Historical Metrics Dashboard
Understanding how your AI visibility changes over time is just as important as knowing where you stand today. The Historical Metrics Dashboard shows you trends in brand consistency, share of voice, and gap opportunities, helping you measure the impact of your optimization efforts.
What You'll Learn
In this guide, you'll learn:
- How to interpret AI visibility trends
- What metrics matter most for tracking progress
- How to filter data by time range
- Why AI metrics naturally fluctuate
- How to identify real improvements versus normal variation
Understanding AI Visibility Metrics
Navigate to Historical Metrics from your property sidebar under Visibility.
Key Metrics Tracked
Brand Consistency How reliably your brand appears when AI platforms answer questions in your space. Higher consistency means AI platforms are mentioning you more predictably across different queries and platforms.
Share of Voice The percentage of AI responses where your brand appears compared to all opportunities. This is your primary measure of competitive positioning in AI recommendations.
Mentions and Citations Raw counts of how often AI platforms mention your brand and cite your domain as a source. These numbers provide context for your Share of Voice percentage.
Gap Opportunities Grounding searches where competitors rank but you don't. Tracking this over time shows whether you're closing the gap or falling further behind.
Using the Time Range Filter
The time range selector at the top of the dashboard lets you focus on specific periods:
Available Time Ranges
7 Days: See immediate impact from recent changes. Useful after publishing new content or making technical fixes.
30 Days: The default view. Shows enough data to spot trends while remaining responsive to recent changes.
90 Days: Best for understanding longer-term trajectory. Use this to evaluate quarterly performance.
Custom Range: Pick specific start and end dates. Helpful for comparing performance before and after major campaigns or site changes.
When to Use Each Range
Use 7 days when:
- Testing impact of specific content published this week
- Monitoring immediate response to technical changes
- Checking if a competitor suddenly improved
Use 30 days when:
- Doing regular monthly performance reviews
- Evaluating recent optimization efforts
- Comparing this month to last month
Use 90 days when:
- Preparing quarterly business reviews
- Assessing long-term strategy effectiveness
- Identifying seasonal patterns
Use custom range when:
- Comparing before/after a site redesign
- Measuring impact of a content campaign with specific dates
- Analyzing performance during a product launch period
Reading the Charts
Brand Consistency Over Time
This chart shows your consistency score (0-100) across all AI platforms. The shaded band around the line represents typical variability—more on this below.
What to look for:
- Upward trend: Your optimization efforts are working
- Flat trend: You're maintaining position but not improving
- Downward trend: Either you're slipping or competitors are improving faster
- Large jumps: Often indicate new content or authority signals taking effect
Share of Voice & Mentions
This dual-axis chart shows both your Share of Voice percentage (left axis) and total mention count (right axis). The shaded area represents normal fluctuation range for Share of Voice.
Why both metrics matter:
- SOV shows your competitive position
- Mentions show absolute performance
- Rising SOV with flat mentions means you're holding steady while competitors decline
- Flat SOV with rising mentions means everyone's improving together
Citations Over Time
Citations indicate how often AI platforms reference your domain as a source. This is a strong signal of authority and trustworthiness.
Citation patterns:
- Steady growth indicates building authority
- Sudden spikes often follow publication of data-rich content
- Citations often lag behind mentions (you get mentioned first, cited later)
Grounding Search Gap Trends
This chart tracks two important numbers:
- Gap count (orange area): Total searches where competitors rank but you don't
- Average competitor rank (purple line): How well competitors are positioning themselves
Interpreting gap trends:
- Declining gaps: You're successfully closing visibility gaps
- Rising gaps: Competitors are finding new ranking opportunities
- Improving competitor ranks: The competitive bar is rising
- Declining competitor ranks: There may be optimization opportunities competitors haven't found
Understanding Data Variability
AI responses are non-deterministic by nature, meaning you'll see some fluctuation between reports even when nothing else changes. This is normal and expected.
Why Metrics Fluctuate
AI platforms don't give identical answers Ask ChatGPT the same question twice, you'll often get different responses. This means your brand might appear in one answer but not the next, even for the same query.
Grounding searches vary AI platforms don't always perform the same grounding searches for identical questions. One day they might search "best CRM tools," the next day "top CRM platforms"—and your rankings might differ between those searches.
Platform updates happen constantly AI models update regularly, changing how they evaluate and rank information. A small algorithm change can shift your visibility temporarily.
