AI Search Visibility Tracker — AEO & Citation Audit for Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini

Find out if AI search engines cite your website as a source — and which topics they don't. Submit any keyword or topic, and this actor queries Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to check whether your domain appears in their citations. No API keys needed. Results in minutes.

What This Actor Does

When someone asks Perplexity "how do I do keyword research?", the AI cites 5–8 source URLs. This actor finds out if your domain is one of them — and if not, flags it as an AEO content gap you can act on.

Tracks four signals per check:

• Citation presence — is your domain cited at all?
• Citation rank — position 1 = your site is the primary source (lower = better)
• Content gap — AI cited competitors but not you → high-priority content opportunity
• Competing domains — see who else gets cited for your topics

Runs real-time web search on every query. No cached or static data.

Who Uses This

Buyer	Use case
SEO teams	AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) — measure whether content updates translate to AI citation gains
Content marketers	Find topics where AI answers with competitor pages instead of yours
Digital agencies	Report AI search visibility scores to clients; track month-over-month
Website owners	Understand which pages AI platforms treat as authoritative sources

Output Data Table

Field	Type	Description
domain_cited	Boolean	True if any page from your domain was cited
citation_rank	Integer or null	1-based position in citation list (1 = primary source)
domain_citation_count	Integer	How many of your pages were cited
cited_page_url	String or null	First page from your domain that was cited
cited_pages	Array	All cited pages from your domain
content_gap	Boolean	AI cited others but not you — actionable gap
ai_coverage_ratio	Float	Your pages / total sources (0.25 = 25% of sources are yours)
competing_domains	Array	Other domains cited for the same topic
keyword	String	The keyword/topic checked
platform	String	perplexity, chatgpt, claude, or gemini
ai_answer_excerpt	String	First 300–600 chars of the AI's answer
visibility_score	Integer	0–100 composite across all keywords and platforms
checked_at	ISO datetime	When the check ran

Run Summary (Key-Value Store)

Every run saves LAST_RUN_SUMMARY to the key-value store:

• visibility_score — 0–100 composite (citation rate × rank quality × topic coverage × page bonus)
• citation_rate — fraction of checks where your domain was cited
• avg_citation_rank — where your domain typically appears in source lists
• topic_coverage_rate — percentage of keywords cited at least once
• content_gaps — list of uncited keywords (highest-priority AEO opportunities)
• top_cited_pages — your most-cited pages with citation counts
• top_competing_domains — competitor domains ranked by how often AI cites them for your topics
• recommendations — 3–5 actionable steps based on your data

AI Search Visibility vs Brand Monitoring

	AI Search Visibility Tracker	AI Search Brand Monitor
Tracks	Domain / page citations in source lists	Brand name mentions in AI answers
Input	Keywords / topics	Brand name
Key metric	Citation rank position	Mention rate + sentiment
Content gaps	✅ Finds uncited topics	❌
Page-level detail	✅ Which exact page was cited	❌
Best for	SEO / content teams	Brand / PR / marketing teams

Run both for a complete AI search presence picture.

Pricing

$0.09 per keyword × query × platform check (plus standard Apify actor-start fee based on memory).

Scale	Config	Total checks	Approx. cost
Quick audit	5 keywords × 1 query × 2 platforms	10	~$0.90
Standard	10 keywords × 3 queries × 4 platforms	120	~$10.80
Deep audit	20 keywords × 5 queries × 4 platforms	400	~$36.00

All AI costs (Perplexity Sonar, GPT-4o Search Preview, Claude web_search, Gemini Google Search grounding) are included — no API keys required.

