AI has completely transformed how users search – and what it really means to be “visible” in those results.
While links and rankings still matter, they’re no longer the full story.
Now it’s about mentions, citations, and whether your brand is even part of the conversation.
The challenge? Most SEO tools haven’t evolved fast enough. That makes it hard – but not impossible – to track visibility across AI platforms effectively.
Let’s dive into how to rethink SEO visibility in the AI era.
Why It’s Difficult to Track Visibility Across AI Platforms
Once upon a time, SEO was simple.
People searched for basic terms like:
“Best email marketing tools” or “SEO checklist 2020”.
You could easily reverse-engineer their intent and optimize for those queries.
But today, users type full-blown instructions like:
“Act like an eCommerce consultant and suggest affordable email automation platforms under $30/month.”
Welcome to conversational search – where users talk to AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Claude as if they’re human.
AI has made this experience feel natural, fast, and addictive.
But here’s the downside: AI-generated responses don’t always cite their sources. And when they do, the citations are often vague or inconsistent.
This leads to a hybrid behavior:
- Start with AI for a TL;DR.
- Double-check with Google.
- Hope the truth is somewhere in between.
So where does that leave your brand?
Somewhere in this messy middle, trying to track visibility across AI platforms – where traditional SEO tools no longer offer visibility.
Tools Are Lagging Behind: What That Means for SEOs
You might be mentioned in a Perplexity answer, or cited in Google’s AI Overviews – and not even know it.
Most tools are still stuck in the old paradigm: tracking exact-match keywords, top 10 rankings, and backlinks.
But today, visibility means being referenced, quoted, or suggested by AI – even when no direct link is involved.
This is the new frontier. And if you don’t know how to track visibility across AI platforms, you’re essentially flying blind.
Capabilities to Look for in AI Visibility Tools
If you want to build a solid tracking strategy, you need tools (or systems) with the following capabilities:
1. Custom Prompt Tracking
Import your own prompts instead of relying on pre-set ones. Your audience uses specific language – your tracking should reflect that.
2. Multi-Region and Language Support
AI outputs vary by region and language. Visibility in the U.S. might not match what users see in the U.K. or India.
3. Cross-Platform Tracking
A must-have feature. Your brand should be tracked across all major tools: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and others.
This is critical if you’re serious about learning how to track visibility across AI platforms effectively.
4. Competitor Mention Detection
Track how often your competitors are mentioned compared to you.
This helps uncover emerging players in your niche.
5. Historical Trends
AI results change fast. Tracking changes over time is crucial for understanding patterns and progress.
6. Topic and Platform Filtering
Break down visibility by topics, categories, or even platforms to identify where your brand performs best.
7. Exportable Responses
If you can’t export AI answers, you’re missing a huge opportunity for internal insights and reporting.
8. Visual Dashboards
Data is only useful if it’s digestible. Dashboards help you spot trends and communicate them to your team or stakeholders.
What Metrics Matter When Rankings Don’t
In the age of AI, you’re no longer tracking just rankings or CTR. You’re tracking presence. Here’s what to measure:
- Brand Mentions: How often your brand appears in AI responses.
- Citations (Linked References): Whether your site is actually linked in AI answers.
- Prompt-Triggered Mentions: Which types of queries lead to your brand being mentioned?
- Sentiment and Context: Are you ranked as a top recommendation? Or buried at the bottom?
- Share of Voice (SOV): How often your brand is mentioned vs. competitors.
- Link Destination Depth: Are links going to the homepage, blog, or product pages?
- Platform-Specific Performance: Compare how your brand performs across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others.
- Visibility Over Time: Track improvements or drops in brand mentions and citations.
All of these contribute to the bigger picture of how to track visibility across AI platforms – a crucial part of your modern SEO strategy.
Tools to Start Tracking AI Visibility
Here are some of the platforms SEO teams are testing to track their AI presence:
- Profound – Monitors mentions across platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
- Peec AI – Tracks prompts, benchmarks, and historical trends.
- Otterly – Great for prompt research and visibility tracking.
- Goodie – Combines SEO insights with AI monitoring.
- Adsmurai – Originally ad-focused, now expanding into AI performance.
- RankRaven – Focuses on brand mentions and share of voice.
- seoClarity – Offers enterprise-level AI visibility insights.
Many of these tools are still evolving, and none cover everything perfectly. You’ll need to prioritize based on your goals and budget.
Final Thoughts from University of Digital Marketing
If you’re serious about future-proofing your brand, now’s the time to go beyond traditional SEO.
Learning how to track visibility across AI platforms will soon become as essential as tracking keyword rankings used to be.
Start small.
Pick a few core prompts.
Track mentions and citations manually or via tools.
Then scale your visibility efforts over time.
This shift might feel overwhelming – but it’s also an incredible opportunity to lead, not follow.
