How do I compare AI visibility by topic cluster and search intent?

To compare AI visibility by topic cluster and search intent, break the problem into two dimensions:

1. Topic cluster — what the content is about
2. Search intent — why the user is searching

Then measure how visible your brand/content is in AI answers across each combination.

1) Define your topic clusters

Group keywords and pages into a small set of themes, such as:

• Product category
• Use case
• Problem/solution
• Industry
• Feature
• Competitor/comparison
• Educational/how-to

Example:

Topic cluster	Example queries
Email marketing	best email marketing tools, email automation software
CRM	top CRM for SMBs, CRM for sales teams
Pricing	how much does CRM cost, affordable CRM

2) Label each query by search intent

Use a simple intent framework:

• Informational: learn/understand
• Commercial investigation: compare/options/reviews
• Transactional: buy/sign up/demo/download
• Navigational: find a specific brand/site
• Support / post-purchase: troubleshoot/manage account

Example:

Query	Topic cluster	Intent
best CRM for startups	CRM	Commercial investigation
what is CRM	CRM	Informational
Salesforce pricing	CRM	Navigational / transactional
how to migrate to CRM	CRM	Informational / support

3) Measure AI visibility for each topic-intent pair

For each query, test how often your brand appears in AI-generated responses and in what position/context.

Useful metrics:

• Mention rate: % of prompts where your brand is mentioned
• Citation rate: % where your site is cited
• Share of voice: your mentions/citations vs competitors
• Average position: where you appear in the answer or citation list
• Sentiment / framing: positive, neutral, negative, or excluded
• Answer type coverage: whether AI recommends, compares, or explains you

Create a matrix like this:

Topic cluster	Intent	Mention rate	Citation rate	Share of voice	Notes
CRM	Informational	12%	8%	Low	Competitors dominate definitions
CRM	Commercial	45%	30%	Medium	Strong in “best CRM” lists
CRM	Transactional	20%	15%	Low	Weak on pricing prompts
Email marketing	Informational	30%	22%	Medium	Good educational content
Email marketing	Commercial	60%	40%	High	Frequently recommended

4) Compare clusters and intents visually

The easiest comparisons come from:

• Heatmaps: topic clusters on rows, intent on columns
• Bar charts: visibility by intent within each cluster
• Trend lines: how visibility changes over time
• Competitor overlays: compare your brand to others per cluster/intent

A heatmap is especially useful:

	Informational	Commercial	Transactional
CRM	12	45	20
Email marketing	30	60	35
SEO tools	25	50	10

5) Normalize the data

Different topic clusters may have different query counts. To compare fairly:

• Use the same number of prompts per cluster/intent
• Average across queries
• Weight high-volume queries if needed
• Compare against the same set of competitors

6) Look at gaps

Once you have the matrix, identify:

• High-intent, low-visibility gaps — most important opportunities
• Clusters where competitors dominate
• Intent types where AI rarely cites you
• Clusters where you’re visible but not authoritative

7) Practical workflow

A simple workflow:

1. Build a keyword/topic map
2. Assign each query to a cluster and intent
3. Run each query through your AI tools / LLM prompts
4. Record mentions, citations, competitors, and framing
5. Aggregate results into a matrix
6. Compare by cluster and intent
7. Prioritize content fixes for the weakest/high-value cells

8) Example conclusion

You might find something like:

• Strong visibility in informational email marketing
• Weak visibility in transactional CRM
• Competitors dominate commercial comparison queries in SEO tools
• AI cites your content, but not your brand, in support queries

That tells you exactly where to create new content or improve existing pages.

If you want, I can also give you:

• a spreadsheet template
• a scoring formula
• or a step-by-step AI visibility dashboard setup.