Mention Rate

Mention rate is the share of a set of AI-assistant answers in which a given business is named at all. It is the coarsest visibility measure: a count of appearances, taken before position or tone is considered.

How it is computed, and why the denominator matters

A panel of questions is put to an assistant. Each answer is read for the business’s name. Answers that name it, divided by answers in total, is the mention rate. The denominator is a choice. Counting every answer includes the ones where the assistant hedged and named nobody; counting only the answers that gave a differentiated list produces a higher figure that describes a different thing. Both are legitimate, and a reported rate that does not say which it used cannot be compared with anything. The visibility score this site reports is this mention rate over its twelve questions, counted over every answer and shown from 0 to 100, with first position reported beside it rather than weighted in, as set out on the methodology page.

One measured rate, two denominators

This site’s own probe put one buyer question for each of 9,240 small businesses to Claude with web retrieval. Over all answers, 14.9% of the businesses were named. Over the 5,928 answers that gave a clearly differentiated list rather than a hedge, 17.7%. Same answers, one question apart, nearly three points between them. That number is a Claude number, from one question per business on one day, and it is directional rather than a rate for any other assistant; the detail is in what 9,483 small business websites serve to an AI crawler. Aggarwal et al., “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” (KDD 2024), define visibility for sources in generated answers along similar lines, counting appearance before weighting it.

Mention rate and citation rate

A mention is the business’s name in the answer. A citation is the business’s site given as a source for it. The two come apart in both directions: an assistant can name a business from a directory it fetched, mentioning without citing, or link a site as a source for a fact while naming the business only in passing. Mention rate asks whether you were in the answer. Citation rate asks whether your own page put you there.

A common question

Why can two mention rates computed from the same answers differ?

The denominator is a choice. Dividing by every answer includes the ones where the assistant hedged and named nobody; dividing only by the answers that gave a clearly differentiated list describes something else and comes out higher. This site's probe shows both from one run: of 9,240 businesses put to Claude with web retrieval, 14.9% were named across all answers, and 17.7% across the 5,928 differentiated ones. A rate quoted without saying which denominator it used cannot be compared with anything.

Sources

The probe figures are this site’s own, computed from its audit records; one assistant, one question per business, sample drawn per metro and trade. Visibility as appearance in generated answers: Aggarwal et al., “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” (KDD 2024).