Understand Your Results

Visibility Score explained

The Visibility Score is the single number that summarises how present your brand is across all the AI engines Scout tracks. It's a 0–100 number — higher is better — and it's the metric you'll trend over time to prove (or improve) AI search performance.

The formula

The Visibility Score is the weighted sum of four components:

Visibility Score =
    (Mention Rate          × 30) +
    (Recommendation Rate   × 30) +
    (Position Score        × 25) +
    (Sentiment Score       × 15)

→ a number from 0 to 100

The four components, in plain English

1. Mention Rate (30 points): The fraction of prompts where your brand name appeared at all. If you ran 10 prompts and were mentioned in 6, your mention rate is 0.60 — contributing 18 of 30 points. This is the easiest signal to move; getting cited at all is half the battle.
2. Recommendation Rate (30 points): The fraction of mentions where the AI actively recommended you (vs simply listing you among options). Being mentioned but not recommended means you're known but not preferred. This component is weighted equally with Mention Rate because in AI search, being recommended is what produces buyers.
3. Position Score (25 points): An average of 1 / position_rank across every prompt where you were mentioned, capped and normalised to 0–1. If you always appear first, this is 1.0 (full 25 points). If you typically appear third, it's about 0.55 (~14 points). AI answers, like search results, are read top-down — being first is meaningfully better than being fifth.
4. Sentiment Score (15 points): Each mention is classified positive (1.0), neutral (0.5), or negative (0.0). The sentiment score is the average across all mentions. This is the smallest weight because sentiment is the slowest to move — but a steady slide here is the earliest warning sign of a brand reputation problem.

Worked example

Imagine you ran 20 prompts across all 3 engines (60 total responses). Scout finds:

Component	Raw value	Math	Points
Mention rate	You were mentioned in 36/60	0.60 × 30	18.0
Recommendation rate	Recommended in 18/36 mentions	0.50 × 30	15.0
Position score	Avg 1/rank = 0.42	0.42 × 25	10.5
Sentiment score	Avg sentiment 0.78	0.78 × 15	11.7
Visibility Score			55.2 / 100

How to move each component

Component	What moves it	Where in Scout
Mention Rate	Get cited more often. Build branded landing pages, submit to comparison sites, get listed in roundups.	Content Suggestions
Recommendation Rate	Strengthen positioning so you're the obvious answer, not one of many. Win head-to-heads on pricing/integrations/use cases.	Technical Suggestions
Position Score	Be the first thing the AI reaches for. Improve E-E-A-T signals, get cited by authoritative sources.	Citation Suggestions
Sentiment Score	Address recurring negative themes (slow support, missing features, pricing complaints). Publish counter-narratives.	AI Responses (filter by negative sentiment)

Score bands

Rough benchmarks for B2B SaaS brands (yours may vary by industry):

Band	Score	What it means
🟢 Dominant	80–100	You're the obvious answer in your category. Defend it.
🟢 Strong	60–79	Consistently mentioned and often recommended. Push for the 80+ band.
🟡 Emerging	40–59	You exist in AI's mind but aren't the default choice. Biggest growth opportunity.
🟠 Weak	20–39	You're an afterthought. Time to invest in mention & citation.
🔴 Invisible	0–19	The AI barely knows you. Start at the basics: branded SEO, comparison content, third-party listings.

The score is a guide, not gospel

A 65 with positive sentiment and high recommendation rate beats a 75 with negative sentiment. Always read the components alongside the headline number.

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Last updated July 2026 · Suggest an edit