Howseen Academy › Module 4: Use Howseen step by step
Howseen Academy · Lesson 4.5
Read your dashboard, card by card
The Overview recaps your AI visibility in one screen. Here is what each card shows, how each number is calculated, and what to do next.
By the end of this lesson, you can
- Read every card of the Overview from top to bottom
- Know how each number is calculated
- Pick the next action from what you see
First
How do the filters change the numbers?
Two filters at the top apply to the whole Overview: the date range and the AI engines. Every card reads the same answers, so the numbers stay consistent.
- Date range: Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 3 months or All time.
- Engines: show all engines of your plan, or only one to compare them.
- Run a check asks your questions again now. You can run it once per tracking cycle: every 3 days on Starter and Pro, every day on Business.
Engines answer differently, even inside Google. Filter on one engine before drawing conclusions:
“AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary.”
Top of the page
What do the first cards tell you?
The first card shows a real answer to one of your questions, the brand cited in your place, the sites the AI read, and your action number one.
- What AI answers when your buyers ask: an engine's real answer, Cited in your place: the competitor named instead of you, The sites the AI reads for this: the sources, and Your action #1:.
- A win card appears when an engine starts citing one of your published articles, for example: ChatGPT cites your article as a source.
- During your first scan, a Processing data… banner tracks three tasks: AI visibility, Top citations and Content opportunities.
The three numbers
What do the three numbers at the top mean?
Brand visibility, share of voice and sentiment score, each with its change since the last check. They answer: are you named, how often versus competitors, and how well.
| Card | How it is calculated | If it is low |
|---|---|---|
| Brand visibility | Answers that name you, divided by all answers, in % | Work the questions where a competitor is named instead of you |
| Share of voice | Your mentions divided by your mentions plus your tracked competitors' mentions, in % | Win the comparison and alternatives questions |
| Sentiment score | Average tone of the answers that name you, out of 100 (Pro and Business) | Find the source of the negative or outdated claim |
Illustrative example: named in 12 of 60 answers gives a visibility of 20%. The full method is in lesson 2.2.
You vs them
How do you see where you rank against competitors?
Three cards compare you with your competitors: the visibility score and ranking, the top brands, and visibility by platform. Together they show who wins, and where.
- LLM Visibility Score & Ranking: your share of AI answers over the period, against your competitors, with Your rank. Switch between Trend and Bars.
- Top brands: the brands AI names most in your answers.
- Visibility by platform: one ring per engine, the share of its answers that name you. A ring far below the others shows the engine to work on.
- Sentiment: how AI talks about you against competitors, on a scale from -9 to +9.
For the full picture, open Competitors: brand comparison, a Brand × model heatmap and a Prompt × brand ranking matrix.
What to do
Where does the dashboard tell you what to do next?
The Next best action card names a question where AI recommends a competitor and not you, with a Write it button. It is the fastest way from a number to an action.
- In Next best action, read the gap: AI recommends a competitor here, not you.
- Click Write it. The Content Plan opens on that question so you can generate the page.
- For the full list, open the Action Plan (lesson 4.6).
Lower on the page, Prompts lists your questions with their visibility, and Top Citations plus Top Ranked URLs, Top YouTube Videos and Top Reddit Posts show the sources behind the answers (lesson 2.3).
Why it matters
Why watch these numbers every week?
Because the answer is often all a buyer reads. Watching your numbers weekly shows a lost question before it costs you deals, and shows which actions worked.
When a Google AI summary appears, people click a classic result in 8% of visits, against 15% without one, and click a link inside the summary in 1% of visits (Pew Research Center, 900 U.S. adults, July 2025). About 18% of the Google searches in that study showed an AI summary, and 88% of those summaries cited three or more sources. Research also shows that the way a page is written changes how visible it is in AI answers, by up to 40% in the KDD 2024 GEO paper (Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, KDD 2024). The numbers move when you act.
Questions, answered
Why is my visibility different on each engine?+
Each engine runs its own searches and reads different pages. Use the platform filter and the Visibility by platform card to see where you are weakest.
What does since last check mean?+
The change of a number between the latest run of your questions and the one before. Look at several runs before reading a trend.
Why can't I see a sentiment score?+
Sentiment is part of the Pro and Business plans. On Starter, the other numbers are available.
Can I run a check now?+
Yes, with Run a check, once per tracking cycle: every 3 days on Starter and Pro, every day on Business.
Which card should I look at first?+
Brand visibility on all engines, then Next best action. The first tells you where you stand, the second what to do about it.
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