How to Use

Quick start (minimum input)

{
  "targetDomain": "yoursite.com",
  "keywords": ["your topic 1", "your topic 2", "your topic 3"]
}

Full input with competitors and custom queries

{
  "targetDomain": "ahrefs.com",
  "keywords": ["SEO", "keyword research", "backlink analysis", "site audit"],
  "competitorDomains": ["semrush.com", "moz.com", "backlinko.com"],
  "platforms": ["perplexity", "chatgpt", "claude", "gemini"],
  "queryTemplates": ["topic_authority", "how_to", "what_is", "comparison"],
  "maxQueriesPerKeyword": 3,
  "webhookUrl": "https://hooks.zapier.com/your-hook",
  "responseFormat": "detailed"
}

Python

import apify_client

client = apify_client.ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("khadinakbar/ai-search-visibility-tracker").call(run_input={
    "targetDomain": "yoursite.com",
    "keywords": ["your topic 1", "your topic 2"],
    "platforms": ["perplexity", "chatgpt"],
    "maxQueriesPerKeyword": 2,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if item["content_gap"]:
        print(f"Gap: {item['keyword']} on {item['platform']}")
    if item["domain_cited"]:
        print(f"Cited rank {item['citation_rank']}: {item['cited_page_url']}")

JavaScript / Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('khadinakbar/ai-search-visibility-tracker').call({
    targetDomain: 'yoursite.com',
    keywords: ['your topic 1', 'your topic 2'],
    platforms: ['perplexity', 'chatgpt', 'claude', 'gemini'],
    maxQueriesPerKeyword: 3,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
const gaps = [...new Set(items.filter(i => i.content_gap).map(i => i.keyword))];
console.log('Content gaps:', gaps);

MCP / AI Agent Usage

Exposed as apify--ai-search-visibility-tracker in the Apify MCP server. Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI agents can call it directly:

Use apify--ai-search-visibility-tracker to check whether ahrefs.com is cited 
for "SEO" and "keyword research" on Perplexity and ChatGPT.

Accepts AI-friendly input aliases:

• targetDomain → domain, website, site, url
• keywords → topics, keyword, searchTerms, terms
• competitorDomains → competitors, competingSites

Query Templates

Template	What it asks	Example query
topic_authority	Best resources / authoritative sites for X	"What are the best resources for learning SEO?"
how_to	Step-by-step guides	"How do I do keyword research? Step-by-step."
what_is	Definitions and explanations	"What is backlink analysis? Explain with examples."
comparison	Top tools compared	"Best tools for site audit — compare options in 2026."
expert_picks	Professional recommendations	"What do SEO experts recommend for rank tracking?"

AI Platform Coverage

Platform	Model	Search method	Citation source
Perplexity	sonar	Native Sonar search	citations[] array
ChatGPT	gpt-4o-search-preview	Native OpenAI web search	Inline markdown + annotations
Claude	claude-sonnet-4.5	web_search_20250305 tool	message.annotations[] url_citations
Gemini	gemini-2.5-flash	Native Google Search grounding	groundingMetadata.groundingChunks[]

Scheduling for AEO Trend Tracking

Run weekly to track visibility score changes over time. Each run stores run_id in every record — compare citation rate and citation rank across weeks without extra setup.

Recommended schedule: Monday morning, same keyword set each week.

Webhook Integration

Set webhookUrl to receive the full run summary on completion:

• Slack — post weekly visibility score to #seo channel
• Make.com / Zapier / n8n — alert content team when new gaps appear
• Google Sheets — append weekly score rows for trend charts

FAQ

Does this track brand name mentions? No — it tracks domain citations in source lists. For brand name tracking use ai-search-brand-monitor.

Which AI crawl bots should I allow in robots.txt? Allow PerplexityBot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Googlebot. Blocking these prevents AI indexing and citation. Also add an llms.txt file at your domain root listing key pages.

What is a content gap? content_gap: true means the AI cited other sites for that topic but not yours. Create more comprehensive, up-to-date content on that topic to earn citations.

How is citation_rank measured? 1-based index of the first URL from your domain in the AI's citation list. Rank 1 = your site is the most prominently cited source. Lower numbers are better.

Why is my citation rate low despite good Google rankings? AI citation and search ranking are correlated but not identical. Common causes: robots.txt blocking AI crawlers, thin page content, lack of structured data (FAQ/HowTo schema), or pages not cited by other high-authority sources.

What is AEO? Answer Engine Optimization — optimizing your content to be cited by AI search platforms (Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) when they answer queries. AEO is complementary to traditional SEO and increasingly important as AI search gains share.

Legal Notice

This actor queries publicly accessible AI search APIs. It does not scrape any website. Intended for legitimate SEO research, content strategy, and website analytics. Review each AI platform's terms of service before commercial use.