Position & presence
AI answers do not have rankings.
They are synthesized explanations, not ordered result lists. Still, brands appear in different positions and with different levels of presence inside those answers. This page explains how to interpret that.
Presence: being included at all
Presence answers the simplest question: was your brand included in the answer?
Across many runs, presence becomes probabilistic.
If your brand is frequently absent while competitors appear, you have a visibility problem — regardless of how strong your SEO is.
Position: where your brand appears
Position describes where in the answer your brand shows up.
Earlier mentions usually indicate:
Position is contextual, not ordinal.
Position is not a ranking
AI does not sort brands numerically. A brand mentioned first is not ranked #1.
Treat position as relative framing, not a leaderboard.
Presence without position (and vice versa)
Both matter.
How Genwolf measures position & presence
Genwolf tracks:
These signals are normalized over multiple runs to reduce noise. Single-answer position should never be overinterpreted.
How to use position & presence data
Use these signals to
- identify prompts where you are consistently excluded
- understand where competitors dominate framing
- track improvements in how your brand is positioned
Do not use them to
- infer exact rankings
- optimize for first-mention at all costs
- overreact to one-off shifts
Summary
Presence tells you if you're included.
Position tells you how you're framed.
Together, they explain qualitative differences in AI visibility.