--- title: "How to Set Up AI Visibility Tracking: Topics, Competitors, Engines and Schedule" url: "https://www.cutmeshort.com/blog/how-to-set-up-ai-visibility-tracking-aeo-studio" author: "Gautam Khandelwal" category: "AEO" datePublished: "2026-11-01" dateModified: "2026-11-01" description: "A step-by-step guide to the AI Visibility setup wizard in CutMe Short AEO Studio: choosing topics and competitors, picking AI engines and samples per prompt, setting a schedule, and reviewing the generated prompts before your first run." tags: "AEO Studio, AI Visibility, Answer Engine Optimization, Competitor Tracking, How-To" --- # How to Set Up AI Visibility Tracking: Topics, Competitors, Engines and Schedule To set up AI Visibility, open AEO Studio, click the AI Visibility tab and then Start tracking. The three-step wizard asks for your topics (up to 8) and competitors (up to 10), which AI engines to query and how many samples per prompt, and a weekly or manual schedule. It then generates around 25 buyer-style prompts for you to review before the first run starts. The audit tells you whether AI engines *can* read your website. **AI Visibility** tells you what they actually *say* when your customers ask about your category: are you named, are you cited, and who gets recommended instead of you? Setting it up takes about five minutes. The decisions you make here (which topics, which competitors, which engines) shape every number you'll see afterwards, so this guide explains each choice as well as each click. ## Before you start - **Your brand must be registered.** AI Visibility measures the brand and domain in **Brand Details**. If you haven't set them up yet, follow [How to register your brand and run your first AEO audit](/blog/aeo-studio-brand-registration-aeo-audit-guide) first. - **Creating a tracker locks your Brand Details**, just as the first audit does. - **There's one tracker per workspace.** You can change prompts, competitors, engines and schedule later, but **topics can't be changed after setup**, so give them some thought. ## Step 1: Open the AI Visibility tab 1. In the left sidebar, click **AEO Studio**. 2. At the top of the page, click the **AI Visibility** tab (it has a **New** badge). 3. You'll see a page headed *"Your customers ask AI. Does AI answer with you?"* Click **Start tracking yourdomain.com →**. The **Set up AI Visibility** wizard opens. It has three steps, shown as a progress bar along the top. ![The three steps of the AI Visibility setup wizard: Scope, Measurement and Review prompts, followed by the first run](/__l5e/assets-v1/8b85aec0-d3b2-4cf5-847d-77b58e4958f1/ai-visibility-setup-wizard-inline.svg) ## Step 2: Scope (step 1 of 3) ### Check the brand At the top, a box labelled **From Brand Details** shows your **Brand name** and **Domain**. These are read-only here. If something's wrong and your brand isn't locked yet, click **Edit in Brand Details →** to fix it. ### Choose your topics (up to 8) AEO Studio pre-fills suggestions from your Brand Details. You'll see *"Topics and competitors were pre-filled by AI from your Brand Details. Review and edit them to fit."* - To **remove** a topic, click the **×** on its chip. - To **add** one, type it in the **Add a topic and press Enter** box and press **Enter**. A topic is a market or need you want AI to recommend you for. Each one seeds a group of prompts. | Weak topic | Better topic | Why | | --- | --- | --- | | `software` | `link management for marketing teams` | Specific enough to produce questions real buyers ask | | `our product` | `branded short links` | Describes the need, not your brand | | `everything` | `click and conversion tracking` | One market per topic gives cleaner results per topic | > [!TIP] > Pick topics where you **should** win, plus one or two where you **want** to win. Topic-level gaps (where competitors are named and you aren't) become some of your most useful insights later. ### Add your competitors (up to 10) Below the topics, each competitor row has a **Competitor name** box and an optional **domain** box. Click **Add competitor** for a new row, or **×** to remove one. Choose competitors carefully, because they power three of your most important numbers: - **Share of voice** is your share of all mentions among you and these competitors. - **Average position** is your rank in AI answers compared with them. - The headline **Visibility index** is benchmarked against the **median** of these competitors. Use the names AI engines are likely to write. A competitor is counted when its name appears in an answer, so `HubSpot` will match where `HubSpot Inc.` might not. The domain is optional, but adding it makes it clear which company you mean. > [!WARNING] > Don't pad the list with giants you'll never compete with, or with tiny brands AI never mentions. A list of direct, realistic alternatives gives you a fair benchmark. Click **Next**. ## Step 3: Measurement (step 2 of 3) ### Engines to query Tick the AI engines you want to measure. The models behind **OpenAI** (ChatGPT), **Perplexity** and **Claude** are on by default. You can also add **Gemini**, **Grok** and **DeepSeek**. | Engine | Why include it | | --- | --- | | **OpenAI** | The model family behind ChatGPT, the most widely used assistant | | **Perplexity** | Searches the web for every answer and cites sources, so it is the best engine for spotting citation opportunities | | **Claude** | Anthropic's assistant, popular with professionals and in workplace tools | | **Gemini** | Google's model family | | **Grok** | xAI's assistant, built into X | | **DeepSeek** | A widely used open-weight model family | More engines give you a fuller picture, but each one adds answers to every run. > [!NOTE] > AEO Studio queries each engine's models through their APIs, not by using the consumer apps. Results reflect what the model says, which can differ slightly from what a signed-in user sees in an app that has browsing, memory or personalisation switched on. ### Samples per prompt Use the **Samples per prompt** slider to choose **1 to 5** (default **3**). This is how many times each prompt is asked to each engine in every run. Why ask more than once? Because AI answers vary. Ask *"best link shortener for agencies?"