How to Interpret Your Presence Rate

Quick answer: Presence Rate is the percentage of buyer queries where AI platforms mention you. 72% = AI mentions you in 7-8 of 10 queries (excellent). 22% = AI mentions you in 2 of 10 queries (needs improvement). Focus on reaching 50%+ where AI recommends you to majority of buyers.

Reading time: 15 minutes

What you’ll learn:

• How to interpret your Presence Rate score across different industries and business types
• What specific actions to take based on your score (60-80%, 40-60%, 20-40%, 0-20%)
• How to read platform-specific and persona-specific breakdowns to identify improvement opportunities
• Realistic 90-day improvement targets and the content investment required to achieve them
• Red flags that signal urgent problems and when low Presence Rate is actually acceptable

Benchmarks: 60-80% is excellent, 40-60% is good, 20-40% is average, 0-20% is low.

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What Presence Rate Actually Measures

The Core Formula

Presence Rate = (Number of queries where you’re mentioned) ÷ (Total queries tested) × 100

Example calculation:

• Signal tests 50 persona queries across 7 AI platforms
• You’re mentioned in 29 of 50 queries
• Presence Rate = 29 ÷ 50 × 100 = 58%

What this means: AI platforms recommend you to 58% of buyers using those queries.

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Presence Rate vs Authority Score

Common confusion: “I have 58% Presence Rate and 72 Authority Score. Which matters more?”

Presence Rate = Quantity (how often mentioned) Authority Score = Quality (how confidently recommended)

Example:

Business A:

• Presence Rate: 72%
• Authority Score: 45
• Interpretation: AI mentions you often but with low confidence (“one option is…”, “you could try…”)

Business B:

• Presence Rate: 45%
• Authority Score: 85
• Interpretation: AI mentions you less often but very confidently (“top choice”, “highly recommended”, “best option”)

Which is better? Business B. Quality beats quantity. Better to be strongly recommended to 45% of buyers than weakly mentioned to 72%.

Ideal combination: High Presence Rate (60-80%) + High Authority Score (75-90%) = Dominant brand.

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Presence Rate Benchmarks by Business Type

Local Service Businesses (HVAC, Plumbing, Law)

Excellent: 60-80%

• AI mentions you in 6-8 of 10 local buyer queries
• Example: “Emergency AC repair Phoenix” → You’re mentioned

Good: 40-60%

• AI mentions you in 4-6 of 10 queries
• Room for improvement but competitive

Average: 20-40%

• AI mentions you in 2-4 of 10 queries
• Need content strategy improvements

Low: 0-20%

• AI rarely mentions you
• Critical visibility gap

Why local matters: Local buyers use AI for research. If Presence Rate is under 40%, you’re invisible to majority of AI-powered searches.

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E-commerce and Product Businesses

Excellent: 50-70%

• AI mentions your products in half of relevant queries
• Example: “Best wireless earbuds under $100” → Your product listed

Good: 30-50%

• AI knows your products exist, mentions occasionally
• Competitive with other brands

Average: 15-30%

• Limited visibility, AI prefers competitors
• Need product content, reviews, comparisons

Low: 0-15%

• AI doesn’t recognize your products
• Critical issue for online sales

Why product visibility matters: Product discovery increasingly happens via AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity). Low Presence Rate = lost sales.

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B2B SaaS and Software

Excellent: 40-60%

• AI recommends your software in nearly half of category queries
• Example: “Project management tools for remote teams” → You’re mentioned

Good: 25-40%

• AI aware of your tool, competes with alternatives
• Need differentiation content

Average: 10-25%

• Limited recognition, AI prefers established players
• Content gaps in use cases, integrations, comparisons

Low: 0-10%

• AI doesn’t recognize your software
• Urgent visibility problem

Why SaaS benchmarks are lower: Crowded category. Even 40% Presence Rate is competitive (10-15 alternatives exist).

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Consultants and Personal Brands

Excellent: 30-50%

• AI mentions you in 3-5 of 10 expertise queries
• Example: “Marketing consultants specializing in AI” → You’re mentioned

Good: 15-30%

• AI aware of your expertise, mentions occasionally
• Competitive with other consultants

Average: 5-15%

• Limited personal brand visibility
• Need thought leadership content

Low: 0-5%

• AI doesn’t recognize your expertise
• Critical personal brand gap

Why consultant benchmarks are lower: Individual consultants compete with agencies, firms, and platforms. 30% is strong.

