When a shopper asks ChatGPT "what's the best running shoe for flat feet under $150", the engine does not show ten links. It writes a short answer and names three or four stores. AI visibility is how often your store makes that list. You will also hear it called GEO (generative engine optimization) or AEO (answer engine optimization).
Five steps, and your store can drop out at any of them.
A full question, often with a budget and a need.
"best stability shoe for flat feet under $150"Product feeds, store pages, reviews, Reddit threads, review sites and buying guides.
Three or four stores, each with a reason, a price and often a source link.
They click a product card or a source. Many pick from the answer itself.
On a store that was in the answer. If that is not you, it is a rival.
Rankings do not exist in an AI answer, so we measure something simpler. Take 50 real questions your shoppers ask. Run each one in 5 engines. That makes 250 answers. Your share of answers is how many of them name your store.
"Best X for Y", "X vs Y", price-band questions, use cases and trust questions such as "is this brand legit".
ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Copilot. Each answers the same question differently.
Run the same panel every week and you can see the share move, engine by engine, against your rivals.
Times each store was named across the same 50 questions, per engine. Invented stores, example data.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column →
| ChatGPT | Gemini | Google AI Mode | Perplexity | Copilot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fieldstone Run | 31 | 27 | 22 | 29 | 18 |
| Northway Footwear | 19 | 21 | 17 | 11 | 16 |
| Corva Athletic | 12 | 9 | 15 | 13 | 8 |
| Your store | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Every engine builds its answer from sources it can reach and trust. For an online store, five matter most:
SEO still matters. Many engines search the web before they answer, so a page that ranks is easier to find. But the prize is different: a place in a list of three instead of a link among ten.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column →
| Classic SEO | AI visibility | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you show up | A blue link among 10 | Named in the short list the engine writes |
| Winners per search | About 10 links on page 1 | About 3 stores per answer |
| What decides it | Links, keywords, page speed | Product data, your feed, answer pages and the sources engines trust |
| How you measure it | Rankings and clicks | Share of answers across 5 engines, every week |
We run 50 real shopper questions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Copilot, score your 8 product data checks, and walk you through it on a 30-minute call.
What ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Copilot read before they recommend a product.
Read the guide →Score your Shopify store in 10 minutes, with the free tools to test each check yourself.
Read the guide →Where stores stand in AI answers today, what a place on the list is worth, and why waiting costs more each month.
Read the guide →The service: what we fix, the first 90 days, pricing and a sample monthly report.
See the service →