Guide
AI discoverability: how brands get found in AI answers
Last updated Prices checked
What "AI discoverability" means
Search results for AI discoverability are mostly strategy explainers and AI visibility tool pages. They describe the same change: buyers now ask an assistant, read the generated answer, and only click the few sources it names.
Classic SEO asks "where do we rank?" AI discoverability asks three narrower questions:
- Are we mentioned when an engine answers a question our buyers ask?
- Are we cited, meaning our domain is one of the named sources?
- Who is named instead when we are not?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) are the names for the work that improves those answers. For the definition, see AEO definition.
The four levers behind AI discoverability
1. Crawl access
An engine can only quote a page it can fetch. If robots.txt blocks AI crawlers, or the page only renders in JavaScript, the page is invisible to that engine. Terradium's free AI crawler checker checks whether robots.txt allows 13 AI crawlers (GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and others), whether llms.txt is valid, and whether a page is server-rendered.
2. Answer-ready pages
Assistants quote pages that answer the question in the first lines and support it with clear structure: a direct definition, a comparison table, steps, an FAQ. A page that buries the answer under an intro is harder to cite.
3. Consistent entity signals
Your brand name, what you sell, and who you serve should read the same on your site, your profiles, and your structured data. Mixed descriptions make it harder for an engine to connect a question to your brand.
4. Mentions on other sources
Generated answers often draw on third-party pages such as lists, reviews, and forum threads. Being named there gives engines more places to find you.
How to measure AI discoverability
AI answers change between runs, so a single check is a snapshot, not a score. A useful measurement samples a fixed set of questions on a schedule and tracks trends:
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Appearance rate | Share of sampled prompts where your brand shows up |
| Citation share | How often your domain is the named source |
| Share of voice | Your slice of mentions vs. competitors in the same answers |
| Average position | Where you land among the cited sources |
These are sampled, directional metrics, not guaranteed placements. For how prompt sampling works and which tools do it, see the AEO tracker guide and best AI visibility tools.
To check one question right now, the free AI visibility checker asks ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews and reports whether each answer mentions your brand and cites your domain.
An AI discoverability checklist
- AI crawlers allowed in
robots.txt, and key pages server-rendered. - A valid
llms.txtthat points engines at your most important pages. - One page per buyer question, with the answer in the opening lines.
- The same brand description across your site and profiles.
- A fixed list of buyer questions, sampled on the same engines every week.
- A work list of questions where you are missing, mentioned but not cited, or where a competitor is cited instead.
How Terradium fits
Terradium is a GEO and AEO platform created by Kugie and operated by PT Semesta Solusi Digital. It covers the measurement and the content side of AI discoverability in one subscription:
- AI Visibility tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini (pick three), reported as appearance rate, citation share, and share of voice over time.
- Answer-ready articles drafted for the questions where you are missing, published to a built-in headless CMS or a signed webhook.
- AI visitor attribution with the Embed SDK (
npx terradium init), which shows which visitors arrived from an AI answer. No PII by default. - Search Console integration to read your real queries alongside AI visibility.
One published plan: $29 a month for 15 tracked questions sampled weekly on 3 engines, with 30 article generations per billing period and 7 days free. See pricing.
If you need people for strategy, research, or off-site PR, read AEO service: agency vs platform.
Questions
- What is AI discoverability?
- How likely AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini are to find, name, and cite your brand when someone asks a question in your category.
- Is AI discoverability the same as SEO?
- They overlap but are not the same. SEO targets a position in a list of links. AI discoverability is about being named and cited inside a generated answer. Both need pages that crawlers can fetch.
- How do I check my AI discoverability?
- Start with the free AI crawler checker to confirm engines can read your site, then run the free AI visibility checker for one question. For trends, track a fixed set of questions every week.
- Can anyone guarantee that AI will cite my brand?
- No. Engines decide which sources to cite, and answers vary between runs. Tracking shows whether your work is moving the numbers. It does not promise a placement.
- How does Terradium improve AI discoverability?
- It tracks where you appear, lists the questions where you are missing or not cited, drafts answer-ready articles for those gaps, and publishes them. Plans start at $29/month with a 7-day free trial.
See whether AI answers mention you
Start the 7-day free trial · Free AI visibility checker
See where AI answers leave you out
Terradium samples ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini for the questions your buyers ask, then writes the articles that close the gaps. $29 a month, 7 days free.
Start free for 7 days