AEO Monitoring Tools

Build custom infrastructure for monitoring AI search engine visibility and competitive citation analysis.

Audience: Engineers building custom AEO monitoring systems Related: For AEO strategy and optimization guidance, see marketing-ai-search-optimization

When to Use This Skill

• Building custom AEO monitoring infrastructure
• Evaluating build vs. buy decisions for AI search tracking
• Understanding API vs. scraping trade-offs per platform
• Designing data pipelines for citation analysis
• Estimating costs for multi-platform monitoring

Decision Framework: Build vs. Buy

Before building custom tools, evaluate whether commercial solutions fit your needs.

Commercial tools to evaluate first:

Platform Access Overview

Each AI platform requires different access approaches.

Key insight: Perplexity Sonar API is the most AEO-friendly – it returns citations natively in the response.

See: references/platform-access-methods.md

Architecture Tiers

Tier 1: API-First (Recommended)

Use official APIs where available. Lowest risk, most maintainable.

Query Bank -> API Orchestrator -> Response Store -> Analysis Layer
   (250-500     (rate limiting,    (PostgreSQL/    (citation extraction,
    queries)     retry logic)       BigQuery)       brand detection)

Platforms covered: Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, OpenAI (baseline; use official web-search tooling if available) Cost: $15-300/mo depending on volume Risk: Low

Tier 2: Hybrid (API + Commercial Scraping)

Add commercial scraping services for platforms without good APIs.

Additional coverage: ChatGPT web interface, Google AI Overviews Cost: $500-1,500/mo (adds commercial scraper fees) Risk: Medium (dependent on scraper provider)

Tier 3: Full Custom Scraping (Not Recommended)

DIY web scraping of AI platforms.

Why to avoid:

• High ToS violation risk
• Aggressive bot detection (especially Google, ChatGPT)
• Maintenance burden (UI changes break scrapers)
• Potential legal liability

See: assets/technical/architecture-diagrams.md

Risk Assessment Matrix

Legal developments to monitor:

• Publisher lawsuits and data sourcing disputes (example: Reddit v. Perplexity AI (2024))
• Platform ToS enforcement and liquidated damages policies (example: X ToS changes)
• Rising use of crawler blocks and WAF rules (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc.)

See: references/legal-compliance.md

Cost Estimation

See: references/cost-estimation.md

Implementation Timeline

See: assets/setup/minimal-setup-guide.md

What to Load (Progressive Disclosure)

Load additional references based on your needs:

Quick Start Checklist

[ ] Define query bank (250-500 queries by intent)
[ ] Choose platforms to monitor (prioritize by ICP usage)
[ ] Evaluate build vs. buy decision
[ ] If building: Set up API accounts (Perplexity, Gemini, Claude/OpenAI)
[ ] Create database schema (PostgreSQL recommended)
[ ] Build API orchestrator with rate limiting
[ ] Implement citation extraction
[ ] Set up scheduled runs (daily/weekly)
[ ] Create Share of Model dashboard
[ ] Document maintenance procedures

Key Metrics

Primary metric: Share of Model (SoM)

SoM = (Your brand mentions / Total responses) * 100

Track SoM:

• Per platform (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude)
• Per query intent (informational, commercial, transactional)
• Over time (weekly/monthly trends)
• vs. competitors

Secondary metrics:

• Citation rate (% of responses with your URL)
• Position in citations (1st, 2nd, 3rd mention)
• Sentiment of brand mentions
• Query coverage (% of target queries where you appear)

Related Skills

• marketing-ai-search-optimization – AEO strategy, content optimization, measurement methodology
• software-api-design – API integration patterns
• qa-observability – Monitoring and alerting setup

Disclaimer

This guidance is for educational purposes. Users must:

• Conduct their own legal review
• Ensure compliance with applicable terms of service
• Respect robots.txt directives
• Follow laws and regulations in their jurisdiction

Building monitoring tools that violate platform ToS may result in account termination, legal action, or both.