What is AI Search visibility?

AI Search visibility shows how often and how prominently your brand is mentioned in AI generated answers. With Peekaboo, you can measure brand visibility in AI Search results, understand your presence in customer buying journeys, and take action to improve it.

How does Peekaboo calculate visibility scores?

Peekaboo calculates AI visibility using a position based score from 0 to 100. Higher scores mean your brand is mentioned more prominently in AI answers. Scores are aggregated across prompts and AI models, then benchmarked against competitors to give a clear visibility metric.

Why does AI Search visibility matter for my brand?

AI Search engines shape customer buying decisions by providing direct answers. Strong AI Search visibility ensures your brand appears at the top of answers, builds trust, and drives discovery. Without it, competitors capture visibility and you risk being invisible in a new search channel.

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the latest evolution in digital strategy, extending SEO by ensuring brands appear in AI-generated answers through authority, content, and citations.

How can Peekaboo help agencies and brands?

Peekaboo helps agencies manage multiple clients with competitor benchmarks, white label reporting, and ROI proof. Brands use Peekaboo to track visibility in AI Search, ensure accurate answers, and uncover opportunities to grow awareness and outperform competitors in AI generated results.

Can I see which sources AI uses to generate answers?

Yes. Peekaboo's Source Analysis shows which domains, articles, and content AI engines cite when generating answers. This helps you identify high authority publications to target, discover PR opportunities, and fill content gaps so your brand is more likely to be used by AI systems.

How often is brand visibility analyzed?

Peekaboo tracks AI visibility daily by default so you always have fresh insights. You can adjust the analysis frequency, schedule batch reporting, or run on demand checks, giving both brands and agencies flexibility to track visibility in AI Search whenever needed.

How do prompts impact AI visibility analysis?

Prompts simulate the real questions customers ask in AI Search. Peekaboo tests discovery, purchase, and problem solving prompts to measure your visibility, track competitor mentions, and uncover which keywords and contexts drive AI generated brand recommendations.

What are AI citations and why do they matter?

AI citations are the sources that generative models rely on when recommending brands. With Peekaboo, you can see which sites influence answers, identify gaps where you are missing, and build authority so AI systems are more likely to include your brand.

How do I improve my AI visibility score?

You can improve AI visibility scores by publishing high quality content, earning authoritative citations, and optimizing prompts that reflect customer intent. Peekaboo identifies low scoring areas and shows exactly where to act so your brand gains more visibility in AI generated answers.

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How to know what ChatGPT Is searching for with Fan-Out Queries

November 4, 2025

4 min read

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By Filipe Lins Duarte

Ever wonder what ChatGPT searches for when it finds sources? Learn how to identify its fan-out queries, the exact search terms it sends to Google or Bing, and how that insight can shape your SEO and Answer Engine Optimization strategy.

How to know what ChatGPT Is searching for with Fan-Out Queries

If you’ve ever asked ChatGPT a question and noticed that it shows you a list of sources, that means it went out to search the web. It probably used Google or Bing, found a few pages that matched your question, and then brought that information back to give you an answer.

So what’s actually going on here? ChatGPT takes your prompt, turns it into a search term, and sends that query to a search engine before writing its response.

Now, if you work in marketing, SEO, or AEO, this is something worth paying attention to. Because if you can understand which queries ChatGPT is sending to Google or Bing, you can start optimizing your content around those exact search terms. That’s how you improve your chances of being cited or showing up in ChatGPT answers.

Let’s go through it step by step.

Step 1: Trigger ChatGPT’s Web Search Mode

Start by opening ChatGPT and typing something that will make it search the web. In my case, I asked:

“I’m a healthcare executive looking for a solution that can help me better understand my brand’s visibility in AI engines.”

When ChatGPT gives you an answer that includes a list of sources, that means it’s using the web search mode. You’ll often see it reference a few websites, and that’s your clue that it’s pulling data from Google or Bing.

Step 2: Inspect What ChatGPT Is Sending

Once you know it’s using the web search mode, the next step is to see exactly what it’s sending out.

Here’s how to do that:

At the top of your ChatGPT window, copy the conversation number in the URL.
Right-click anywhere on the page and select Inspect.
Click on the Network tab.
Refresh the page.
Look for a JSON file in the list that appears.
Click on it, then go to the Response tab.
Use Ctrl + F to search for the word “queries.”

You’ll then be able to see the exact queries ChatGPT sent to Google or Bing.

Copy the conversation number of your ChatGPT Chat

How to extract and identify fan-out queries from ChatGPT

Step 3: Read the Queries

Inside the JSON file, look for something that says “search_model_queries.” Under that, you’ll see the actual search terms that ChatGPT used.

In my example, ChatGPT searched for:

“brand visibility in AI engines SaaS” “AI search visibility analytics platform”

It used those search terms to pull information from the web, and then built the answer you see in the chat window.

Why knowing fan-out queries matters

Once you can see what ChatGPT is searching for, you’ll know exactly which keywords to focus on when optimizing your content. This gives you a clearer understanding of how your brand can show up in AI-generated answers, not just traditional search results.

It’s one of those small but powerful insights that a lot of people overlook. Knowing what prompts and queries AI systems are using helps you position your brand where it matters most — inside the answers themselves.

This approach connects directly with AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization. The idea is that as more people turn to AI chatbots instead of Google searches, understanding how these systems find and reference your content becomes just as important as ranking on page one of search results.

How does ChatGPT search the internet

ChatGPT searches the internet by sending out fan-out queries to either Google’s or Bing’s search engines.

The method we talked about explains how you can extract and identify these fan-out queries, giving you a big advantage for your SEO and AI SEO strategy. When you know what queries ChatGPT sends to Google or Bing, you can adjust your content to align with them. It’s one of the easiest ways to start optimizing for both SEO and AI visibility at the same time. We’ve been testing this ourselves, and it’s been a game changer for understanding how AI engines source and prioritize information.

P.S. We've made a 4-minute video about this entire process, with a step-by-step walkthrough too.

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Filipe Lins Duarte

I'm Filipe, the CEO & Co-Founder of Peekaboo. I lead all commercial and customer facing functions here at the company. I am obsessed about making sure our customers are heard and have a great experience with us!