The AEO Visibility Tracker is a free agent built in Hyperagent that monitors how often your brand is cited across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. It runs weekly, scores your citation rate per engine, tracks which competitors appear instead of you, and writes all results to a Google Sheet automatically. No paid subscription required.
I've been running this tracker for a few months across multiple brand categories. One pattern I keep seeing: most brands have 0% citation rate on discovery queries — even well-known ones. Their branded queries get cited, but when someone asks "best [category] tool?" without naming them, they're absent. That gap is what this agent was built to measure.
Table of Contents
- What is AEO and Why It Matters
- What the Agent Does
- Pre-requisites
- Setup — Step by Step
- How to Use It Week to Week
- Understanding Your Results
- What the Agent Does NOT Do (Yet)
- Skills Under the Hood
- Quick Reference
1. What is AEO and Why It Matters
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of making sure your brand gets cited when people ask AI tools questions in your category.
When someone types "what are the best AI agent platforms?" into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude, those engines generate an answer. If your brand appears in that answer, you get mindshare. If it doesn't, a competitor does.
AEO is the 2026 version of SEO. Instead of ranking on Google's blue links, you're optimizing for citations in AI-generated answers. Most brands have no idea where they stand. This agent measures it.
2. What Does the AEO Visibility Tracker Do?
Weekly Citation Monitoring Across 4 AI Engines
Engine | Source |
|---|---|
Perplexity | Via web-grounded Exa search |
ChatGPT | GPT-5.5 via OpenRouter |
Gemini | Gemini 3.5 Flash via OpenRouter |
Claude | Direct |
For Each Engine and Each Prompt, It Detects
- Whether your brand is cited (yes/no)
- Citation position: first mention, buried, or absent
- Sentiment: positive, neutral, or negative
- Which competitors appear instead
- What framing the engine uses: listicle, tutorial, comparison, platform, or framework
After Every Run, It
- Creates a new dated tab in your Google Sheet with full per-prompt, per-engine results
- Calculates your overall citation rate and per-engine score
- Suggests 3-5 new prompts to track (based on competitor patterns observed in the run), written to a "Prompts To Track" tab for your review
- Delivers an inline digest with intelligence flags:
- Citation gained
- Citation lost
- New competitor spotted
- Brand confusion detected
Your prompt library lives in your Google Sheet. You add, remove, or toggle prompts in the "Prompt Library" tab. The agent reads it at the start of every run. No code needed.
3. What Do You Need to Get Started?
Required
What | Why |
|---|---|
Hyperagent account | This is where the agent lives and runs |
Google account | For Google Sheets (where prompts and results are stored) |
OpenRouter account + API key | Needed to query GPT-5.5 and Gemini. Free tier available at openrouter.ai |
Your brand details | Brand name, URL, category (e.g. "AI agent platform"), and key competitors |
Optional but Recommended
What | Why |
|---|---|
Airtable account | Structured record-keeping across runs (requires write permissions) |
Slack workspace | Automated digest delivery after each run |
4. How Do I Set Up the AEO Visibility Tracker?
Step 1: Create Your Google Sheet
Create a new Google Sheet and add these tabs (exact names matter):
Tab 1: Prompt Library
Column | Description |
|---|---|
Prompt ID | Unique identifier |
Prompt Text | The prompt the agent will send to each engine |
Category | e.g. Discovery, Branded, Competitor |
Priority | High / Medium / Low |
Active | TRUE or FALSE |
Notes | Optional context |
Tab 2: Prompts To Track
Column | Description |
|---|---|
Suggested Prompt | Proposed new prompt from the agent |
Category | Prompt category |
Why Suggested | Reasoning from the agent |
Status | Pending / Approved / Rejected |
Date Suggested | Auto-filled by agent |
Source Run | Which run surfaced it |
Shortcut: The agent can seed your Prompt Library with 12 brand-agnostic starter prompts on first use. Share your sheet link and say: "set up my prompt library."
The agent creates a new results tab ([Brand - YYYY-MM-DD]) automatically after each run.
Step 2: Get an OpenRouter API Key
- Go to openrouter.ai and sign up (free tier available)
- Navigate to Settings > API Keys > Create key
- Copy the key — you'll paste it into the agent on first use
Your API key is stored only for your session, not in the agent config. You can also set it up as a skill credential for persistent storage.
Step 3: Connect Google Sheets to the Agent
In the Hyperagent thread toolbar, enable the Google Sheets integration. This is the only integration required to get started.
Optional integrations:
- Airtable — requires
data.records:writescope on your personal access token - Slack — for automated digest delivery after each run
Step 4: First-Use Conversation
When you start a conversation with the agent, it will ask for:
- Brand Name (e.g. "ElevenLabs")
- Brand URL (e.g. "elevenlabs.io")
- Brand Category (e.g. "AI voice cloning tools")
- Key Competitors (comma-separated)
- Google Sheets link
- OpenRouter API key
- (Optional) Airtable base + table IDs
The agent saves this as your brand config and seeds your Prompt Library.
Step 5: Run Your First Audit
Say: run audit or run weekly AEO check
The agent will:
- Read active prompts from your Prompt Library tab
- Query all 4 engines
- Score results
- Write to your Google Sheet
- Suggest new prompts
First run takes 5-8 minutes depending on how many prompts are active.
5. How to Use It Week to Week
Common Commands
Run the weekly scan:
run auditAdd a prompt manually:
add prompt: best AI voice tool for podcast productionCheck last week's results:
show last week's resultsManaging Your Prompt Library
Review suggested prompts: Open your "Prompts To Track" tab in Google Sheets. Change Status to "Approved" for prompts you want to track, then copy them to "Prompt Library" with Active = TRUE. They'll be picked up automatically on the next run.
