Buyer's guide
Seven criteria that separate a checkable measurement from a confident-looking number, the questions to put to any vendor, and how AnswerSignal answers each one. No claims are made here about other products' internals.
Ask: “Which exact questions were asked, and why those?”
A score built on a handful of brand-name questions flatters everyone. Buying questions — best, near me, compare, emergency, affordable — are where recommendation actually happens.
AnswerSignal: Generates 30–100 customer-intent questions from your services and geography and lists every one, marking which were asked.
Ask: “Can I read the assistant's actual answer?”
Without stored answers, the metric is unfalsifiable. You cannot dispute a number you cannot trace.
AnswerSignal: Stores the full answer text, model, latency and errors for every executed question, plus the quoted sentence that named you.
Ask: “Is the same input guaranteed to produce the same score?”
A score that shifts without new evidence cannot be used to judge whether work paid off.
AnswerSignal: Deterministic scoring with published weights: presence 55%, position quality 30%, share of recommendations 15%, then blended with measured website evidence.
Ask: “Does it tell me who was recommended instead of me?”
The most actionable output of an AI visibility run is the list of businesses that took your place, and how often.
AnswerSignal: Every business named in every answer is extracted, ranked by mentions and position quality, with first-place counts.
Ask: “Which sources does the assistant lean on for my category?”
Cited domains are the practical roadmap for where your evidence needs to exist.
AnswerSignal: Aggregates cited domains and URLs across the answered set.
Ask: “Does the vendor promise rankings or recommendations?”
Nobody controls a model's output. A guarantee is a signal to walk away.
AnswerSignal: States plainly that placement cannot be guaranteed, reports 'not recommended' as a fact, and never invents revenue figures.
Ask: “Does it work for one location or for a thousand?”
Group operators need per-property ownership, scoped access and independent processing so one failure does not stall the portfolio.
AnswerSignal: Hospitality portfolios run on company/portfolio/property ownership keys with scoped roles and per-property scheduling.