The shaded bands show typical variation The charts display confidence intervals (±8%) around your metrics. This represents the natural fluctuation range. Small changes within this band should be interpreted directionally, not as definitive improvements or declines.
What Counts as Real Change
Trust trends, not single points One report showing 45% SOV and the next showing 50% doesn't necessarily mean improvement. But three consecutive reports trending from 45% to 48% to 51% likely indicates real progress.
Look for sustained movement A metric that stays outside the confidence band for three or more consecutive reports probably represents genuine change rather than random variation.
Consider external context If your metrics improve right after publishing major new content, that's likely causal. If they improve on a random Tuesday with no changes, that's probably just variation.
Top Gap Opportunities
Below the charts, you'll find a list of your current highest-priority gap opportunities:
For each gap, you'll see:
- The specific search query competitors rank for
- How many discovery queries use this grounding search
- Which competitor ranks best and at what position
Using this list:
- Start with gaps used in multiple queries (highest leverage)
- Check if you have content targeting this search
- Review what competitors rank for this search
- Create or optimize content to rank in the top 30
- Re-run your AI Visibility Report to verify improvement
Customizing Your View
Focusing on Gaps
The Historical Metrics Dashboard automatically filters to show only gap opportunities in the grounding search trends. This keeps the dashboard focused on actionable opportunities rather than every search AI performs.
To see all grounding searches including those where you already rank, visit the AI Visibility Rankings page (covered in a separate guide).
Comparing Time Periods
To compare two specific periods:
- Set your time range to the more recent period
- Note the key metrics
- Change the time range to the earlier period
- Compare the numbers
For example, to see quarterly improvement, view 7-30 days ago, then view 90-120 days ago.
Best Practices
Review Weekly
Check your Historical Metrics at least weekly. This keeps you aware of trends without over-reacting to normal fluctuations.
Track After Major Changes
Whenever you publish significant new content or make technical changes, note the date. Check Historical Metrics 7-14 days later to see if the changes impacted your visibility.
Share With Stakeholders
Use the 90-day view to demonstrate progress to executives or clients. The longer timeframe smooths out day-to-day variation and shows clearer trends.
Set Quarterly Goals
Based on your current baseline, set realistic quarterly targets:
- 5-10% improvement in Share of Voice
- 10-20% increase in citations
- 20-30% reduction in gap opportunities
AI visibility improves gradually. Expecting month-over-month doubling sets you up for disappointment.
Document Your Efforts
Keep a simple log of optimization work:
- "Oct 15: Published comparison guide"
- "Oct 22: Updated product schema"
- "Nov 3: Added FAQ section"
When you see metrics improve, you'll know what likely drove the change.
Troubleshooting Common Patterns
Metrics Dropped Suddenly
First check: Did a competitor launch major new content? Then check: Are there technical issues (site down, robots.txt changed)? Finally: Wait one more report cycle—it might just be normal variation.
Metrics Stuck Despite Optimization
If you're creating content but metrics aren't improving:
- Verify your content actually ranks in traditional search for target terms
- Check if content is being indexed (use site: search operator)
- Review if content truly matches what AI searches for (check grounding searches)
- Consider if you need more authority signals (mentions, links, reviews)
One Platform Performing Differently
It's normal for different AI platforms to show different patterns. ChatGPT might improve while Claude stays flat. This reflects differences in how platforms evaluate information. Don't expect uniform performance across all platforms.
How This Ties to AI Search Visibility
Historical Metrics serve as your North Star for AI optimization because:
1. They validate your strategy Without historical data, you're guessing whether your efforts work. Trending metrics prove what's effective and what's not.
2. They justify resource investment When you can show stakeholders that Share of Voice increased 15% after your content campaign, it's easier to secure budget for more optimization work.
3. They reveal competitive dynamics Watching both your metrics and gap trends shows whether the competitive landscape is intensifying or stabilizing. This informs how aggressively you need to optimize.
4. They prevent panic over fluctuations Understanding that AI metrics naturally vary by ±8% keeps you from over-reacting to normal variation and helps you focus on real trends.
5. They identify optimization blind spots If citations are growing but Share of Voice is flat, you're building authority but maybe not for the right queries. If gap opportunities aren't declining despite content creation, you might be targeting the wrong searches.
The Historical Metrics Dashboard transforms AI visibility from a one-time audit into an ongoing optimization program. Use it to track progress, validate strategy, and identify your next high-impact optimization opportunities.