I run content for ecommerce brands. Cheap, infinite copy from generative AI has changed the question I’m paid to answer. It used to be “Can we publish this?” Now it’s “Will anyone see it?”
That’s why my favorite content marketing tools don’t write a word. They tell me whether my writing was seen, and where.
Search and AI Discovery Are Two Separate Systems
Discovery traffic now comes from two places: Google and generative AI platforms. Ranking well in one doesn’t mean you show up in the other. An August 2025 Ahrefs analysis found that only about 12% of the links cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other genAI platforms also ranked in Google’s top 10 for the same search term.
AI referrals still account for only a small share of web traffic, though some benchmarks suggest they convert at a higher rate than organic search.
The way I measure content performance has shifted, too. I still watch engagement signals such as time on page and returning readers. But I also look at what happens next: product-page visits, email signups, assisted conversions, and revenue from organic or AI-referred sessions.
Increasingly, I track whether a page gets cited.
My Content Marketing Stack
My tools split into two layers: gathering the data, then making sense of it.
Layer One: Data Gathering
Google Search Console shows the queries that surface my content — a first-party view that paid tools can’t replicate.
Google Analytics covers behavior and traffic sources, and a simple referral filter there catches clicks from genAI platforms. Ahrefs gives me keyword, backlink, and competitor depth, plus AI-citation tracking through BrandRadar.
Otterly is my dedicated AI-visibility tracker. For about $29 a month, it answers the question I now pose weekly: “Are ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews citing my content?”
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider catches potential blocks to Google and genAI crawlers before they cost me visibility.
Layer Two: Making Sense of the Data
Claude stitches the tools together. Instead of exporting five spreadsheets, I connect Ahrefs and Otterly and query Claude about the data — such as which pages Google ranks but genAI ignores.
NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook) turns data from my own exports and reports into a queryable analysis.
Notice what’s missing: none of these tools generates content.
How to Set This Up
Start with Search Console and Google Analytics. Add an optimization platform such as Ahrefs for traditional keyword, backlink, and competitor data.
Switch on Ahrefs’ AI-visibility tracking. Read the numbers as trends across repeated checks rather than a single day’s result, since answers vary from prompt to prompt. Then bring in ChatGPT, Claude, or a similar tool to analyze the data — not to write copy.
I’ve always measured content performance, but the process now goes beyond traditional organic rankings and conversions. I need to know whether a page is cited in AI answers, where those citations appear, and what those visitors do once they reach the site.