Toggle a prompt off: In your "Prompt Library" tab, change Active from TRUE to FALSE. The agent skips it on the next run.
You can also open your Google Sheet directly — there's a dated results tab for every run.
6. How Do I Read My AEO Visibility Results?
Citation Rate
The percentage of your active prompts where the brand is cited by a majority of engines.
Score | What It Means |
|---|---|
50%+ | Solid presence across your category |
20-49% | Partial visibility, gaps to address |
0-19% | AI engines don't associate you with your category yet |
Branded vs. Discovery Queries
Query Type | Example | What It Tests |
|---|---|---|
Branded | "[Brand] alternatives" / "What is [Brand]?" | Brand recognition |
Discovery | "best AI agent platforms" | Category authority |
Branded queries should always be cited. If they're not, you have a brand recognition problem. Discovery queries are the real test: getting cited here means AI engines associate your brand with the category without being prompted.
Brand Confusion Flag
If AI engines describe your brand incorrectly (wrong product category, wrong use case), it shows up in the results. This is more urgent than a missing citation. Fix brand identity content before optimizing for discovery.
Intelligence Flags to Watch Each Week
Flag | What It Signals |
|---|---|
Citation gained | Something you published recently started working |
Citation lost | A competitor published content that displaced you |
New competitor | A brand appearing for the first time across 2+ engines |
Framing shift | The way engines categorise your space is evolving |
7. What Are the Current Limitations of the Tracker?
- Does not auto-post replies or content (it surfaces gaps, you create the content)
- Does not query Perplexity with a live browser session by default (uses Exa as a Perplexity-proxy, close but not identical)
- Does not store API keys permanently (re-enter your OpenRouter key each session, or configure it as a skill credential)
- Airtable write requires
data.records:writescope on your token. Read access alone won't work.
8. What Python Skills Power the Agent?
Two Python skills power the engine. Both run in Hyperagent's sandboxed environment. No setup required on your machine.
AEO Prompt Library (prompt_library.py)
- Stores and manages your active prompt set
- Replaces
{brand}and{category}placeholders at run time - Reads from Google Sheets (primary) or falls back to a local JSON file
AEO Citation Engine (geo_orchestrator.py + citation_parser.py)
- Parses AI engine responses for brand mentions, competitor mentions, sentiment, and framing
- Scores citation rate and calculates week-over-week delta
- Generates gap notes and structures Airtable payloads
Both scripts are pure Python with no external dependencies.
9. Quick Reference {#quick-reference}
Item | Detail |
|---|---|
Platform | Hyperagent |
Engines Tracked | ChatGPT (GPT-5.5), Claude, Perplexity (Exa), Gemini 3.5 Flash |
Results Storage | Google Sheets (one dated tab per run) |
Optional Integrations | Airtable, Slack |
First Run Time | 5-8 minutes |
Code Required | None |
API Key Required | OpenRouter (free tier available) |
Prompt Management | Google Sheet "Prompt Library" tab |
Key Commands
Command | Action |
|---|---|
| Run the full weekly scan |
| Alias for run audit |
| Add a new prompt to track |
| Pull the previous run summary |
| Seed starter prompts on first use |
FAQ: AEO Visibility Tracker
Q: What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)? Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of making your brand appear as a cited source when AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude answer questions in your category. Where SEO targets Google's blue links, AEO targets AI-generated answers.
Q: How does the AEO Visibility Tracker work? The tracker sends a set of prompts to four AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity via Exa, and Gemini), then parses each response for your brand name, citation position, sentiment, and competitor appearances. Results are written to a dated Google Sheet tab after every run.
Q: Is the AEO Visibility Tracker free to use? The tracker itself requires a Hyperagent account and a Google account, both of which have free tiers. Querying ChatGPT and Gemini requires an OpenRouter API key, which also offers a free tier. There is no paid dashboard or SaaS subscription needed.
Q: How often should I run an AEO audit? Weekly is the recommended cadence. Citation patterns in AI engines shift as competitors publish new content. Weekly monitoring means you catch a citation lost or gained within days rather than months.
Q: What is a good AEO citation rate? A citation rate of 50% or above across active prompts is a solid baseline. 0% on discovery queries (non-branded) means AI engines don't associate your brand with your category, which is fixable but requires a content strategy to address.
Q: What is the difference between branded and discovery queries? Branded queries include your brand name (e.g., "[Brand] alternatives"). Discovery queries do not (e.g., "best AI agent platforms"). Branded queries test recognition. Discovery queries test whether AI engines independently associate you with your category.
Get the Agent
The AEO Visibility Tracker is free to use and takes about 15 minutes to set up.
What's included:
- The full Hyperagent agent with both Python skills pre-configured
prompt_library.py+geo_orchestrator.py+citation_parser.py) - A Google Sheets template with all tabs pre-built: Prompt Library, Prompts To Track, and a sample results tab
- 12 starter prompts covering branded, discovery, and competitor query types (ready to import on first use)
Download the AEO Visibility Tracker
|
- First-time setup takes 15 minutes. After that, a weekly audit runs in 5-8 minutes on demand — just say
run audit.
Claim $1,000 in Hyperagent Credits
Airtable is running a limited offer for readers who grab this agent:
- Skip the Hyperagent waitlist
- Get $1,000 in Hyperagent credits to run agents immediately
Claim your credits here → https://tr.ee/djN2rG
This offer is available for a limited time. If you're planning to explore Hyperagent beyond this tracker, the credits give you meaningful runway to build and test without spending anything upfront.
About the Author:
Rananjay (@rananjayraj) is a marketing automation practitioner with 15+ years in enterprise marketing. He has built 90+ Claude Skills and writes about AI-driven marketing systems at The AI Driven Marketer on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn | The AI Driven Marketer | Website | Github | Youtube