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Methodology

The five-factor rubric.

Every Pondral score is computed from a public, weighted five-factor rubric across five AI engines: ChatGPT (GPT-5.5), Claude (Sonnet 4.6), Gemini (2.5 Flash), Perplexity (Sonar Pro), and Grok (4.3). We publish the math, the weights, and the raw evidence behind every score.

The factors

01
Presence
Whether your brand appears in the response at all.
20% weight
02
Prominence
Position in the answer and verbatim mentions vs. inferred references.
25% weight
03
Context
Whether the brand is described accurately and in the right category.
20% weight
04
Citation Link
Whether the model includes a hyperlink or attributed quote.
20% weight
05
Competitive Presence
Voice share against the top three competitors in the same answer.
15% weight

Question panels (fixed, versioned)

Each paid audit runs against a Question Panel— a versioned, customer-approved set of buyer-intent questions. Panels fix the "coffee-shop poll" problem: if the questions change every week, the score measures question luck, not brand movement.

  • Propose: Pondral seeds a draft panel from your vertical template (medical, financial, local services, etc.).
  • Review: You edit wording, add questions, or remove outliers in the Panel builder.
  • Freeze: You lock the panel (e.g. 2026-Q2-v1). A content hash is stored; the panel is immutable until you explicitly refresh.
  • Run: Every audit stamps panel_id and panel_content_hash on the run record for comparability.

Panel size scales by plan (roughly 50 questions on SMB, 100 on Growth). At least 40% of slots are discovery questions (no brand name in the prompt) so the score reflects where new customers originate, not just branded lookups.

The free checker uses a fixed 12-question mini-panel from the same template taxonomy, scored once per engine. It is labeled directional only — not for budget decisions.

Query templates

Panels are built from four discovery templates plus branded follow-ups:

  • Category-entry: "What is the best [category]?" Captures which brands own the category frame.
  • Problem-first: "How do I [solve specific problem]?" Captures which brands appear as solutions.
  • Comparison: "What are the top [category] options for [use case]?" Captures competitive presence directly.
  • Brand-adjacent: "[Competitor name] alternatives." Captures adjacency and substitution.

How we handle engine variability

AI engines are non-deterministic. The same query can produce different answers on consecutive runs, so a brand may appear in one response and be absent from the next. By default, Pondral sends each query once per engine, grades the response on the five-factor rubric, and ships the raw response so you can inspect exactly what the engine said.

For brands that want to measure consistency directly, Pondral supports repeated sampling: sending the same query several times per engine. When enabled, it reports three metrics: Mention Rate (how often your brand appears across the sampled responses), Quality When Mentioned (how favorably and prominently your brand is represented when it does appear), and a combined Visibility Index. Repeated sampling is available on request; it is not enabled on standard audits.

A worked example (repeated sampling)

Suppose repeated sampling is enabled and we ask one engine "what is the best tool for [your category]?" five times. Your brand appears in three of the five answers, a Mention Rate of 60%.

In those three answers, the five-factor rubric scores the mention 48, 62, and 55 out of 100. The middle value, 55, is your Quality When Mentioned(we use the middle value, not the average, so one outlier can't swing it).

Visibility Index = 60% × 55 = 33 out of 100.

For comparison: a brand mentioned in every answer at that same quality would score 55; one mentioned just once would score 11. A high Visibility Index requires both showing up consistently and being represented well when you do.

Every audit ships with a provenance ledger: the exact prompts, timestamps, model versions, and raw responses. Available for download on every paid plan. Drift monitoring publishes per-engine changes on the methodology status page.

How this compares to Semrush AI Visibility

Semrush is the SEO platform that recently added an AI Visibility feature. Pondral is the AI Visibility platform. That is the entire product, not a module. Both use the term "AI Visibility." They are not the same shape of company, and they will not be solving the same problem in 12 months. The side-by-side comparison lives at /compare/semrush.

Methodology v2.0.3 (June 2026). We publish a changelog of every methodology change.

Last updated June 2026Run a free audit →