research, Jun 10, 2026

Measuring share of answers, the metric that replaces rank

Rank tracking is dying with the result page. How to measure the thing that replaced it, with a worked example.

Mara EllisonResearch lead8 min read

When answers replace result pages, position stops existing. The metric that matters is share of answers: of the times an engine answered a question in your category, how often were you a cited source?

Our panel method is published here in full. A fixed prompt set per category, run weekly across engines, with citations logged and deduplicated by domain.

You cannot rank number one in a paragraph. You can only be the source it trusts.

The worked example tracks three brands over twelve weeks, including the week one of them shipped answer-first rewrites and moved from 9% to 31% share.

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