HawkscanAverage position
Average position is an AI visibility metric that measures where a brand appears in the AI answers that mention it, from ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or Google AI Mode. Position 1 means the brand is named first. Answers that leave the brand out are not counted.
Why average position matters
Being named is not the same as being named first. In SparkToro's research on AI recommendations, City of Hope appeared in 69 of 71 ChatGPT answers about the best cancer care hospital on the U.S. West Coast, a 97% visibility rate, yet it was the top mention in only 25 of them. Rand Fishkin draws a hard line from such data: any tool that gives a "ranking position in AI" is "full of baloney", because the order changes from one run to the next. Average position answers that objection only in part. It is meaningful as an average over many answers, never as the rank in a single one.
How average position works
- Rank each answer. Number the brands in the order they are first named: 1 for the first, 2 for the second, and so on.
- Keep only the answers that name the brand. An answer without it has no position.
- Average the ranks. Lower is better.
Because missing answers are excluded, average position and mention rate can move in opposite directions. A brand that drops out of the answers where it came last sees its average position improve while its mention rate falls. Read the two together, or use the AI visibility score, which combines them.
Formula
Average position = sum of the brand's ranks ÷ number of answers that mention it
Worked example (fictional values). Over a week, a brand is mentioned in 12 of 30 answers: first in 5, second in 4 and fourth in 3. Its ranks add up to 5 × 1 + 4 × 2 + 3 × 4 = 25. Divided by 12 answers, its average position is 2.1. The 18 answers that leave it out play no part.
How Hawkscan calculates it
Hawkscan ranks brands by the order of their first mention among the brands you track in the project: your brand and your competitors. Brands outside the project are ignored, so an unrelated name at the top of an answer does not push you to second place. The average covers the completed runs of the period in which your brand is mentioned, on ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Google AI Mode.
Average position in AI answers vs in Search Console
SEO teams know average position from Google Search Console, where it is "the topmost position occupied by a link to your property or page in search results, averaged across all queries in which your property appeared."
| Search Console | AI answers | |
|---|---|---|
| What is ranked | A link on a results page | A brand name in the text |
| Counted when | Your page gets an impression | The answer names your brand |
| Competing with | Every result on the page | The brands named in the answer |
Both ignore the times you are absent, so neither says how often you appear.
How to improve your average position
Read the answers where you are named late, and look at who comes first and what the engine says about them: a clearer use case, more reviews, a comparison article that ranks them first. Those are the sources to work on. Hawkscan tracks your average position on each engine and each prompt, and its competitor positioning map places every tracked brand by mention rate and average position.
