The five dimensions of AI visibility, explained
A single score is useful, but it hides where the problem is. Visibility breaks into five distinct dimensions — each a different way a brand wins or disappears in an AI answer.
"Are we visible in AI?" is the wrong question, because "visible" bundles several different things together. A brand can be named but buried. It can be loved by one engine and invisible on another. It can appear when you phrase the prompt one way and vanish when you phrase it another. To improve, you have to separate these. Our score does it with five dimensions.
1. Presence
The most basic question: are you named at all? Presence measures how reliably a brand appears across a category's prompts. Everything else is moot if the answer never includes you. A brand with strong product but zero presence is, for the buyer asking an assistant, simply not in the running.
2. Rank
When you do appear, where? Being named first reads to the buyer as the recommendation; being listed last reads as an afterthought. Rank captures that prominence. Two brands can both be "present" and have very different real-world pull because one is consistently named first.
3. Engine coverage
How many of the major assistants name you? A brand cited by all four engines has durable, structural visibility. A brand carried by a single engine is exposed: one model update, and it can disappear. Broad coverage is a sign that the underlying signals — sources, consensus — are solid rather than incidental.
Presence on one engine is luck. Presence on four is a position.
4. Consistency
AI answers are not deterministic. Ask the same question twice, or reword it slightly, and the brand list can change. Consistency measures how stable your citation is across those variations. High consistency means durable visibility; high variance means fragile visibility that will not survive the next phrasing a buyer happens to use.
5. Source authority
Finally, why are you cited? Models lean on sources, and not all sources are equal. Citation grounded in independent, credible third parties is far more durable than citation that traces back only to your own materials. Source authority captures the quality of the foundation under your visibility — the difference between a position you have earned and one that can evaporate.
Reading them together
The power of splitting visibility this way is diagnostic. A low overall score could mean very different things: total absence, or strong presence undermined by fragility, or single-engine dependence. The five dimensions tell you which — and therefore what to fix first. For most brands, the fastest gains come from presence and engine coverage, which respond to the same lever: being described consistently by sources the models trust.
Frequently asked
Why five dimensions instead of one number?
Because "visible" hides several distinct failure modes. A brand can be present but ranked low, or cited by one engine only, or named inconsistently. Splitting visibility into dimensions shows where the problem actually is.
Which dimension should I fix first?
Usually presence and engine coverage, because they have the most headroom and the clearest levers — independent sources and clear positioning. Rank and consistency tend to improve as those foundations strengthen.