A single reading can give you an incorrect conclusion. Answer engines give different results from run to run. Thus, the value of repeated measurement is the direction, not the single point.

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What to trust

A direction that continues over several runs is a finding. A single sudden change is usually noise. The exception is when a specific event occurred. For example, you published content, a competitor launched a product, or an answer engine got an update. Before you examine a change, find out if your competitors changed in the same direction at the same time. If all brands changed, the answer engine changed, not your brand.

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How to find the cause of a change

A trend line tells you when a change occurred. It does not tell you why. To find the cause, do these steps:
  1. Find the date when the change started.
  2. Find out if the change applies to all topics or only to some topics.
  3. Open the conversations from before and after the change.
  4. Compare the cited sources. A changed answer almost always means a changed source.
Step 4 explains most changes that you cannot explain at first.

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How to report a change

Report the direction and the cause, not the number. “Visibility is 62%” causes a question that no person can answer. “Visibility increased by nine points on pricing topics after we published the comparison page, and the answer engines now cite it” is a result. Sometimes the number must have a specific meaning for your business, not for the platform. For this, use the Business Scorecard.