AI visibility checker: are you on the lists AI answers read?

When someone asks an assistant which tool, shop or service to pick, it does not know; it reads. Roundups, reviews, best-of lists and guides that already rank for the question are the sources, and the answer repeats what they say.

For each of your keywords the checker runs the question a buyer would ask, reads which pages the answer cites and which pages rank for it, and keeps the ones that list vendors in your category.

Each source page is read for your name and your competitors' names. On it, not on it, and how many competitors are, per page.

A source list you are not on is a pitch, not a fix on your site. The agent finds the person who runs it and drafts the ask; the opportunity finder shows the first ten free.

A study of 75,000 brands found brand mentions on other sites correlate with AI visibility at 0.66, backlinks at 0.22, your own pages at 0.17. The mentions are the part you can work on.

No one can promise an assistant will name you, and we do not track AI mentions yet. Being on the pages it reads is the part that can be measured and worked.

A page can rank third for a keyword and never be cited by an assistant, which prefers lists. The checker looks at what gets cited.

Pages on your own site tracked lowest with AI visibility in the study. Being named on other people's pages tracked highest.

If three competitors are on a list and you are not, the list accepts vendors in your category. That is the easiest ask there is.

Normal for a site under a year old. Every list is a pitch; the agent sends them.

The lists accept vendors in your category. The easiest ask there is: the editor already lists your kind of product.

The list links to a blog post, not the product page. Ask for the better page; the same editor, a smaller ask.

Your name appears, no link. A mention still counts for AI answers; a link is a one-line ask.

Roundups for a market you do not serve. Change the market in the brief and the lists change.

A single roundup that every answer cites. Worth a careful pitch over ten quick ones.

Best-dentist-in-town lists are read by assistants and by people. Being on them is the local SEO that works now.

Best-invoicing-apps roundups are the source for almost every assistant answer in the category.

Gift guides and best-of product lists, which assistants cite when asked what to buy.

The lists where three competitors appear are the ones that accept your category.

The finder names the editor. The ask is an addition, written from their page.

Lists update; new ones appear. The agent re-runs the check monthly in the product.

A page an AI assistant reads to assemble an answer: a roundup, a review, a best-of list, a guide. The assistant repeats what the sources say.

When an assistant names or links the page it drew from. Citations go to the sources, almost never to the vendors the sources mention.

Whether your name appears on a source list. Named with a link, named without one, or absent. Each is a different ask.

How many of your competitors appear on the same list. Three of four means the list accepts your category.

From a study of 75,000 brands: brand mentions on other sites tracked with AI visibility at 0.66, backlinks at 0.22, pages on your own site at 0.17.

An addition to a list, a citation in a guide, a correction of a wrong page. Written per source, sent from your inbox, approved by you.

Your own pages were the weakest signal in the study. The work is on other people's pages.

They read the same sources. Be on the sources and every assistant sees you.

Lists update on the writer's schedule. First presence usually shows in weeks three to six, the same as links.

A software company with a good product and no mentions. Asked about its category, three assistants named four competitors each and never the company. The checker found eleven source lists the assistants drew from. The company was on none of them. Three of the eleven already listed every direct competitor.

Eleven asks, one per source, each written from the source's own page: here is what your list says, here is what it is missing, here is a sentence you could add. Sent from the founder's own inbox after she approved each one. Four replies. Two additions with a link, one addition without, one polite no. The agent followed up the silent ones once.

Two more additions from the follow-ups. Five of eleven lists now named the company. Asked the same category question again, two of three assistants named it, one with a link to the pricing page. The third caught up in week eight when its sources refreshed.

Not a single word on the company's own site changed. The work was five sentences on other people's pages. That is the shape of the study result: brand mentions on other sites carry most of the weight, and every ask is a normal link ask with a different reason attached. The product runs the same loop for you, with every message approved before it leaves.