What AI Search Reporting Should You Actually Measure?
SEO has always had its fair share of vanity metrics.
You can have thousands of organic sessions, hundreds of keywords ranking and a strong Domain Rating, but if none of that is turning into enquiries, purchases or brand visibility, what is the point?
Now AI search is changing the game again.
Businesses need to understand not just how they perform in Google, but how often they appear in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and other AI search platforms. Digital Landscope focuses on both SEO and AEO because search visibility is no longer limited to traditional search results.
What are AEO vanity metrics?
AEO vanity metrics are numbers that look impressive but do not necessarily tell you whether your brand is winning valuable visibility in AI search.
For example:
• Total website traffic. It’s all well and good having thousands of users, but if 90% are returning users or people who already know you, then you’re not growing your visibility.
• Number of AI mentions. While underlying numbers can be useful at getting a snapshot of performance, where are those mentions going, your brand name or a service or product that will move the needle.
• Number of keywords tracked. Google Search Console can show a website having thousands of keywords, how many are actually keywords with commercial intent that is driving high quality traffic to your website.
• Domain Rating.
• Number of indexed pages. Pages being indexed is a crucial part of making AEO work but if you are blindly looking at index numbers and not what content is on those indexed pages, then it’s meaningless.
These metrics are not useless. They can provide valuable context. The problem is relying on them as your main measure of success.
The better question is: Are your ideal customers seeing your brand when they ask AI about the products or services you offer?
Is Domain Rating important for AEO and SEO?
Domain Rating, or DR, is a third party authority metric commonly used to understand the strength of a website’s backlink profile. 10 years ago it was all SEO was about and it was all about how many high DR links you can get pointed back at your website.
A higher DR can be a useful indication of your website’s authority, but it is not a Google ranking score and Google has made several search updates that negatively rank a website that is bulk placing links. Having 200 links it does not tell ChatGPT to recommend your business.
A website could have a high DR and still have poor visibility for commercially important searches.
Equally, a lower authority website can perform extremely well for specific topics where it has strong relevance, useful content and clear expertise. We have seen this throughout our client portfolio.
Use Domain Rating as a diagnostic metric, not your end goal.
Which AEO metrics should you actually track?
AI search requires a slightly different way of measuring visibility.
Some of the most useful metrics include:
• AI visibility: How frequently your brand appears across relevant AI searches.
• Share of voice: How often your business appears compared with competitors.
• Brand mentions: How frequently AI platforms mention your business.
• Citation visibility: Whether your website is being used or referenced as a source.
• Competitor visibility: Which competing businesses are appearing instead of you.
• Conversion data: Whether AI driven visitors are generating enquiries, sales or other valuable actions.
These metrics give you a much clearer picture of whether your AEO strategy is actually working.
How do you know if your business is visible in AI search?
This is where many businesses currently have a blind spot.
You might be ranking well on Google while barely appearing in AI generated answers. You might also be surprised by which competitors are being recommended, what sources AI platforms are using and which questions your brand is missing from entirely.
Want to know how visible your business actually is in AI search?
Use our AI Visibility Checker to see how your brand is performing across the questions that matter to your customers.
Don’t rely on Domain Rating, rankings or traffic alone. Find out whether AI search engines are actually seeing, mentioning and recommending your business.
Check your AI visibility today and see where you really stand. Alternatively you can book some time with us below.
Two checkers, because the questions are different
How a business gets recommended by an AI platform depends almost entirely on who’s asking. Pick the one that matches how you sell.
AI Visibility Check for B2B
For manufacturers, suppliers and service businesses selling to other companies. Built around supplier shortlisting, specification research and competitor comparison. The long, quiet part of the buying cycle that happens before anyone contacts you.
- Supplier and shortlisting prompts
- Specification and certification questions
- Competitor comparison across the buying cycle
AI Visibility Check for B2C
For consumer brands, local services and retailers. Built around the local, comparative and recommendation-led questions customers ask when they're close to deciding. The ones national tools never test.
- Local prompts for the areas you serve
- Recommendation and near-me style questions
- Comparison against named competitors