Reading your AI Visibility Score
What Citation Strength means, the 5-factor rubric, grades, and why you should read trends not single runs.
Citation Strength (0–100) is your core metric for a single question on a single engine. 0 means the engine answered with no awareness of your brand; 100 means you're the authoritative, prominently-cited answer. Your headline brand score is the average across every question × engine.
The 5-factor rubric
Each score is built from five factors: Presence (20%) — were you mentioned at all; Prominence (25%) — how early and central; Context (20%) — positive, neutral, or a caveat; Citation Link (20%) — did the engine link to your own domain or only third parties; Competitive Share (15%) — your share of voice among all brands named. The methodology is published in full on the Methodology page.
Grades and what to do
A+ (90–100) dominant · A (80–89) strong · B+/B (60–79) good-to-moderate · C+/C (40–59) needs work · D (25–39) poor · F (<25) effectively invisible.
A common trap: high Presence but a Citation Link of 0. You're mentioned, but the engine never links to your site, so no one arrives. The fix is citable owned content — clear, structured, specific, on your own domain.
Read trends, not single runs
AI engines are non-deterministic, so the same question can score a few points differently run to run. Don't chase a one-run dip that's just noise, and don't over-read a one-run spike. Watch the trend across several runs on the History page.
Still stuck? Email hello@pondral.com.