Howseen Academy › Module 2: Measure your AI visibility
Howseen Academy · Lesson 2.1
Pick the buyer questions worth tracking
Your AI visibility is only as good as the questions you measure it on. Here is how to build a list that looks like real buying conversations.
By Raphaël Aubry, founder of Howseen AI · Updated By the end of this lesson, you can
- Write buyer questions that match how people really ask AI
- Avoid the questions that make your numbers look better than they are
- Build a list of 20 questions in about 20 minutes
Definition
What is a buyer question, or prompt?
A buyer question is the exact question a potential customer asks an AI before choosing a product. In GEO tools it is also called a prompt. Tracking means asking it again and again.
Each tracked question is asked to each AI engine on a schedule. Every answer is saved, with the brands it names and the sources it cites. Your visibility numbers are simply an average over all these answers, so the list of questions decides what the numbers mean.
The three kinds
Which kinds of questions should you track?
Track three kinds of unbranded questions: discovery questions, comparison questions and problem questions. Keep branded questions for a separate check of how AI describes you.
| Kind | Example | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | What is the best invoicing tool for freelancers in France? | Whether AI puts you on the short list |
| Comparison | What are good alternatives to [a competitor] for small teams? | Whether AI offers you when buyers compare |
| Problem | How can I stop chasing late invoices every month? | Whether AI links the problem to your solution |
| Branded (separate) | Is [your brand] a good choice for an agency? | How AI describes you, not whether it picks you |
A branded question almost always names you, because you put the name in it. That inflates your visibility without telling you anything about new buyers. Track unbranded questions, and check branded ones from time to time to fix wrong facts.
Why many questions
Why track many variants of the same question?
Because the AI itself breaks one question into several searches. Covering the variants is how you see the whole picture, not just one lucky phrasing.
“Under the hood, AI Mode uses our query fan-out technique, breaking down your question into subtopics and issuing a multitude of queries simultaneously on your behalf.”
Google confirms that both AI Overviews and AI Mode may issue multiple related searches for one question (Google Search Central, AI features and your website). So a buyer question about price, region and team size quietly becomes three or four searches. If you only track the main phrasing, you miss the sub-questions where competitors get picked.
To see the real searches behind one question, run it in the free AI query fan-out tool.
Step by step
How do you build your list in 20 minutes?
Start from what customers already ask you, add the category, the audience and one constraint, then group the questions into a few topics.
- List ten questions you hear in sales calls, demos or support emails. Write them the way the customer said them.
- Open Google Search Console, then Performance, and look at the queries that are full questions. They are real demand, in your buyers' words.
- Add discovery questions with three parts: your category, your audience and one constraint. Example: best CRM + for real estate agents + under 50 euros a month.
- Add two or three comparison questions: alternatives to your main competitors, and X vs Y for the pairs buyers compare.
- Remove every question that contains your own brand name.
- Group what is left into three to five topics (for example pricing, integrations, use cases). Keep 20 questions to start.
Tip. Tie each question to a market. The same question can name different brands in France and in the United States, so pick the country and language your buyers use.
How many
How many questions do you need?
Start with 20 good questions rather than 100 vague ones. Add more once you know which topics move. Howseen plans track 20, 50, or 100 to 300 questions.
About 18% of the Google searches in one large study showed an AI summary (Pew Research Center, July 2025), and buyers ask assistants in their own words. You will never track every phrasing. The goal is a sample that looks like real buying conversations, stable enough to compare from one week to the next.
On Howseen, Starter tracks 20 questions, Pro 50, and Business 100 to 300 shared across 3 brands. Our study used 378 questions tracked by 16 accounts.
In Howseen
Where do you manage your questions in Howseen?
In the Prompts page. Howseen suggests questions from your website during setup, and you can add, archive or ask for more suggestions at any time.
- Open Prompts in the left menu.
- Use the tabs Active, Inactive, Archived and Suggested to see each group.
- Click Add prompt to type your own question, pick its topic and its location, then confirm with Add prompt.
- Click Suggest more for new ideas, then Add selected or Add all.
- When you reach your plan limit, select a question you no longer need and click Archive to free a slot.
A question you add gets its first results at the next scheduled run. More detail in buyer prompts.
Questions, answered
Should I include my brand name in my questions?+
No, not in the questions you use to measure visibility. A question with your name almost always names you. Track unbranded questions and check branded ones separately.
How many buyer questions should I track?+
Start with about 20 that look like real buying conversations, grouped in a few topics. Add more once you see which topics move.
Where do I find real questions?+
In sales calls, support emails, Google Search Console queries written as questions, review sites and forum threads in your category.
Should I track questions in several countries?+
Only if you sell there. The same question can name different brands in each market, so track the countries and languages your buyers use.
Can I change my questions later?+
Yes. In Howseen you can archive, reactivate and add questions at any time. Keep a stable core so your trend stays comparable.
See who AI recommends instead of you
Howseen runs your buyer questions on the AI engines every few days, shows who gets named instead of you, and writes the pages that close the gap.
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