Practice GuideSighted

A Practical Guide to Improving AI Search Visibility with Sighted

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the practice of ensuring your brand is mentioned and cited in AI-generated responses from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar platforms. This guide explains the features of the AEO monitoring tool Sighted and walks through the process from measurement to optimization.

Note: Sighted as discussed in this article refers to the AI search visibility monitoring and scoring software service, not any other service or brand with a similar name.

1. What is Sighted?

Sighted is a monitoring tool that makes your brand's visibility in AI search (AEO) measurable and actionable. It covers answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini.

It regularly measures which queries result in your brand being mentioned (Mention) and whether your official site is cited (Citation), visualizing the data as scores and trends over time. You can also use it for measuring the impact of optimization efforts and benchmarking against competitors.

2. Key Features

AEO Scoring
Measures Mention and Citation status across multiple queries, aggregating results into a score. Track daily and weekly trends at a glance.
Mention / Citation Tracking
Determines per query whether your brand is mentioned in AI responses and whether your official URL is cited. Identify which queries need attention.
Competitive Analysis
Compare how frequently competitors are mentioned and cited for the same queries. See your relative position with concrete numbers.
Alerts
Get notified when scores change or new mentions and citations appear. Respond quickly instead of missing important shifts.

In addition to the above, Sighted provides trend analysis and report export capabilities, consolidating all the information you need for planning optimizations.

3. The Optimization Cycle

To achieve results with Sighted, it is essential to run a continuous Measure → Analyze → Optimize → Re-measure cycle.

  1. Measure: Register queries for your brand and competitors, and run regular Mention/Citation measurements.
  2. Analyze: Review score trends and per-query results to identify queries where you are not being mentioned or cited.
  3. Optimize: Create or improve content targeting underperforming queries (e.g., dedicated articles, FAQs, glossary entries, structured data).
  4. Re-measure: After allowing time for changes to take effect, re-measure to verify score and mention/citation changes.

Key insight: When you have Mentions but no Citations for a query, the most effective approach is to publish a page on your official site that directly addresses that query with primary data, definitions, or in-depth analysis -- content that AI systems are more likely to cite. Use Sighted's measurement results to identify which queries lack citations and prioritize content creation accordingly.

4. Step-by-Step Usage

Step 1: Define Your Target Queries

List queries tied to your brand, service, and product names (e.g., "[Product] pricing", "How to use [Product]") along with generic queries you want to rank for (e.g., "What is AEO scoring?"), and register them in Sighted.

Step 2: Run the Initial Measurement and Establish a Baseline

The first measurement captures your current Mention and Citation rates. This becomes the baseline against which all subsequent optimization efforts are compared.

Step 3: Create Content for Weak Queries

For queries with neither Mentions nor Citations, create dedicated pages or articles that directly answer those queries. To make content more citable by AI, ensure facts, data, and definitions are clear, and consider adding structured data (FAQPage, Article, etc.).

Step 4: Run Regular Measurements and Review Reports

Re-measure at a sustainable cadence (weekly or biweekly), reviewing score trends and per-query changes. Set up alerts as needed to catch significant shifts early.

For a real-world example, see the "AEO Optimization Log" series on our blog. It documents the improvement process from 0 Citations, backed by actual measurement data.

5. Next Steps

Sighted is currently available as a beta. If you want to measure and improve your AI search visibility in-house, consider signing up through our website.