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Getting named by AI

Ranking and getting cited are two different jobs

BoFu, Baby measures AI citation separately from rank: ten buyer-intent questions, five runs each, across four platforms. That is 200 checks a month.

By Colin DowlingPart of how AI citation is measured

Named, or not, with no session to show for it

When someone types "best [your category] for [their situation]" into ChatGPT or Perplexity, they get three or four vendor names and a recommendation. No click. No session. Nothing in analytics.

You either got named or you didn't. Ranking and getting cited are two different jobs.

What the 200 checks are

Ten buyer-intent questions, run five times each, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude. That is 200 checks a month. The report is a citation rate per question per platform, tracked from the day the work starts.

The questions are agreed up front and do not change. The number reported is a citation rate, not a position. Answers vary between runs, so an "AI ranking" is not a measurement this site uses.

What gets changed after the count

The pages get written so a model can lift a clean answer out of them. AI answers mostly synthesize third-party sources, so the work also covers the roundups already ranking for your terms, the review-site categories, and the threads where buyers ask.

Google position and AI citation rate are reported separately. They move independently.

A first look at whether you are being named is part of the free 15-minute call. The full baseline, ten questions across the four platforms, is part of the BoFu Map.

Questions

What is AEO here?

Whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude name you when a buyer asks them who to use. It's a different job from ranking — you can be number two on Google and never get mentioned — and it's increasingly where the shortlist gets made.

How do you measure something an AI says?

Ten buyer-intent questions, agreed up front and never changed. Each one run five times per platform per month, across four platforms. 200 checks. We report citation rate, not position, because AI answers vary between runs and anyone quoting you an “AI ranking” is inventing a number.

Which platforms are in the 200 checks?

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude.

Where can I see whether we are being named?

The free 15-minute call includes whether the AIs are naming you or a competitor. The BoFu Map includes a citation baseline: ten buyer-intent questions across the same four platforms.

More notes

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Walking into purchasing with a pitch goes nowhere in a cautious market. Earn a hearing first through the research side and written work people already read.

Want leads who show up ready to buy?

Start with a free 15-minute call. We'll give you five high-intent searches your buyers are making right now, where you're missing from them, and whether the AIs are naming you or your competitor. Yours to keep either way.