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Head of Marketing - Earned Media
Digital Marketing | SEO
Search is changing fast. Traditional SEO focused on Google rankings....
By Narender Singh
Jun 29, 2026 | 5 Minutes | 
| 
Search is changing fast. Traditional SEO focused on Google rankings. Now you need to track mentions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. A new tool type helps you do this. These tools watch your brand in AI answers.
At DWAO, we help big teams navigate this shift. The right tool depends on your team size and what you use now. Not just the feature list.
Standard rank trackers show your Google place. They miss AI answers. The best LLM SEO optimization tools work another way. They send actual queries to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI. They scan each answer for:
Your brand might rank third yet get zero AI mentions. Or it might appear in Perplexity while rivals win in Google. These are different channels. You need to track both.
For big teams, this changes reports. Instead of "we rank fifth," you say "our brand shows in 18 percent of AI answers, with 23 percent share of voice." That number drives budget calls.
The market splits into two clear types.
Dedicated AI platforms focus only on AI. Popular ones are Profound, AIclicks, Otterly.AI, Peec AI, and Eldil AI. These excel at:
The benefit is deep analysis. The drawback: you need a separate contract.
Traditional SEO suites with AI include Semrush, Ahrefs, and SE Ranking. They added LLM tools as a module. The benefits are:
The drawback is their AI tools are newer and less deep.
For your team, it depends on what you use. If you use Semrush now, test their AI first. If you need deep analysis of citations, pick a dedicated platform.
Three core features matter most.
Prompt-level tracking answers this: which exact questions bring up your brand? This matters. You might rank well for "best accounting software" but not show for "accounting tools that work with Salesforce." Raw counts don't show you this.
Citation source analysis shows which URLs the AI picks. A mention is useless if it links to a rival. Good tools show exact URLs, text, and context, per DWAO's guide to LLM SEO basics.
Tone tracking is often missed. AI engines cite your brand with negative details: "Brand X costs too much, but Y is cheaper." Tools that only count mentions hide this. You need to see if mentions are neutral, positive, or negative.
Beyond these three, require tools that monitor all major AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI), show rival comparison, tie to your SEO data, and alert when share of voice changes.
The choice depends on team size and current tools. Think about these factors.
Team size and current tools: A 2 to 3-person team benefits from simple platforms. A 50-person team might want both a dedicated platform and your suite's AI tools. Mid-size teams often find suite tools work fine.
How much to track: How many search terms and rivals? Credit-based tools suit 50 to 500 search terms. Monthly subs work for 1,000-plus terms and many rivals. Big plans serve teams needing alerts and custom reports.
Content workflow: Content tools like Surfer and Clearscope now cover both Google and LLM odds in one tool. If your team lives in a content tool, add AI data there instead.
Share of voice is your main metric. Week one, measure your base. What percent of AI answers for your top 20 search terms mention your brand? After updates, check again at 30 and 90 days.
If share of voice goes up, the tool works. Also watch:
These show your next steps.
Mention rate is the percent of queries where you show up. If you appear in 25 of 100 queries, that's 25 percent. Share of voice is your mentions divided by all brand mentions. If you get 25 and rivals get 75, your share of voice is 25 percent. Share of voice shows where you stand.
No. Rank trackers check Google only. They don't send questions to ChatGPT or Perplexity. You need a tool built for this work.
Very. LLMs like new, trusted sources. Content updated in the last 60 days gets cited much more than old content. Freshness matters for both Google and AI.
Start with ChatGPT and Perplexity, which have 70 percent of AI search. Google AI and Claude grow but are smaller. Your tool should track all four, but focus your work on the biggest two first.
Add your brand to your tool. Add 2 to 3 rivals. Track ChatGPT and Perplexity. Pull a base share-of-voice report for your top 20 terms. This takes one week. Then read our guide to LLM SEO basics to learn what content helps.
Free tools usually let you run 3 to 5 queries daily or track one platform. They work for one-time checks only. For ongoing week-to-week tracking, paid tools give better value.
Use your tool to find search terms with zero mentions. Add these to your plan. Update the content. Recheck at 30 days to see if it helped.
Your brand fades from AI answers while rivals grow there. Perplexity may hit 600 million users by 2027. AI search matters now and will matter far more in the years ahead.
Pick tools that fit your team size, current software, and how much you track. First learn the basics of LLM SEO. Then pick a tool tier that fits your volume. The specific platform matters less than tracking metrics and testing each month.