AI Visibility Score: what it is (and how to check yours free).
Mindflow Marketing scores where a company already stands on Google and inside the answers buyers now read first: Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Founder-led, run from Atlanta, with published pricing and a measurement protocol you can read before you spend a dollar.
Everyone selling in this space now has a score. Few will tell you what is in it. Here is what an AI visibility score can legitimately measure, what it cannot, the four questions that separate a real one from a decorative one, and how to get yours without paying anybody.
12
frozen buying questions in the screen, scored out of twelve
3 × 3
three platforms, three runs each, screenshots archived
$0
what a Visibility Check costs, and you keep the findings
Mindflow Marketing was founded by Youssef Hodaigui, twenty-five years in search, and he runs every engagement personally.
The office is in Atlanta and every score is run from there. Wherever your business sits, you know where we sit.
Every rate is on the pricing page. No quote call required to learn what this costs.
One company per metro in each service category. Your competitor cannot buy the same seat while you hold it.
What is AI visibility, and how is it different from SEO?
AI visibility, also called answer engine optimization or AEO, is the practice of getting a business named inside AI-generated answers. SEO earns a ranked link a buyer clicks. AEO earns a mention inside the answer itself, in Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini, where no click may ever happen.
The two run on overlapping machinery. Google states that its generative features are rooted in its core Search ranking and quality systems, so a page has to be indexed and eligible before it can be quoted. Classic SEO is the floor, not an alternative to it.
What sits above that floor is different work. An assistant is choosing which businesses to name, and it draws on how clearly your company is defined as an entity, how consistently it is described across the web, what independent sources say about it, and whether your pages answer the question in a passage it can lift whole.
Nobody can force a recommendation. Mindflow Marketing builds the entity footprint, the citable pages and the review base the assistants draw on, then scores where you land on twelve frozen buying questions across three platforms each quarter, with the screenshots archived and dated.
An AI visibility score is a summary measure of how often an AI assistant names a business across a defined set of questions, on named platforms, over a stated number of runs. Without those three disclosures it is a number rather than a score.
- A score is a summary of a sample. Its entire value rests on what was sampled, where, and how many times.
- The three disclosures are non-negotiable: the question set, the platform list, the runs per question. Missing any one makes the number unreadable.
- Small samples cannot be percentages. Twelve questions produce a fraction. A decimal point on twelve observations is a decorative choice, not a precise one.
- You can get one free. Ours costs nothing, uses a published method, and the findings are yours whether or not we ever speak.
What actually shapes an AI visibility score?
The number is downstream of the conditions it was collected under, so read those first. The table sets out the protocol we run and names the source of every row. Our reading of it starts below the table, marked as ours.
| Condition | What it is | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The question set | Twelve frozen buying questions for the trade and market, fixed before the first run and held unchanged between runs. | Mindflow Share of Answer protocol, published at /methodology/ |
| The platform list | Three platforms, scored and reported separately: Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. | Mindflow Share of Answer protocol, published at /methodology/ |
| Runs per question | Three runs per question, asked from a clean, logged-out session with memory off. | Mindflow Share of Answer protocol, published at /methodology/ |
| The counting rule | A business counts as named where it appears in at least two of the three runs. | Mindflow Share of Answer protocol, published at /methodology/ |
| The scale | Scored out of twelve and reported as a fraction, with no percentage and no rank attached. | Mindflow Share of Answer protocol, published at /methodology/ |
| Cadence | Scored quarterly, with every screenshot archived and dated. The protocol states that quarterly, and not monthly, is deliberate. | Mindflow Share of Answer protocol, published at /methodology/ |
| Eligibility underneath it | Google states that its generative features are rooted in its core Search ranking and quality systems. | Google, on how its generative search features work |
What we read from that, and this part is our judgement rather than anything the sources state: those disclosures are what make a number readable, and everything from here to the sources line is our reading of them, not a published finding.
Four questions before you believe a number
1. What were the questions? Ask to see the whole set. Questions like “best {your company name}” inflate a score to no purpose, a brand query proves only that you exist. The set should be what a buyer asks before they know who you are.
2. Which platforms, in what state? Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity behave differently and should be reported separately. A blended number that hides a zero on one platform is hiding the most useful thing in the report. And a score run from a logged-in account with memory on is measuring the analyst, not the market.
3. How many runs per question? One run is a coin flip. Generated answers vary; a business named once out of three is in a different position from one named three times out of three, and a single-run score cannot tell them apart.
4. What does it refuse to claim? This is the fastest test. A number with no stated limits was not built by someone worried about being wrong. Ours refuses to be a percentage at twelve questions, refuses to report rank, and refuses to narrate small movements as progress.
The honest boundaries, and they are still our reading
It can tell you presence. Across a defined set of questions, how often were you named? That is a real, checkable quantity and it is the only thing most scores are actually measuring.
