Recommendation Rate

Recommendation rate measures how often a business is explicitly named or suggested in AI engine responses across a defined prompt universe, expressed as a percentage of total prompts run. Unlike citation rate, which specifically counts link or source references, recommendation rate counts any instance where the business is named as an option, recommendation, or suggestion — including cases where no source link is provided. It is the broadest direct-mention metric in AI visibility measurement.

Many AI engine responses recommend businesses by name without linking to them. If you only measure citations (links), you miss a significant portion of the visibility picture. Recommendation rate captures the full extent of named AI mentions, giving a more complete picture of how often an AI engine is steering users toward a specific business. For local businesses especially, named mentions in conversational AI responses often drive direct actions (searches, calls, website visits) even without a clickable link.

Recommendation rate is broader than citation rate: it counts all named mentions. AI share of voice puts recommendation rate in competitive context. AI visibility is the umbrella concept. Recommendation rate specifically answers 'how often are we named?' regardless of link presence.