Define each measure before collecting it.
A brand mention is an appearance of your name. A citation points to a source. A referral is a visit, and a qualified inquiry is a business outcome. Report these separately so that a rise in one does not quietly become a claim about another.
Bing’s AI Performance reporting provides information about citations across supported AI experiences. Read its definitions and coverage before combining that information with analytics from your own site. It is not a census of every AI answer on the internet.
Keep manual checks consistent.
If you review answers manually, use a small, documented set of customer questions. Record the platform, date, wording, and the cited page. Note whether the answer describes your business accurately. Avoid changing the prompt until you get the result you hoped to see.
We recommend treating those observations as a sample. A repeated check can show variation, but a handful of prompts cannot establish total market visibility or prove why an answer changed.
Connect reporting to a decision.
Pair visibility observations with landing-page visits and inquiries where those can be measured. Ask what you would change based on each metric. An inaccurate description may call for clearer service information; a relevant referral with no inquiry may justify reviewing the page’s next step.
Keep an annotation log for content changes. Compare patterns over time while acknowledging seasonality, platform changes, and gaps in attribution.
Sources & further reading
Guidance checked September 24, 2026. Practical workflows and examples are our recommendations.