Answer share
Of n answers to the same query, the number that name you. AI answers vary from run to run, so one answer proves nothing.
answer share = k / n
AI platform · Perplexity
Perplexity shows its sources. Are you one of them?
Perplexity searches the web for every question and cites the pages its answer is built from. That makes it the clearest view of which sources decide your category, and whether they mention you.
How it builds an answer
How Perplexity decides who to name.
Every answer starts with a live search. Perplexity retrieves pages, selects passages and writes an answer with numbered citations to them. If no cited page mentions you, you are not in the answer. Because the citations are visible, it shows directly which sources carry weight for each query.
What it draws on
- A live web search for every question
- Pages indexed by PerplexityBot, Perplexity's crawler
- Directories, reviews and trade sources cited alongside company sites
- Files the user uploads
What we measure
The same five measures, on Perplexity.
Calculated per query, for you and every competitor in the set, so Perplexity can be compared with every other platform.
Share of voice
Your mentions as a proportion of all mentions across the competitor set, for the same queries.
SoV = mᵧ / Σ mᵢ
Query coverage
The proportion of the query set, from problem to selection, in which you are named at least once.
coverage = |Q named| / |Q|
Citation coverage
Of the sources the answers cite, the proportion that mention you. AI systems repeat what their sources say.
citations naming you / citations
Retrieval margin
How closely your best passage matches the query, scored with our own embedding model, against the best competing passage. A negative margin usually explains why you were left out.
cos(q, pᵧ) − max cos(q, pᵢ)
Common questions
Why measure Perplexity if our buyers do not use it?
Its citations show which pages a retrieval system selected for each query, and why a competitor's page beat yours. That diagnosis carries over to systems that show less of their working.
Does Perplexity need to crawl our site?
PerplexityBot indexes pages for Perplexity's search. If robots.txt blocks it, your pages are far less likely to be cited.
How do we get Perplexity to cite us?
By having the passage that best answers the question, or by being mentioned in the sources it already cites. We measure both: retrieval margin for your pages, citation coverage for everyone else's.
The roadmap, service by service
Free 15-minute consultation
Find out where your business stands.
- How search and AI systems currently interpret your business
- Where competitors are better understood than you
- Specific retrieval weaknesses, checked before we speak
- Whether there is work worth doing, and what it is worth to you
Apply for a free 15-minute consultation
We reply within one business day, and usually within the hour.