What do share of voice and citation rate mean in Visiby?

Short answer: In Visiby, share of voice is your brand’s share of all brand mentions across a run’s completed AI answers. It is relative: the shares of all brands add up to 100%. Owned citation rate is the percentage of completed answers that link to at least one page on your own domain. It is absolute: it is measured against the number of answers, not against other brands.

Two related metrics are easy to confuse with these. Mention rate is the percentage of completed answers that name your brand, whether or not they link to you. Citation share is your brand’s share of all citations to tracked brands’ domains, so like share of voice it adds up to 100% across brands. All four exclude failed answers, and the answer-based rates also exclude prompts that contain your brand name.

In short, mention rate and owned citation rate are absolute, measured against answers, while share of voice and citation share are relative, measured against other brands. Mention rate and share of voice are based on the answer text; owned citation rate and citation share are based on links. Brands without a tracked domain show “—” for citation share.

Share of voice

Your brand mentions ÷ all brand mentions in the run’s completed answers. Use it to see how much of the AI conversation in your category is about you compared with your competitors.

Mention rate

Completed answers that name your brand ÷ completed answers. It answers the question “how often am I named?” Every brand has its own mention rate, so the rates do not add up to 100%.

Owned citation rate

Completed answers that cite at least one page on your domain or its subdomains ÷ completed answers. It answers the question “how often do AI engines send readers to my site?”

Citation share

Your citations ÷ citations to all tracked brands’ domains. Brands without a tracked domain show “—”. Use it to compare how often engines link to you against how often they link to your competitors.

Quick comparison

Absolute (measured against answers): mention rate, owned citation rate.
Relative (measured against other brands, adds up to 100%): share of voice, citation share.
Based on the answer text: mention rate, share of voice.
Based on links: owned citation rate, citation share.

Background reading in the glossary: AI share of voice and share of citations. For how these numbers are produced, see how Visiby calculates AI visibility.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between share of voice and mention rate?

Mention rate is the percentage of completed answers that name your brand, measured on its own. Share of voice is your share of all brand mentions, measured against competitors, so all brands together add up to 100%.

What counts as a citation in Visiby?

A link in an AI answer’s sources to a page on your domain or one of its subdomains. Naming your brand without a link is a mention, not a citation.

Why don’t mention rates add up to 100%?

Because each brand’s mention rate is measured against all completed answers, and one answer can name several brands. Share of voice is the metric that adds up to 100%.

Are failed AI answers included in these metrics?

No. Failed and not-run answers are excluded from every metric, so an engine outage never lowers your numbers.