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The Search Tracking Heatmap provides a visual grid showing your AI search visibility across topics and platforms. Each cell is color-coded to represent performance, making it easy to spot strengths, weaknesses, and gaps at a glance.

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Accessing the Heatmap

  1. Navigate to your project
  2. In the sidebar, expand AI Search Tracking
  3. Select Heatmap

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How the Heatmap Works

The heatmap displays a grid with:
  • Rows representing your tracked topics (groups of prompts)
  • Columns representing AI search platforms (ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Grok)
  • Cells color-coded from red (low) through yellow (moderate) to green (high)
This layout lets you quickly scan across all topic-platform combinations to identify where you are performing well and where attention is needed.

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Metric Selector

The heatmap supports four different metrics. Use the metric selector to switch between them:
MetricDescription
Presence RateHow often your brand appears in AI search results for prompts in each topic
Brand Mention RateHow frequently your brand is mentioned by name in AI responses
Primary Citation ShareThe proportion of citations pointing to your tracked domains
Share of VoiceYour overall visibility share compared to tracked competitors
Each metric provides a different perspective on your visibility. Switch between them to get a comprehensive understanding of your performance.

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Reading the Heatmap

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Color Scale

ColorRangeMeaning
Dark Green75-100%Strong visibility
Light Green50-74%Good visibility
Yellow35-49%Moderate, room for improvement
Orange20-34%Weak visibility
Red0-19%Very low or no visibility

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Example Reading

TopicChatGPT SearchPerplexityGeminiGoogle AI ModeGrok
Getting Started85%78%72%55%48%
API Reference72%60%65%52%35%
Migration Guide32%28%30%25%20%
From this example:
  • “Getting Started” performs well on ChatGPT Search and Perplexity but trails on Grok
  • “Migration Guide” needs attention across all platforms
  • Google AI Mode and Grok generally show lower visibility than other platforms

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Pattern Recognition

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Identifying Strong Areas

Look for clusters of green cells:
  • These represent your strongest topic-platform combinations
  • Protect and maintain these through continued content quality
  • Understand what makes these topics perform well and replicate the approach

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Spotting Weaknesses

Clusters of red or orange cells indicate:
  • Priority improvement areas
  • Topics that may lack sufficient content coverage
  • Platforms where your content is underrepresented

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Finding Gaps

Mixed patterns reveal opportunities:
  • A topic that is green on some platforms but red on others suggests platform-specific optimization opportunities
  • Inconsistent performance across a single platform row may indicate content formatting issues for that platform
  • A column that is consistently weak suggests a platform-wide strategy adjustment is needed

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Filtering

Adjust the heatmap view by:
  • Selecting specific topics to focus on
  • Choosing a subset of platforms
  • Setting a date range for the data

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Common Analysis Scenarios

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Platform Optimization

Use the heatmap to:
  1. Identify your weakest platform overall (the column with the most red/orange)
  2. Find topics that perform well on other platforms but poorly on the weak one
  3. Prioritize platform-specific content improvements

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Content Prioritization

Use the heatmap to:
  1. See which topic areas need the most work (rows with the most red)
  2. Identify strong topics that could be expanded further
  3. Guide content creation priorities by addressing the largest gaps first

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Competitive Benchmarking

Switch to the Share of Voice metric to:
  1. See where competitors have stronger visibility than you
  2. Identify topics where you lead and should defend your position
  3. Spot opportunities where no competitor has strong presence

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Best Practices

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Focus on Patterns

Do not get lost in individual cells:
  • Look for row-wide or column-wide trends
  • Identify systematic issues rather than one-off anomalies
  • Use the heatmap as a starting point, then drill into Search Analytics for specifics

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Use Multiple Metrics

Switch between all four metrics to get the full picture:
  • Presence Rate shows how often you appear
  • Brand Mention Rate shows name recognition
  • Primary Citation Share shows domain authority
  • Share of Voice shows competitive standing

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Act on What You See

Heatmaps should drive action:
  • Create actions for the weakest topic-platform combinations
  • Check the Insights page for AI-generated recommendations that may correspond to heatmap gaps
  • Track improvements over time by revisiting the heatmap after making content changes

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Next Steps

  • Search Analytics - Detailed visibility charts and trends
  • Prompts - Manage the search prompts that feed into heatmap data