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What Your Specific Presence Rate Means

80-100% Presence Rate: Dominant Brand

What this means:

• AI mentions you in 8-10 of 10 relevant queries
• You’re category leader in AI training data
• Minimal competitive threats

Examples:

• Stripe for “payment processing”
• Salesforce for “CRM software”
• Shopify for “e-commerce platform”

Action: Maintain dominance. Monitor quarterly for competitive threats.

Rare: Less than 1% of businesses achieve this. Usually requires years of market leadership.

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60-80% Presence Rate: Strong Brand

What this means:

• AI mentions you in 6-8 of 10 queries
• You’re top-of-mind for your category
• Strong competitive position

Examples:

• Well-known local businesses (top 3 in city)
• Established SaaS tools (top 5 in category)
• Recognized consultants (published authors, speakers)

Action: Defend position. Focus on differentiators to stay ahead of competitors.

Goal: Push toward 70-80% by owning niche personas competitors miss.

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40-60% Presence Rate: Competitive Position

What this means:

• AI mentions you in 4-6 of 10 queries
• You’re competitive but not dominant
• Opportunities to improve

Examples:

• Local businesses (top 5-10 in city)
• Mid-market SaaS (recognized but not category leader)
• Consultants with decent online presence

Action: Identify persona gaps. Which 40-60% of queries are you missing? Create content targeting those gaps.

Goal: Reach 60%+ by targeting 2-3 high-impact personas.

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20-40% Presence Rate: Needs Improvement

What this means:

• AI mentions you in 2-4 of 10 queries
• You’re visible but not competitive
• Significant visibility gaps

Examples:

• Newer businesses (1-3 years online)
• Minimal content (5-10 page website)
• Limited online reviews or trust signals

Action: Content sprint. Add 10-15 FAQ pages, 5-10 blog posts, schema markup. Re-test in 90 days.

Goal: Reach 40-50% (doubling Presence Rate is realistic with focused effort).

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0-20% Presence Rate: Critical Gap

What this means:

• AI mentions you in 0-2 of 10 queries
• You’re nearly invisible to AI platforms
• Urgent action needed

Examples:

• Very new businesses (under 6 months)
• Minimal online presence (1-page website)
• No structured content (no FAQs, blog, reviews)

Action: Foundation-building. Create 15-20 FAQ pages, add LocalBusiness schema, get 10-20 reviews, publish 10 blog posts. Re-test in 90 days.

Goal: Reach 30-40% (realistic with comprehensive content strategy).

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How to Read Presence Rate by Platform

Signal breaks down Presence Rate by platform:

Example report:

• ChatGPT: 72% Presence Rate
• Perplexity: 68% Presence Rate
• Claude: 58% Presence Rate
• Gemini: 52% Presence Rate
• Meta AI: 45% Presence Rate
• Grok: 38% Presence Rate
• DeepSeek: 25% Presence Rate
• Overall Presence Rate: 58% (weighted average)

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What Platform-Specific Presence Rate Reveals

If ChatGPT Presence Rate is high (70%+) but Perplexity is low (30%):

• Insight: ChatGPT training data includes you, Perplexity doesn’t cite your sources
• Action: Add citations-friendly content (FAQ pages with clear answers, schema markup)

If Gemini Presence Rate is high (65%) but Claude is low (35%):

• Insight: Google-indexed content strong (Gemini uses Google), but direct content weak
• Action: Strengthen on-page content (not just SEO, but clear explainers AI can cite)

If Meta AI Presence Rate is low across all platforms (20%):

• Insight: Meta AI lags other platforms (newer, less training data)
• Not urgent: Focus on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini first (80% of AI search traffic)

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How to Read Presence Rate by Persona

Signal shows Presence Rate per persona:

Example breakdown:

Persona	Presence Rate
”Emergency AC repair Phoenix same-day”	85%
“HVAC maintenance plan under $200 Phoenix”	72%
“Best HVAC for system replacement Phoenix”	45%
“Cheap AC repair Phoenix”	18%
“24/7 HVAC companies Phoenix”	12%

Insights:

• Strong: Emergency repair (85%) and maintenance (72%) personas
• Weak: System replacement (45%), cheap/budget (18%), 24/7 (12%)