It can tell you direction over time. Same questions, same platforms, same method, repeated: the movement is meaningful even when the absolute number is rough. This is where the value is.
It cannot tell you a rank. There is no position to hold in a generated answer. Assistants do not maintain an ordered list, and the order they happen to mention names in is not stable between runs. Any product showing you a rank is showing you a coincidence.
It cannot tell you volume. No assistant publishes how many people asked a given question. Where a tool shows “prompt volume,” it is modelling, and the model is not disclosed.
And it cannot be precise on a small sample. Precision comes from observation count. A twelve-question screen tells you roughly where you stand; it does not support claims about a two-point move, and we will not make them.
What it is good for is triage. A score of 1/12 and a score of 8/12 call for completely different work — the first is almost always a structural problem sitting below the content layer, the second is a competitive one. Knowing which situation you are in before anyone quotes you is most of the value, and it is the part a vendor has the least incentive to make clear.
One more limit worth stating. A score measures presence, not consequence. A provider who only ever shows you the score is showing you half the picture.
Being named in an answer is not the same as being called, and a rising X/12 alongside a flat phone is a real result that means something specific, usually that the visibility work is landing and the conversion path is where the problem actually lives.
Sources: the Mindflow Share of Answer protocol, published at /methodology/; Google’s own description of how its generative search features work. No third-party dataset is used on this page. Checked 2026-08-04.
See where you score, free checkWhat does Mindflow Marketing deliver behind the score?
A score is the reading. Five pillars are the work that moves it, and they run together inside one engagement: local SEO and Google Maps, organic search, AI visibility, reputation and brand SERP, and conversion tracking. Each is reported with the denominator stated beside the number.
Local SEO and Google Maps
Google Business Profile work and map-grid tracking read across a whole service area, not off a single pin. A grid tells you whether you are losing on trust signals or losing on distance, and those have different fixes.
Organic search
Technical foundations, site architecture and the searches that turn into high-ticket jobs, built from the work you actually closed. Pages built from a keyword tool instead rank you in places your crews will never drive to.
AI visibility and entity work
Entity disambiguation, organisation schema, knowledge-graph alignment and passages written so an assistant can lift them whole. This is the layer that decides whether ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews name your company or a competitor.
Reputation and brand SERP
What a buyer and an assistant both see when they search your name. Review base, third-party corroboration and a brand page that answers the question a nervous buyer came to ask.
Conversion tracking
Calls and forms tracked through to the booked job. This is the half of the picture a score cannot show you, and it is why we report it beside the score instead of behind it.
Measurement you can audit
Share of Answer across twelve frozen buying questions, three platforms, three runs each, scored out of twelve with screenshots archived and dated.
Read the full methodRankings are never guaranteed. Anything we could not trace to a primary source is absent from this page, not estimated. The audit runs the same six layers described on the pricing page, and Share of Answer is scored quarterly.
How the first 90 days work
Every Mindflow Marketing engagement opens with a diagnostic, not a pitch. The first 90 days establish a baseline you can hold us to, fix what is structurally broken, and put the first measured movement on the record.
- Free Visibility Check. The twelve real buying questions for your trade, asked across Google Maps, Google and the assistants. You get the screenshots. No call required to receive it.
- Local Visibility Audit. Crawlability and indexation, entity and schema state, map-grid position, review base, and the competitive gap. Delivered written, with the working shown.
- Baseline measurement. Share of Answer scored before any work begins, so the starting number exists in writing and cannot be revised later.
- Foundations, weeks 1 to 6. Technical fixes, entity and organisation schema, Google Business Profile, and the pages that answer the questions your buyers actually ask.
- Authority and content, weeks 4 to 12. Citable pages, review systems, and the off-site corroboration assistants rely on when deciding whether a company is real.
- First remeasurement. The same twelve questions, the same conditions, scored against the baseline. Movement or no movement, both go in the report.
What has Mindflow Marketing actually produced?
Two clients have given written permission to publish their numbers. Precision Fenceworks is a Georgia fence company that works Athens, Alpharetta, Atlanta and Gwinnett, verified live 2026-06-16. Fireside Antiques is an eCommerce antiques dealer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with Search Console and Ahrefs data pulled 2026-06-10.
PRECISION FENCEWORKS · GEORGIA FENCING
In Athens, where it ranks second in the map pack and third organic, Precision Fenceworks is named by three of the four major AI assistants, with Perplexity giving them as its first pick.
In Alpharetta, Precision Fenceworks is first organic and third in the map pack, beaten on proximity and not on trust signals. In Lawrenceville it is page one organic with zero map presence.
Precision Fenceworks has 87 AI mentions across 72 cited pages, and 631 Precision Fenceworks reviews at a 4.9 average.
