The evaluation checklist
- Raw answers and cited URLs
- Can you read the full answer and every cited link, or only a score?
- Per-engine breakdown
- Are ChatGPT, Gemini and the other assistants reported separately?
- Buyer-intent prompts
- Are prompts the questions your buyers ask, not just branded queries?
- Your language
- Are prompts written natively in your buyers' language, not just translated?
- Citation vs. mention
- Does it distinguish a link to your site from your name in the text?
- Who is recommended
- Does it show which brands the assistants recommend instead of you?
- Most-cited sources
- Does it show which third-party pages the assistants lean on for your category?
- Schedule
- Does it re-run automatically so you can see change over time?
- Methodology
- Is it documented how answers are collected and parsed?
Dedicated tools vs. suite features
Broad SEO platforms have started adding AI visibility reports next to rank tracking, backlinks and site audits. That’s convenient if you already live in one. Dedicated tools go deeper on one job: running prompts across assistants, parsing citations accurately, and showing exactly which pages get cited.
A useful test for either: pick one prompt and ask to see the full answer from each engine with its sources. If the tool can’t show that, you’re trusting a number you can’t check.
What Citalia.ai does
Citalia.ai runs a fixed library of buyer-intent prompts for your category, in English or Spanish, through ChatGPT and Gemini with web search on. It parses every cited URL and brand mention, lists the brands the assistants recommend, and shows the results prompt by prompt with a single visibility score. The free check runs five prompts, once; the paid plans run the full library weekly and audit your website. See the methodology for the details.
Questions
Do I need a dedicated tool, or is a feature in my SEO suite enough?
If you only need a rough signal, a suite feature can be enough. If AI visibility is a goal your team reports on, look for a tool that shows the actual answers and cited URLs per prompt and per engine, runs on a schedule, and lets you control the prompts.
Which assistants should a tool cover?
The ones your buyers use most for research, which today means at least ChatGPT and Gemini, and ideally Perplexity too. Each behaves differently, so per-engine results matter more than a blended number.
Can a tool see exactly what a buyer sees in the ChatGPT app?
Not exactly. Tools query assistants through their APIs with web search enabled, which closely resembles but doesn't perfectly match a logged-in consumer session, since personalization and app-specific behavior vary. A trustworthy tool says so.