Action:

• Defend strengths: Maintain emergency and maintenance content
• Fix gaps: Create content for “system replacement”, “budget-friendly”, “24/7 service”

Example content fixes:

• Add FAQ: “Do you offer 24/7 HVAC service?” (fixes 12% gap)
• Publish blog: “HVAC System Replacement Cost Guide: 3-Ton vs 5-Ton” (fixes 45% gap)
• Add service page: “Budget-Friendly AC Repair Phoenix Under $150” (fixes 18% gap)

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What “Good” Presence Rate Looks Like (Industry-Specific)

HVAC Example: Good Presence Rate Pattern

Overall Presence Rate: 62%

Platform breakdown:

• ChatGPT: 72%
• Perplexity: 68%
• Claude: 58%
• Gemini: 65%
• Others: 40-50%

Persona breakdown:

• Emergency repair: 85%
• Maintenance: 72%
• Installation: 68%
• Budget queries: 45%
• Brand-specific: 58%

Why this is good:

• Strong across major platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini 65%+)
• Dominates high-intent personas (emergency, maintenance 70%+)
• Competitive on mid-funnel (installation 68%)
• Room to improve budget queries (45% → target 60%+)

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SaaS Example: Good Presence Rate Pattern

Overall Presence Rate: 42%

Platform breakdown:

• ChatGPT: 52%
• Perplexity: 48%
• Claude: 45%
• Gemini: 38%
• Others: 25-35%

Persona breakdown:

• Use case queries: 65% (“project management for remote teams”)
• Integration queries: 52% (“Slack project management integration”)
• Comparison queries: 38% (“Asana vs our-tool”)
• Pricing queries: 28% (“affordable project management under $10/user”)
• Alternative queries: 18% (“Asana alternatives”)

Why this is good for SaaS:

• Competitive overall (42% in crowded category)
• Strong use case positioning (65%)
• Present in integration queries (52%)
• Room to improve comparison content (38% → 55%+)
• Opportunity in “alternatives” content (18% → 40%+)

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When to Worry About Presence Rate

Red Flags

Red flag 1: Presence Rate declining over time

• Month 1: 58% Presence Rate
• Month 4: 45% Presence Rate
• Month 7: 32% Presence Rate

What this means: Competitors improving faster than you, or AI platforms updating training data (yours stale).

Action: Content refresh. Update FAQ pages, publish new blog posts, add recent case studies.

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Red flag 2: Competitors have 2x your Presence Rate

• Your Presence Rate: 28%
• Competitor A: 72%
• Competitor B: 68%

What this means: Competitors dominate AI visibility. You’re at severe disadvantage.

Action: Reverse-engineer competitor content. Run Signal on competitors, identify what they have that you don’t, create better content.

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Red flag 3: Platform-specific Presence Rate under 20% on major platforms

• ChatGPT: 18%
• Perplexity: 12%
• Claude: 15%

What this means: Major platforms don’t recognize you. Critical visibility gap.

Action: Add citations-friendly content (FAQ pages with schema, clear answers AI can extract).

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When Low Presence Rate Is OK

Acceptable low Presence Rate scenarios:

1. Brand new business (under 6 months)

• Expected: 10-20% Presence Rate
• AI platforms haven’t indexed content yet (takes 2-4 weeks minimum)
• Action: Build content foundation, re-test in 90 days

2. Very niche category with limited online data

• Example: Specialized industrial equipment manufacturing
• Expected: 15-30% Presence Rate (AI has limited training data)
• Action: Become category content leader (publish guides, FAQs, case studies)

3. Local business in small market

• Example: HVAC in small town (population under 50K)
• Expected: 20-35% Presence Rate (limited local competition, AI defaults to regional/national brands)
• Action: Hyper-local content (city-specific FAQs, local schema markup)

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Realistic Presence Rate Improvement Goals

90-Day Improvement Targets

Starting at 0-20%:

• Realistic goal: 30-40% (doubling or tripling)
• Required effort: 15-20 FAQ pages, 10 blog posts, schema markup, 10-20 reviews
• Investment: 40-60 hours content creation

Starting at 20-40%:

• Realistic goal: 45-55% (increasing 50-100%)
• Required effort: 10 FAQ pages, 5-10 blog posts, persona-specific landing pages
• Investment: 20-40 hours content creation

