FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about SearchVisible, the V-Score, and how to improve your brand's visibility in AI-generated answers.
Getting started
- What is SearchVisible?
- SearchVisible is an AI visibility benchmarking tool. It measures how often ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini mention your brand when customers ask relevant questions — and gives you a concrete action plan to improve it.
- What is a V-Score?
- The V-Score is a 0–100 number that summarises your brand's visibility across AI models. It's calculated from how your brand appears across a set of intent-based queries: not mentioned scores 0, mentioned late scores 40, mentioned mid-response scores 60, mentioned first scores 85, and mentioned with a URL citation scores 100. These are averaged across all queries and models to produce a single trackable number.
- Is the free audit really free?
- Yes. The free audit runs your brand across ChatGPT and Perplexity, generates a V-Score, and gives you two prioritised recommendations — no credit card required. Paid plans add Claude and Gemini scores, competitor benchmarking, scheduled re-audits, and more.
- How long does an audit take?
- Usually 15–30 seconds. We fire multiple queries at four AI models in parallel, so the bottleneck is API response time rather than processing. You'll see results update in real time as each model completes.
How it works
- Which AI models do you test against?
- We currently test ChatGPT (GPT-4o mini), Claude (Sonnet), Perplexity (Sonar), and Gemini (2.5 Flash). We add new models as they become relevant — paid plan subscribers get access to new models automatically.
- How do you decide what questions to ask?
- We generate queries based on your brand name, domain, and any topic areas you provide. The queries are designed to reflect how real customers discover products and services in your category — not branded searches (which would always mention you), but discovery searches where your brand competes on merit.
- How is the V-Score calculated?
- Each query is scored based on where your brand appears in the AI's response: first mention scores highest, late mention scores lowest, no mention scores zero. These per-query scores are averaged per model, then averaged across all enabled models to produce the overall V-Score.
- How accurate are the results?
- Results reflect what each AI model actually said at the time of the audit. AI models update their knowledge and behaviour continuously, so a score taken today may differ from one taken next month — which is exactly why tracking the trend over time (on paid plans) is more useful than a single snapshot.
- Can the same brand score differently on different days?
- Yes. AI model outputs are probabilistic and change as models are updated. Small fluctuations are normal. Significant sustained changes usually reflect a real shift in how a model perceives your brand — either because your content footprint has changed, or because the model has been retrained.
Plans & billing
- What does the free audit include?
- The free audit covers ChatGPT and Perplexity, generates a V-Score, shows your query-by-query breakdown, and gives you two prioritised recommendations. There's no time limit and no credit card required.
- What do paid plans add?
- Paid plans unlock Claude and Gemini scores, full recommendations, competitor share-of-voice benchmarking, custom query testing, and scheduled re-audits (monthly on Starter, weekly on Growth). The Growth plan supports up to five brands; the Agency plan (coming soon) supports unlimited brands with white-label reports.
- Can I cancel anytime?
- Yes. You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. You keep access until the end of your current billing period.
- Do you offer refunds?
- If you've been charged and haven't used the service, contact us and we'll sort it out. We don't offer refunds for periods already used, but we're reasonable — if something went wrong, get in touch.
Improving your score
- My V-Score is low — what should I do?
- Start with the action plan in your audit results. Common high-impact steps include: publishing authoritative long-form content on topics your customers search for, earning third-party mentions on sites AI models trust (press, review platforms, industry directories), and ensuring your structured data (schema.org JSON-LD) clearly identifies who you are and what you do.
- How long does it take to see improvement?
- It depends on the gap and the actions taken. Publishing strong content and earning mentions can show results within a few weeks as models are updated, but meaningful movement typically takes one to three months. Tracking your V-Score monthly gives you a reliable signal of whether your efforts are working.
- Does improving my website SEO help my V-Score?
- Partly. AI models draw on crawled web content, so a well-structured, content-rich site helps. But the biggest driver of AI visibility is third-party mention authority — how often credible external sources reference your brand — which SEO alone doesn't address. Our recommendations flag which lever is most important for your specific situation.
GEO & AI search
- What is GEO?
- GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation — the practice of improving how and how often AI language models mention your brand in their responses. It's the AI-era counterpart to traditional SEO, which focused on ranking in Google's blue-link results.
- Is GEO the same as SEO?
- They overlap but aren't the same. Both benefit from strong content and authoritative backlinks. But AI models weight things differently — they favour clear, confident factual claims, third-party corroboration, and structured data that removes ambiguity about who you are. Keyword density and page speed matter less.
- Does Google SEO still matter?
- Yes. Google remains the dominant search channel for most businesses, and good SEO practice (content quality, structured data, backlinks) also benefits AI visibility. We'd never suggest abandoning SEO — GEO is an additional layer, not a replacement.
- What is an llms.txt file?
- llms.txt is an emerging convention — a plain-text file at the root of your domain that summarises your site for AI crawlers. It's similar in spirit to robots.txt but designed to help language models understand your content rather than control which pages they index. We have one at searchvisible.ai/llms.txt.
Still have a question?
Drop us a line at searchvisible.ai@gmail.com and we'll get back to you.
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