> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.echod.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Metrics overview

> Every metric Echod reports, what it answers, and where to find it.

Echod has two families of metrics. **Brand metrics** describe how AI platforms talk about brands. **Source metrics** describe which websites AI platforms rely on to build their answers. A third family covers [shopping](https://docs.echod.ai/shopping/metrics.md).

## Brand metrics

| Metric | The question it answers | Scale | Better when |
| - | - | - | - |
| [Visibility](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/visibility.md) | In how many answers is the brand named? | 0-100% | Higher |
| [Share of Voice](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/share-of-voice.md) | Of all brand mentions, how many are this brand? | 0-100% | Higher |
| [Average Position](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/average-position.md) | When the brand is named, how early does it come up? | 1 and up | Lower |
| [Sentiment](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/sentiment.md) | How favorable is the wording around the brand? | 0-100, 50 is neutral | Higher |
| [Citation Rate](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/citation-rate.md) | In how many answers is your own website used as a source? | 0-100% | Higher |

Visibility, Share of Voice, Average Position and Sentiment are calculated for your brand and for every tracked competitor, so you can compare them directly. Citation Rate is reported for your own website.

## Source metrics

| Metric | The question it answers |
| - | - |
| [Retrieved](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/source-metrics.md#retrieved) | In what share of answers was this domain used at all? |
| [Retrieval rate](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/source-metrics.md#retrieval-rate) | How many different pages of this domain does an average answer use? |
| [Citation rate](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/source-metrics.md#citation-rate-for-a-source) | When this source is used, how often is it explicitly referenced? |
| [Gap score](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/source-metrics.md#gap-score) | How many competitor mentions appear in answers built on this source? |

## Brand presence and source presence are different things

Being named and being used as a source do not always go together:

* **Named, but not a source**: AI platforms know your brand but build their answers from other websites. Others are telling your story for you.
* **A source, but not named**: AI platforms read your pages but recommend other brands. Your content informs the answer without earning you the mention.

Comparing [Visibility](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/visibility.md) with [Citation Rate](https://docs.echod.ai/metrics/citation-rate.md) shows which situation you are in.

## How numbers are shown

* Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
* A value that is above zero but rounds to nothing shows as **\<0.1%**.
* An exact **0** means the brand or source was tracked but never seen in the period.
* A **-** means there is nothing to calculate, for example a position for a brand that was never named.
* **New** next to a metric means there is no earlier period to compare against yet.

## How changes are calculated

The change next to a metric compares the selected period with the period of equal length immediately before it. For "Last 30 days" that is the 30 days before those. For Average Position, a lower number is an improvement, so a falling position shows as a positive change.


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