# Measuring and earning mentions in AI answers

> How to read a domain's AI visibility on Google's AI answers and ChatGPT, compare it with competitors, and decide which pages to improve so assistants cite them.

Source: https://netweft.com/blog/earning-mentions-in-ai-answers
Updated: 2026-10-15

**Record your competitors, check AI visibility once per assistant, read Mentions and Share of voice against them, then improve the pages assistants already cite and write the pages your strongest competitors have and you lack. Check again about once a month, when the dataset is rebuilt.**

AI answers on Google and ChatGPT name brands and cite pages. A domain that is
named in those answers gets a visit, or at least a mention, from questions
where the ten blue links are never read. [AI visibility](/docs/ai-visibility)
measures that, one assistant at a time.

## 1. Record the competitors first

The comparison reads the competitors in the project's
[context](/docs/project-context), up to nine of them. Without them the check
reports only your own figures and share of voice has nothing to compare
against. Record the competitors you lose deals to, not only the largest ones.

## 2. Run one check per assistant

On **AI visibility**, choose **Google AI answers** and **Check AI visibility**,
then do the same for **ChatGPT**. Each check costs
2,150 credits, and the same check within 24 hours
answers from a stored copy at no cost.

## 3. Read the figures

| Figure | What it tells you |
| --- | --- |
| Mentions | how many AI answers in the dataset name your domain |
| AI search volume | how often the questions behind those answers are asked |
| Share of voice | your mentions against each competitor's |
| Cited sources | which of your pages the assistant cites, and how often |

A competitor with twice your mentions on Google AI answers and level with you
on ChatGPT has a Google problem you do not; treat the assistants separately.

## 4. Improve what is already cited

**Cited sources** is the shortest list to act on. Those pages already earn
citations, so they are the pages an assistant trusts on the topic:

- Keep them current. A cited page with an outdated figure is a citation that
  can turn against you.
- Make the answer easy to lift: a direct one-paragraph answer near the top,
  then the detail.
- Link from them to the pages you want cited next.

## 5. Close the gaps competitors hold

Where a competitor's share of voice is well above yours, look for the page
they have and you lack: a comparison, a definition, a pricing explanation. Use
[Keyword research](/docs/keyword-research) on the topic to see how often it is
searched, then write the page in the [topic
cluster](/blog/planning-a-topic-cluster) it belongs to.

## 6. Check monthly, not daily

The data vendor rebuilds its AI answer dataset about once a month, so a check
every few days returns the same figures. Run both checks once a month and
record what changed in the project's research log, next to what you published
that month.