* three times and you may get three slightly different lists. More samples give you steadier, more trustworthy percentages, but more answers to collect per run. **How many answers will each run collect?** > prompts × engines × samples per prompt With the defaults, that's **25 prompts × 3 engines × 3 samples = 225 answers per run**. At 5 samples, it's 375. ### Scheduled runs Choose one: - **Weekly (automatic)** re-checks every prompt once a week. This is the default and the one we recommend, because trends matter more than any single run. - **Manual only** runs only when you click **Run now**. You can always trigger an extra run with **Run now**, whichever you choose. Click **Create tracker**. AEO Studio creates your tracker and generates your prompt set; you'll see *"Creating tracker…"* while it works. ## Step 4: Review prompts (step 3 of 3) You'll see something like *"25 prompts generated from your topics, competitors and Brand Details. Edit text, toggle off, or remove ones that don't fit."* The prompts are grouped by **intent**, the kind of question a buyer is asking: | Intent | Example | | --- | --- | | **Discovery** | "What tools can I use to track clicks on Instagram links?" | | **Comparison** | "Bitly vs Rebrandly for a marketing agency?" | | **Recommendation** | "Which link shortener would you recommend for branded links?" | | **Alternative** | "What are good alternatives to Bitly?" | | **How-to** | "How do I track sales from a short link?" | A few prompts deliberately name your brand, so you can see how AI describes you when asked directly. They're marked **Branded** in the report and are kept out of the headline rates, because an engine repeating your name back isn't real visibility. For each prompt you can: - **Edit the text**: click into it and rewrite it the way your customers would phrase it. - **Toggle it off** (✓ / ×): keep it in the list but leave it out of runs. - **Remove it**: click the **×** at the end of the row. To add your own, scroll to **Custom** and click **Add custom prompt**. To start again with a fresh set, click **Regenerate**. > [!TIP] > Read every prompt aloud and ask: *would a real buyer type this?* Remove anything that reads like marketing copy. The best prompts are the questions your sales team hears every week. When you're happy, click **Save & start first run →**. ## Step 5: Your first run The wizard closes and you'll see *"Tracker created — first run started. Your report will appear here shortly."* While the run is in progress, the tab shows **"Measuring your AI visibility…"** with a **Collecting answers** counter (for example *140 / 225*). The first run typically takes a few minutes, and up to about ten for larger setups. **You can leave the page**: the run continues and your report appears automatically when it's ready. When it's done you'll briefly see *"Preparing your report…"*, and then your dashboard opens on the **Overview** tab. Here's how to read it: [AEO Studio dashboard explained](/blog/aeo-studio-ai-visibility-dashboard-metrics-explained). > [!NOTE] > If you clicked **Cancel** on the last step, your tracker was still created. The AI Visibility tab will show **"Visibility tracking hasn't started yet"**; click **Run visibility now** to start. ## Changing your setup later Click **Settings** (the gear icon at the top of the AI Visibility report) to open **Tracker settings**. It has three tabs: - **Prompts**: edit, toggle, remove, add or **Regenerate** prompts. - **Competitors**: add, rename or remove competitors. - **Engines & schedule**: change engines, samples per prompt and the schedule. Click **Save changes**. Changes apply from the **next run**, and past runs keep their original settings, so your history stays honest. What you **can't** change after setup: your **topics**, and your brand name and domain. There's also no delete or pause button. To stop automatic runs, switch the schedule to **Manual only**. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many prompts should I track? The default set of about 25 is a good start. It's enough to cover several intents across your topics while keeping each run quick. Add custom prompts for the questions that matter most to your sales team. ### How many samples per prompt should I use? Three is a sensible default. Use 5 if you want tighter, steadier percentages; use 1 or 2 if you only want a quick directional read. ### Can AI Visibility run every day? The schedule options are **Weekly (automatic)** and **Manual only**. If you need an extra check, for example after publishing a big piece of content, click **Run now** at any time. ### Why doesn't AI Visibility count my brand when it's mentioned with a slightly different name? Mentions are matched on the exact brand name in Brand Details. If AI engines often use a shorter form of your name, keep that in mind when you read your numbers, and consider using that form consistently in your own content. ### Do I need to complete an audit before setting up AI Visibility? You need Brand Details filled in. An audit isn't required, but it's worth doing: fixing what the audit finds makes it easier for AI engines to read and cite your site, which shows up in AI Visibility over time. --- Source: https://www.cutmeshort.com/blog/how-to-set-up-ai-visibility-tracking-aeo-studio · CutMe Short (https://www.cutmeshort.com)