In Atlanta the same client has no reachable map presence against 100,000+ impressions in sixteen months. Their pin sits in Alpharetta, proximity decides the Google map pack, and no page moves a building.
FIRESIDE ANTIQUES · BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
Fireside Antiques has five of eight tracked core terms ranking strong, with dining tables, armoires, mirrors and coffee tables recovered to first position.
A national eCommerce catalogue, not a local service business, which is why it sits here as evidence of method and not as a forecast for a contractor.
Neither of these records is a score record for your trade in your market. That is what the free check produces, and it produces it for your business.
Neither published client is a company of the AI-scoring category this page describes, and Mindflow Marketing is not going to imply otherwise. What transfers between businesses is the method: the audit, the frozen questions, the stated denominators and the work ledger.
What we cannot show for Precision Fenceworks: revenue, lead volume and job values. For Fireside Antiques: sales and revenue. Neither client’s permission covers it, so we cannot tell you whether this visibility became money, and we would sooner say that than let a chart imply it. Two clients is not a large portfolio and we are not going to present it as one.
What does an AI visibility score cost?
The score itself costs nothing. A Visibility Check is free, you keep the findings, and no call is required to receive it. The paid work sits behind it, and Mindflow Marketing publishes every rate.
A Local Visibility Audit is $3,500 to $7,500 and credits against your first invoice if you start a monthly partnership within 30 calendar days of delivery. The monthly partnership starts at $3,500 a month on a 90-day initial term, then runs month to month. No setup fee and no annual contract.
The credit caps at that first invoice and does not carry forward. At the bottom of the range a $3,500 audit against a $3,500 first month costs you nothing if you continue. At the top, a $7,500 audit against a $3,500 first month credits $3,500 and the remainder is spent. I would sooner you ran that sum at your own desk than found it on an invoice.
The full ladder, with what sits inside each tier, is on the pricing page.
Start with the free checkWho does Mindflow Marketing score, and where?
The office is in Atlanta and the scoring runs from there, across Georgia, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, and Atlanta with Fulton and DeKalb counties is where the office sits.
The work covers established home-services companies in fencing, roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door and remodeling, plus high-value legal, specialty healthcare and considered-purchase eCommerce. One company per metro in each service category.
The common thread is deal value: one won job has to pay for months of the work, or the arithmetic does not close. The whole trade bench sits under home services.
Where this term ends and the next one begins
The metric behind our score, published in full, the question-construction rule, the platforms, the repeat rule, the counting rule, and the volatility it will not paper over. Read that before trusting any score, including ours.
The category the score measures. Worth understanding first: a score is only useful if you know what the underlying discipline is supposed to move.
The score itself, run for your business at no cost, 12 real buying questions, three assistants, screenshots, and the first fix worth making. No sales call attached.
We run the same method on ourselves and publish the result whichever way it moves. It is a fair test to set for anyone selling you a score.
This page defines a metric. It does not sell anything. The scoring is free and unattached to a pitch: get your Visibility Check here. What it looks like when the work behind the score is run as an engagement is on the AI Visibility service page.
Want the one-paragraph version? The Visibility Glossary keeps short definitions; this page keeps the practice.
What else do owners ask about AI visibility scores?
Why is yours out of 12 and not a percentage?
Twelve questions cannot support a percentage without implying a precision that is not there. A fraction keeps the sample size visible in the number itself, 7/12 tells you both the result and how much evidence sits behind it, where “58%” hides the second half. Larger samples can carry a percentage, and when we run one we report the confidence interval with it.
Is a low score bad news?
It is usually the most useful thing in the report, because a zero is diagnostic. Most low scores trace back to something structural and fixable, a blocked crawler, contradictory business details, no page answering the question, thin corroboration, and not to anything mysterious about AI. The score’s job is to point at which one.
How often should it be re-run?
Quarterly for the twelve-question screen, and read as a trend, not as a single reading. Answers shift every few days, so anything more frequent is measuring weather. Compare against the same question set every time; changing the questions resets the baseline and makes the comparison meaningless. Quarterly is what the published protocol runs, and that choice is deliberate.
Can I run this myself?
Yes, and we would sooner you understood the method than took our word for it. Open a clean, logged-out session with memory off, ask twelve real buying questions three times each across the three assistants, and count where you are named in at least two of three. The published protocol has the details. Doing it once yourself makes you much harder to sell to.
What’s the catch with the free check?
There isn’t one worth worrying about. It takes us a couple of hours, you get the score, the screenshots and the first recommended fix, and the findings are yours whether you hire anyone or not. We do it because most owners have never seen this data and the ones who have it tend to ask better questions.
Where does your business show up right now?
12 real buying questions for your trade and market, across three assistants, three runs each, your X/12, the screenshots, and the first fix worth making. No sales call, and the findings are yours to keep.
Mindflow Marketing runs every score from Atlanta · (404) 775-9995