Starting at 40-60%:

• Realistic goal: 60-70% (increasing 25-50%)
• Required effort: Targeted content for low-Presence personas, schema enhancements
• Investment: 10-20 hours focused content

Starting at 60-80%:

• Realistic goal: 70-85% (incremental gains)
• Required effort: Defend position, monitor competitors, update existing content
• Investment: 5-10 hours quarterly maintenance

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Unrealistic Expectations

Don’t expect:

• 0% → 80% in 30 days (impossible, AI platforms take 2-4 weeks to index)
• 100% Presence Rate ever (no business achieves this, even category leaders)
• Improvement without content changes (Presence Rate won’t magically improve)

Realistic mindset:

• Presence Rate growth is incremental (10-20 percentage points per quarter)
• Requires consistent content creation (FAQ pages, blog posts, schema)
• Re-test quarterly to measure progress

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How to Act on Your Presence Rate

If Your Presence Rate is 60-80% (Strong)

Action 1: Defend your position

• Monitor competitors quarterly (run Signal on top 3 competitors)
• If competitor Presence Rate approaches yours, strengthen differentiators

Action 2: Focus on Authority Score

• You’re mentioned often (60-80% Presence)
• Now improve how confidently you’re recommended (Authority Score)
• Add trust signals: reviews, case studies, awards, certifications

Action 3: Own niche personas

• Identify 1-2 personas where Presence Rate is 40-50% (weak for you)
• Create targeted content to push those to 70-80%
• Result: Overall Presence Rate 60-80% → 70-85%

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If Your Presence Rate is 40-60% (Competitive)

Action 1: Identify persona gaps

• Which personas have Presence Rate under 40%?
• Create FAQ pages, blog posts, landing pages targeting those gaps

Example:

• “Budget HVAC” persona: 32% Presence Rate
• Fix: Publish “Budget-Friendly HVAC Maintenance Phoenix Under $200/Year”
• Result: 32% → 58% Presence Rate for that persona

Action 2: Study high-Presence competitors

• Run Signal on competitor with 70%+ Presence Rate
• Identify content they have that you don’t
• Create better content on same topics

Action 3: Add schema markup

• LocalBusiness, Organization, Product, FAQ schema
• AI platforms cite structured data more confidently
• Result: 40-60% → 50-65% Presence Rate

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If Your Presence Rate is 20-40% (Needs Improvement)

Action 1: Content sprint (30-day focus)

• Week 1: Add 5 FAQ pages (top 5 buyer questions)
• Week 2: Add 5 more FAQ pages
• Week 3: Publish 3 blog posts (persona-specific topics)
• Week 4: Add schema markup (LocalBusiness, Organization)

Action 2: Get reviews

• AI platforms cite businesses with strong review signals
• Target: 10-20 Google reviews minimum
• Result: Improves both Presence Rate and Authority Score

Action 3: Re-test in 90 days

• Expect: 20-40% → 40-50% Presence Rate (realistic improvement)
• If no improvement: Content not targeted correctly, refine personas

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If Your Presence Rate is 0-20% (Critical Gap)

Action 1: Foundation-building (60-90 days)

• Create 15-20 FAQ pages (comprehensive buyer question coverage)
• Add LocalBusiness schema with all details (hours, services, location)
• Get 10-20 Google reviews
• Publish 10 blog posts (one per core service/product)

Action 2: Ensure content is indexable

• Check robots.txt (not blocking AI crawlers)
• Add sitemap.xml
• Verify pages indexed in Google (use site:yoursite.com search)

Action 3: Re-test in 90 days

• Expect: 0-20% → 30-40% Presence Rate (significant jump)
• If still under 20%: Technical issue (site not indexable, content too thin)

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The Bottom Line

Presence Rate shows how often AI platforms mention you when buyers search for your category.

Benchmarks:

• 60-80%: Excellent
• 40-60%: Good
• 20-40%: Average
• 0-20%: Low

Improvement is realistic: Most businesses increase Presence Rate 10-20 percentage points per quarter with focused content strategy.

Action based on your score:

• 60-80%: Defend position, focus on Authority Score
• 40-60%: Fill persona gaps, add schema markup
• 20-40%: Content sprint (FAQ pages, blog posts, reviews)
• 0-20%: Foundation-building (15-20 FAQ pages, schema, reviews)

Re-test quarterly to measure improvement and adjust strategy.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is 100% Presence Rate possible?

