Prompt Tracking allows you to monitor your brand’s daily visibility for a custom set of prompts in AI search platforms ChatGPT and Google AI Mode.
People are now searching AI for information, and this feature provides a clear way to track your visibility in that area.
To access this feature, you need a subscription to the AI SEO Toolkit.
Once you have access, you can:
- Track your domain's positions for target keywords in ChatGPT Search and Google’s AI Mode—staying visible in the top AI-powered search experiences
- Monitor your average position and visibility trends across both traditional and AI search—understanding how performance shifts over time
- Compare your AI search visibility with Google’s traditional rankings—identifying gaps and opportunities
- Get daily updates on position changes in AI Search—respond quickly to visibility fluctuations
- Analyze your competitors’ performance in AI-driven search—benchmarking your performance against others in your niche
Setting Up Prompt Tracking
When creating a new Prompt Tracking campaign, you can select ChatGPT Search or Google AI Mode as your search engine:
- Navigate to Prompt Tracking from the AI SEO Toolkit menu
- Click "Add new target" or edit an existing campaign
- Select "ChatGPT Search" or “Google AI Mode” in the Search engine section
- Enter your domain and target keywords
- Complete the setup process
Important limitations to note:
- ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode tracking are available for the US market only
- Only desktop searches are supported at this time for both ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode.
Understanding Your Reports
After setting up your campaign, you'll be able to view your ChatGPT Search or Google AI Mode visibility and average position, along with a summary of your overall performance.
The interface works the same as Position Tracking on traditional Google, with a few key differences:
- Metrics Available: For ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode tracking, you'll see Visibility, Position, and Average Position only. Estimated Traffic, Search Volume, and Share of Voice metrics are not available for either AI search engine at this time.
- SERP Features Filters: ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode have different SERP features than traditional Google’s SERPs, so these filters will be different.
- Devices & Locations: When you set up a campaign to track ChatGPT or Google AI Mode results in addition to Google results (multitargeting), you can compare it side to side with Google results in the Devices & Locations tab. This lets you compare brand visibility on AI Search vs. traditional search results on Google, Bing and Baidu.
Viewing SERP Snapshots
Position Tracking allows you to view actual SERP snapshots of ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode results to better understand the context of your rankings:
- In the Rankings Overview table in the Overview tab, locate the keyword you want to analyze
- Select "View SERP" from the SF column
3. A popup will appear showing you the actual ChatGPT Search or Google AI Mode result for your keyword.
ChatGPT SERP:
Google AI Mode SERP:
These snapshots provide valuable insights into how ChatGPT and Google AI Mode structure their responses, which domains they cite (see the image below), and how your content appears within AI-generated answers.
ChatGPT SERP:
Google AI Mode SERP:
By reviewing these snapshots regularly, you can:
- See exactly how your content is being referenced or displayed
- Understand the full context of AI-generated responses that include your domain
- Identify which parts of your content ChatGPT or Google AI Mode finds most relevant
- Discover opportunities to improve your content's visibility in AI search responses
AI Search Positions & SERP Features
When Prompt Tracking parses the ChatGPT Search or AI Mode response, it measures the positioning of domains based on where they appear.
In ChatGPT Search, Position Tracking ranks each domain in the citation area from top to bottom, like this:
In Google AI Mode, the response area itself is treated as position 1, with citations counted as positions 2, 3, and so on. In some layouts, additional “Quick results from around the web” sections may appear above the response and take earlier positions.
ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode include unique SERP features that differ from traditional search engines.
Position Tracking identifies and tracks these special result types for ChatGPT Search:
- Response: The standard AI-generated answer that appears at the top of ChatGPT search results. This is the primary text response synthesized from various sources.
- Double Response: When ChatGPT provides two distinct answer sections for a query, typically offering different perspectives or addressing multiple aspects of the question.
- Citations: References to source materials that appear within or beneath the AI-generated response. Citations are crucial for understanding which domains ChatGPT is using as authoritative sources.
For Google AI Mode, Prompt Tracking identifies and tracks the following special result types:
- Response: The standard AI-generated answer that appears on the left side of the screen. This is the primary text response synthesized from various sources.
- Search results: Domains cited in the citation area on the right.
You can filter your Overview by these SERP features using the SERP Features filter. This allows you to:
- Identify keywords where your domain appears in citations
- Track how often your competitors are cited in AI responses
- Discover opportunities to optimize for specific SERP features
- Monitor changes in how ChatGPT or Google AI Mode displays information for your target keywords
Analyzing Performance Across Search Engines
One of the most valuable aspects of this feature is the ability to compare your performance across different search engines. In the Devices & Locations report, you can:
- Compare your ChatGPT Search or Google AI Mode rankings with your traditional search results on Google, Baidu, and Bing
- Identify keywords where your performance differs significantly between traditional and AI search
- Discover content optimization opportunities based on these differences
If you scroll below the graph at the top of this report, you can see a table breaking down your domain’s positions on both search engines for each keyword.
Best Practices for AI Search Tracking
To get the most out of AI Search tracking:
- Choose diverse prompts that represent your customers pain points: AI platforms can handle detailed prompts with more details and pain points to sound like your ideal customer profile
- Find in-demand topics with Prompt Research: With the Prompt Research report, you can discover in-demand topics that your customers are asking AI about
- Monitor regularly: Check your rankings at least weekly to spot trends
- Compare with Google, Bing, or Baidu: Analyze where your content performs differently in AI versus traditional search
- Update content strategically: Use your tracking campaign to validate your tests and content optimizations specifically for AI search engines
Using Data to Improve AI Search Visibility
The data from your AI Search tracking can help inform your content strategy. Here are some suggested next steps you can take once you start tracking on ChatGPT Search or Google AI Mode.
- Identify content gaps: Take note of the topics where competitors outrank you in AI search
- Optimize existing content: Update pages that perform well in Google but poorly in ChatGPT Search or Google AI Mode
- Track improvements: Monitor position changes after making optimizations
Limits
- Available for the US market only
- Desktop searches only
- Does not include Estimated Traffic and Search Volume metrics
The amount of prompts you can track depends on the level of your Semrush Toolkit subscriptions.
- AI SEO Toolkit subscription alone: 25 prompts per account
- AI SEO Toolkit + SEO Pro subscription: 50 prompts per account
- AI SEO Toolkit + SEO Guru subscription: 100 prompts per account
- AI SEO Toolkit + SEO Business subscription: 200 prompts per account
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