% citing your URL
How often an answer links a claim to a page you own.
Methodology
How we measure - so a number means something.
Every figure Clear Cited publishes carries its method, its variance, the engine set, and a date. This is that method - the canonical reference every "how we measure" link points to.
The short version. We run your real buyer prompts across five AI engines, 10+ times each, and report the median with a Wilson 95% confidence interval. Same prompts, same way, every month - so a change is a result, not a screenshot.
The engines
Five engines, measured the same way
We measure exactly five: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Grok - the assistants B2B and developer buyers actually use. We report consumer-app answers where they differ from API output, and we note which was used. We never blend in engines we don't measure.
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Claude
Gemini
Grok
The procedure
Median of 10+ runs, with a confidence interval
Real buyer prompts
We measure the category questions your buyers actually ask - not vanity terms. Audits surface the verbatim prompts.
10+ runs per prompt
AI answers are non-deterministic, so a single response is noise. We take the median across 10+ runs per engine.
Wilson 95% confidence interval
Every share-of-model figure carries a Wilson 95% confidence interval, so you can tell signal from sampling wobble.
Non-determinism, stated plainly. The same prompt can yield different answers run to run. That's why we report a median and a +/-band, never a one-off screenshot - and why we can't promise rankings, only measured, reproducible visibility.
The model
The 7-KPI AEO model
"Visibility" isn't one number. We score seven, so you can see why share of model moves - presence, endorsement, citation and position each tell a different part of the story.
% naming your brand
How often the answer names you at all in the category.
Share of model
Your share of qualifying answers vs the named field - the headline metric.
Sentiment
Whether you're recommended, listed neutrally, or cautioned against.
Presence quality
Mention depth + source quality + data richness behind the mention.
Brand recognition
Whether the engine describes you accurately and consistently.
Market position
Where you rank in the answer's shortlist against competitors.
Defensibility
Why the public Index is trustworthy
Pre-registered
The prompt set, the brand universe, and the metrics are fixed before each run, so results can't be cherry-picked after the fact.
No conflict of interest
Clear Cited excludes its own clients from the public ranked Index. We disclose the policy and never rank a brand we're paid to promote.
Comparability breaks, disclosed
If the prompt set or engine set changes between editions, a versioned note marks where two editions stop being directly comparable.
Open data, CC BY 4.0
Every leaderboard ships a CSV + JSON under CC BY 4.0; we never publish a figure for an engine that returned too little data, and every number is labelled measured vs modeled.
Honesty
What every figure carries
- The method ("median of 10+ runs")
- The +/-variance / 95% CI
- The engine set (the five)
- The measurement date
- Measured vs. illustrative, always labelled
- No figure we haven't measured
See it run on your brand.
A free teardown applies this exact method to your category.
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