AI visibility · answers joined to your log
AI visibility tracking with proof: named, read, visited, became a lead
AI visibility tracking usually stops at what an answer says. Skald samples the answers with your own API keys, then proves what happened next from your server log and your leads.
AI visibility tracking is measuring how AI assistants treat your brand: whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name you in their answers, cite your pages and send you people. In Skald each step is proven by a different record: a sampled answer, a log line, a referrer and a signed webhook.
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asked "Which analytics shows AI crawlers from my server logs?" New York · en · try 2 of 3
Contoso is the best-known script-tag tool, but a script tag never sees crawlers 1. Northwind reads your server's access log and keeps training crawls apart from live fetches 2. Fabrikam reads logs too 3.
- 1contoso.example/features/
- 2www.northwind.example/pricing/?utm_source=chatgpt.com → /pricing/
- 3fabrikam.example/docs/
- named
- yes
- brand rank
- 2 Contoso first
- own pages cited
- /pricing/
- citation rank
- 2 of 3
- competitors
- Contoso, Fabrikam
pick an assistant Sample answers for a made-up brand, Northwind. Skald reads every answer with these rules, then counts it again a second way.
[01] named is only the start
You know ChatGPT names you. Did anything happen next?
A prompt tracker, a tool that asks AI assistants your questions and reads the answers, can tell you that an answer cited your pricing page. It cannot tell you whether the assistant read that page for someone, whether anyone clicked, or whether a buyer came of it. Those answers are in your server log and your leads.
ChatGPT-User is the name ChatGPT's fetcher writes in your log when it opens a page for someone. A referrer is the address a visitor came from. A signed webhook is a message your booking tool sends Skald when someone books, with a code only the two of you can make. Flip the switch: the same page, the same 30 days, first from sampled answers alone, then with the records only your own server holds.
- Answers that named Northwind102 of 165sampled answers
- Answers that cited /pricing/38 of 165sampled answers
- ChatGPT's fetcher read /pricing/ for someone58access.log · ChatGPT-User
- Visitors it sent to /pricing/14access.log · referrer chatgpt.com
- Direct visits likely from an AI answer21an estimate, kept apart
- Leads whose first visit came from an AI answer1signed booking webhook
- What every ChatGPT user is told?no tool can see this
Sample data. Each row comes from its own record and is never added to another. The last row stays a question mark on purpose.
| ChatGPT | Perplexity | Gemini | Claude | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwind (you) | 74 | 85 | 46 | 66 |
| Contoso | 89 | 48 | 79 | 58 |
Sample: 120 answered tries per assistant over the last 90 days. Each point is "named in n of 120".
[02] share of voice
Find the assistant where a competitor is named instead of you
Skald counts, per assistant, how many answers named each competitor on your list over the last 90 days, beside how many named you. A gap on one axis tells you which assistant to work on.
Contoso wins on ChatGPT and Gemini. Perplexity names you far more often: what it cites is worth reading.
A competitor counts when its name is a whole word in the answer, or, when you write it as a domain, when the answer links to that domain.
[03] per market
Your buyers in Montréal get a different answer. Ask from there.
A tracking profile asks the assistants as if from one place, in one language, on its own schedule. Up to 10 a site, each with its own questions or the site's. Add markets and see where the limit stops you.
3 of 10 profiles
New York, New York, US · en
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude: the place goes in the API's location field.
Gemini: its API has none, so the question ends "I am in New York, New York, US."
Language: English, so nothing is added.
add a market
Sample profiles. Only the questions, the place and the language are sent to the assistants you pick, never anything about your visitors.
[04] no surprise bills
Nothing is asked, and nothing costs, until you set it up
The answers run on your own API keys, the keys each AI company gives you to ask its assistant from a program, at your cost, under a daily cap you choose. Until a key and a tracking profile both exist, Skald asks nothing at all. Step through the set-up and watch the meter.
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- An API key for at least one assistantSettings › Integrations › AI answers. Install admins only, write-only.
- The site's questions, brand terms and competitorsSettings › AI answers. Up to 50 questions, written as a buyer asks.
- A tracking profileA place, a language, the assistants, how often, tries a question, a daily cap.
- The first runFrom 06:00 in the site's time zone, or Run now. Figures appear once every answer is in and counted twice.
5 questions × 3 tries × 4 assistants. Under a 5.00 daily cap, the run finishes the day it starts.
Sample profile at Skald's default estimate prices. Your bill is on each provider's own usage page.
[05] a direction over weeks
One answer means little. Twelve weekly runs show a direction.
Every run of a profile is counted twice: once as each answer is read, again by a separate count from the stored text and links. Runs that agree become a point on the line. A run where the two counts differ is withheld, and the line shows the gap.
ChatGPT 10 of 15 named
Perplexity 12 of 15 named
Gemini 6 of 15 named
Claude 9 of 15 named
Sample profile: 5 questions, 3 tries, weekly. The hatched week is the withheld run: listed on the page, with no figures.
What it does not do
- API answers are a sample, asked with your own keys: a direction over weeks. What every user is told stays unknown.
- Four assistants are asked, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, through their APIs. An API can answer differently from the app.
- Google AI Overviews stay out of sight. Google AI Mode is told apart only when the click carries
udm=50, the mark AI Mode puts in its links. - Clicks from an answer are a floor: many apps strip the referrer. Likely visits are estimates, kept apart.
- Counts are joined by page and day, never by person, so one answer is never tied to one buyer.
in this section
Every part of AI visibility, one page each
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More on AI visibility tracking
questions
AI visibility tracking FAQ
Straight answers, including what Skald does not do.
What is AI visibility tracking?
AI visibility tracking measures how AI assistants treat your brand: whether their answers name you, which of your pages they cite, and which competitors they name instead. Skald adds what happened next, from your own records: the assistant reading your page, the people it sent, and the leads that followed.
Does Skald show what ChatGPT tells every user?
No. Skald asks the assistants' APIs your questions and keeps the answers. That is a sample, not what every user sees: each assistant answers people differently by account, history, place and wording, and its API can differ from its app. Read the figures as a direction over weeks.
Which AI assistants does Skald ask?
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, through their own APIs, each with your own API key. An assistant without a key is left out, and the page says so. How tracking profiles work.
Can Skald prove that an AI answer brought a lead?
It shows four counts side by side for one page and one assistant over 30 days: answers that cited the page, the assistant's fetches of it, the visitors it sent, and the leads whose first visit came from an AI answer and landed on it. They are joined by page and day, not by person, so they show a path, not one buyer. They are never added together.
Does Skald see Google AI Overviews?
No. Skald tells Google AI Mode apart when the click carries udm=50, and shows it as google.com (AI Mode). Clicks from AI Overviews arrive as plain google.com, and Skald never guesses which those were.
What does AI visibility tracking cost to run?
The answers cost on your own provider accounts, not through Skald. Each tracking profile shows its estimated cost before it runs and stops at its daily cap. AI answer tracking cost, explained.
$ tail -f access.log | skald
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