No. Even category leaders achieve 80-90% maximum.

Why: AI platforms don’t mention anyone for every query. Some queries get generic responses (“there are many options…”), some get category explanations (not specific businesses).

Realistic ceiling: 80-85% for dominant brands, 70-75% for strong brands.

What’s more important: Presence Rate or Authority Score?

Both matter, but Authority Score matters more if you must choose.

Example:

• 45% Presence Rate, 85 Authority Score = AI strongly recommends you to half of buyers (good)
• 72% Presence Rate, 42 Authority Score = AI mentions you often but with low confidence (less effective)

Ideal: 60%+ Presence Rate + 75+ Authority Score (mentioned often, recommended confidently).

Can Presence Rate decrease even if I don’t change anything?

Yes. Two reasons:

Reason 1: Competitors improving

• Month 1: Competitor A has 45% Presence Rate, you have 58% (you’re ahead)
• Month 4: Competitor A improves to 72% (new content, reviews)
• Month 4: You still 58% (you didn’t change)
• Result: Competitor now dominates, AI mentions you less often (relative positioning changed)

Reason 2: AI platform updates

• AI platforms retrain models periodically
• If your content is outdated (2+ years old), new training data replaces yours
• Result: Presence Rate decreases (content stale)

Action: Run Signal quarterly, track trends, refresh content annually.

How fast can I improve my Presence Rate?

Realistic timeline:

30 days: Minimal improvement (AI platforms take 2-4 weeks to index new content) 90 days: Meaningful improvement (10-20 percentage point increase realistic) 180 days: Significant improvement (20-40 percentage point increase with sustained effort)

Example progression:

• Month 0: 22% Presence Rate
• Month 3: 38% Presence Rate (+16 points)
• Month 6: 52% Presence Rate (+14 points)
• Month 9: 62% Presence Rate (+10 points)

Diminishing returns: Easier to go from 20% → 40% than 60% → 80%.

Should I focus on overall Presence Rate or platform-specific?

Focus on major platforms first:

• ChatGPT (largest user base)
• Perplexity (citations-heavy, growing)
• Claude (strong in B2B)
• Gemini (Google integration)

De-prioritize:

• Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek (smaller user bases, less mature)

Strategy: Optimize for ChatGPT and Perplexity first (50% of AI search traffic). Other platforms will improve as side effect.

What if my Presence Rate is high but I’m not getting more customers?

High Presence Rate doesn’t guarantee conversions. You need:

1. Authority Score: Are you recommended confidently? (If Authority Score is low, AI mentions you but doesn’t recommend you strongly)

2. Conversion path: When AI mentions you, can users find you? (Check if website, phone, booking link included in AI responses)

3. Trust signals: Do users trust you after AI mention? (Reviews, case studies, portfolio)

Example problem:

• 72% Presence Rate
• 38 Authority Score (low)
• AI says: “You could try Business X” (weak recommendation)
• Result: Mentioned often but not converting

Fix: Improve Authority Score (add reviews, case studies, trust signals).

Can I have different Presence Rates for different personas?

Yes. This is common and expected.

Example (HVAC business):

• “Emergency repair” persona: 85% Presence Rate (you’re known for emergency)
• “Maintenance plan” persona: 62% Presence Rate (competitive)
• “Budget repair” persona: 18% Presence Rate (not positioned for budget)

Strategy: You don’t need 80% Presence Rate for every persona. Focus on personas aligned with your strengths.

If you don’t offer budget services, 18% Presence Rate for “budget” persona is fine (you don’t want that traffic).

How do I know if my Presence Rate is good for my industry?

Compare to competitors:

• Run Signal on top 3 competitors
• If their Presence Rate is 65-75% and yours is 58%, you’re competitive (close)
• If their Presence Rate is 80%+ and yours is 28%, you’re at disadvantage (gap)

Industry doesn’t matter as much as competitive positioning. Even in crowded categories, top 3 players achieve 60-75% Presence Rate.

Benchmark against competitors, not abstract industry standards.

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Need help understanding your Presence Rate? Email hi@surmado.com with your Intelligence Token and we’ll help you interpret your specific results and recommend next steps.