{
  "schemaVersion": "1.0",
  "id": "quoted-first-ai-search-measurement-methodology-1.0.0",
  "name": "Quoted First AI Search Measurement Methodology",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-17T20:01:17Z",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Quoted First, Inc.",
    "url": "https://quotedfirst.com/"
  },
  "canonicalMethodologyUrl": "https://quotedfirst.com/ai-search-measurement-methodology",
  "offerUrl": "https://quotedfirst.com/managed-llm-search-optimizer-public-pricing-methodology",
  "scope": {
    "namedPromptCount": 150,
    "cadence": "weekly",
    "engines": [
      "ChatGPT",
      "Perplexity",
      "Claude",
      "Gemini",
      "Google AI Overviews",
      "Microsoft Copilot"
    ],
    "engineCount": 6,
    "scheduledPromptEngineChecksPerCollection": 900,
    "intentGroups": [
      "brand",
      "category",
      "comparison",
      "problem",
      "feature",
      "recommendation"
    ]
  },
  "promptBankFields": [
    "promptId",
    "exactWording",
    "intentGroup",
    "priority",
    "productOrAudience",
    "promptBankVersion"
  ],
  "observationFields": [
    "promptId",
    "engine",
    "observedAt",
    "eligibilityStatus",
    "answerReference",
    "citedUrlsInDisplayedOrder",
    "brandMentioned",
    "brandRecommended",
    "competitorsMentioned",
    "materialErrors",
    "observableRunContext"
  ],
  "metrics": [
    {
      "name": "coverageRate",
      "numerator": "eligible completed checks",
      "denominator": "scheduled checks"
    },
    {
      "name": "mentionRate",
      "numerator": "eligible answers naming the brand",
      "denominator": "eligible completed checks"
    },
    {
      "name": "citationRate",
      "numerator": "eligible answers citing the target domain",
      "denominator": "eligible completed checks"
    },
    {
      "name": "firstCitationRate",
      "numerator": "answers with the target as first displayed citation",
      "denominator": "eligible answers with citations"
    },
    {
      "name": "recommendationRate",
      "numerator": "eligible comparison or recommendation answers positively selecting the brand",
      "denominator": "eligible answers in comparison or recommendation intents"
    },
    {
      "name": "materialErrorRate",
      "numerator": "eligible brand-bearing answers with a documented material error",
      "denominator": "eligible brand-bearing answers"
    }
  ],
  "missingDataPolicy": "Unavailable, blocked, unsupported and failed checks are reported separately and excluded from eligible-rate denominators; they are never silently recorded as zero visibility.",
  "changeControl": "Prompt wording, engine coverage, observable run context and classification rules are versioned. Prompt-bank changes are disclosed before comparisons across versions.",
  "reporting": {
    "weekly": "Preserve prompt-engine observations and coverage.",
    "monthly": "Report repeated movement, source changes, material errors and mapped actions; separate one-run variance from recurring patterns."
  },
  "limitations": [
    "The prompt bank is a controlled synthetic panel, not a log of every real user question.",
    "AI answers are variable and may differ by model, product state, locale, account, time and web-grounding availability.",
    "A measured change does not by itself prove that one site change caused the result.",
    "Quoted First cannot guarantee crawling, indexing, retrieval, citation, ranking or recommendation by an independent system.",
    "This is a first-party commercial service specification, not an independent endorsement or customer outcome report."
  ]
}