There was a lot of chatter last week about how to accurately measure AI visibility, which led me to ask this line of reasoning:
Why does visibility matter? Are you looking to appear in every answer? Or do you want to appear in the right answers? More importantly, how can you reliably measure this over time?
A recent MarTech article explains that you should track these four metrics over time:
Visibility
Position
Sentiment
Citations
But why? How do these metrics truly help when an AI chatbot gives a different answer each time, even if you copy/paste the exact prompt right back into it? And each LLM is going to give you different answers, too.
In fact, Robert Rose alluded to that in his CMI article, discussing a foundational concept at Penpixel Creative: Search before LLMs was built and functioned differently than search today. Applying legacy assumptions to AI search is why so many strategies are currently missing the mark.
Ultimately, you have to reframe your thinking around these two undeniable truths:
Search rankings no longer mean visibility.
You want to be represented accurately in the AI answers that you do appear in.
There’s no guarantee that your legacy SEO matters, that your content guarantees secure AI visibility, ideal positioning, positive sentiment, or consistent citations. What you can control, however, is your digital estate.
Quickly, I have two things to ask:
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This Week’s Major AI Search Discussion Topics
It’s abundantly clear that AI search is on every marketing team’s mind, and if it’s not on yours yet, it should be. I think it’s also clear that AI search is still in its early, volatile stages, where each new day brings new information, new findings, new theories, or breaks yesterday’s assumptions and thoughts.
Client demand for AEO/GEO is the #1 new service request in 2026. I’m still sifting through the data, but one finding surprised me: despite the growing focus on AI, the term search is becoming less representative of how people discover information.. But one thing is clear, owners, execs, and teams want to understand how their organization, services, products and brand appear to their audience in AI generated answers.
LLMS.txt files are the trendy, temporary fix that John Mueller from Google said they are. An LLMS.TXT file is a markdown file meant to help LLMs understand your site’s more important content; we even have one here on the Penpixel Creative site. But data shows that these files don’t really help an LLM understand your content, as first thought. They do appear to help train AI, though. So include at your own discretion.
Cloudflare is moving forward with a taxonomy for AI bots. Matt, our Infrastructure Architect, will explain this in detail later this week, but the gist is this: Cloudflare is going to allow you to determine the types of bots you allow to access your site, with controls to turn access on or off, based on classification. This is a critical, new development that will allow Penpixel Creative to better help you create, grow, and protect your digital estate, so we’re excited for this.
“Being readable and read is the floor.”
We couldn't agree more, which is why we want to help you ensure your entire brand is readable, and accurately read.
The Old, Old Search Engine…
Deven Bhagwandin
Founder & Director of AI Search, Penpixel Creative
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Is your website functionally invisible to the agents now commanding the web? My Machine-First Audits provide the answer. I break down your technical structure, identity signals, and transaction readiness against the specific checks required for true agent legibility.
BTW, if you know of a business that I can help, please introduce me, or refer them to https://www.penpixelcreative.com/contact.