A rank of 2.5 means more when you can see who sits above you. In BotSay, the Against rivals tab on Standing shows every brand you track on the five measures: Mention rate, Share of voice, Average rank, Your pages cited and Sentiment. Sort the table by the Average rank column to see the order. The picture below shows an invented brand ranked against its rivals on Mention rate, with its own five measures, Average rank among them, underneath.
Where you standUp from 4th
- 1Novaly41.2%
- 2TesseraYou34.0%
- 3Pinefield26.3%
- 4Kestrel Pay19.8%
- 5Orbita12.1%
Mention rate34.0%
Share of voice21.4%
Average rank#1.92
Your pages cited17.2%
Sentiment78
Example, using an invented brand
Three more views help you find where you slip down the list:
- By engine shows your Average rank on each of the six engines. An engine that names you often but late is a different problem from one that rarely names you at all.
- Over time draws Average rank week by week, against your top rival, a named rival, one engine or one theme.
- Evidence counts the answers that Named you first, and for any single answer it lists the Brands, in the order named, with your row marked.
Why a rival comes ahead of you
The engines do not publish how they put a list in order. What you can read is the answer itself: the sentence each brand gets, and the pages the engine linked to.
Open the answers where a rival comes above you and compare the lines. Does the engine credit the rival with something specific, such as a feature, a price or a kind of customer it suits, while it describes you in general terms? Does it link to the rival's own page, or to a review or comparison page where the rival is described first and in more detail? For every answer, BotSay shows the searches the engine ran to write it, so you can also see what the engine went looking for before it chose an order.
A pattern across several answers is worth acting on. A single answer that put you third instead of second is not, because an engine's answer to the same question varies a little from one reading to the next.
How to move up the list
Moving up comes from giving the engines a clear reason to name you first for a given need. Most of that work falls into two kinds.
Pages to write. Find the topics where a rival is named ahead of you, and write the page that answers those questions for your product. State plainly who it is for, what it does and what it costs, near the top, in the words a buyer uses. If the engines credit a rival with a strength you share, say so on your own page with the facts to back it.
Places to be mentioned. Look at the outside pages the answers cite: review sites, publishers, communities and lists. If a comparison page the engines trust describes a rival in detail and you in one line, a fuller, current entry there gives the engine more to work with.
BotSay's Work page ranks this for you. Each Write a page item is a topic where a rival is named ahead of you on more questions than chance would explain, ranked by how many questions you lose there. Its topic page has a brief you can copy, with what to cover and what the engines credit the rival with. Places to be mentioned follow, ranked by how often the engines read or linked them.
Your work, ranked
Write a pagePayroll for restaurantsNovaly is named in 31 of 48 answers here. You are in 6.
12 questionsGet mentionedTwo review sites the engines lean onCited 140 times this week. You are not listed on either.
9 questionsDecideIs help.tessera.example yours?Counting it lifts Your pages cited.
1 minuteExample, using an invented brand
When a page goes live, mark it published in BotSay with the date. Once a whole week after that has been read, it compares the weeks before the date with the weeks after, on the questions the page was meant to win. With enough weeks on both sides, it tells you whether the change is larger than chance would explain.
Counting it every week
By hand, Average rank means reading every answer, finding each list and noting your place in it. Ten questions on six engines is 60 answers a week, and the figure is most useful tracked over several weeks. BotSay asks your questions on all six engines every week, through each provider's official developer access or a licensed search-data provider, and works out the five measures for you. Your reading arrives in the weekly email. Our guide How many questions do you need to track AI visibility? shows how the number of questions you track sets how precise your Mention rate is.
What you gain with BotSay
- Average rank worked out for you on six engines every week, beside every rival you track.
- Your rank on each engine and over time, so you can see where you slip down the list.
- The order of brands in every answer, and a count of the answers that named you first.
- Pages to write where a rival is named ahead of you, ranked by how many questions each could win.
- One fixed monthly price with everything included and no add-ons. Plans differ only in the number of questions, from $59 a month for 60 questions.
Keep reading
Measures
Sentiment in AI answers: how engines describe you
What Sentiment measures in AI answers, how to read the quotes behind it, and the pages and listings to fix when an engine describes you poorly.
Measures
Mention rate in AI answers: how often engines name you
What Mention rate counts in AI answers, how to read its likely range, why it differs by engine, and the work that raises it.
Your first reading runs right after setup
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