A tracked prompt costs credits every time it runs, forever. It is worth thirty seconds of thought about whether anyone would ever type it.
Track questions, not keywords
The single most common mistake is pasting a keyword list into the prompt tracker.
Nobody types "internal linking software" into an assistant. They type "what is the best internal linking plugin for a WordPress blog?" — and the answer to that question is where the recommendation happens.
| Keyword thinking | Prompt thinking |
|---|---|
| crm software | which crm is easiest for a two-person team? |
| running shoes | what running shoes should I get for flat feet? |
| tax accountant london | how do I find a good accountant for a uk limited company? |
The four prompts worth tracking on any site
- The category question — "best X for Y". Where recommendations happen.
- Your own name — "is [your brand] any good?", "[your brand] pricing". What an assistant says about you to someone already considering you.
- The competitor comparison — "[competitor] vs alternatives", "alternatives to [competitor]". Where you either appear or do not.
- The problem, not the product — "my site is slow, how do I fix it?". Buyers ask about problems long before they know a category exists.
Write them the way a person would
Lowercase, imperfect, specific. Include the qualifier that makes the question real: the platform, the country, the team size, the budget. "best seo tool" is a different question from "best seo tool for a small agency managing 20 client sites", and only one of them is your buyer.
What not to track
- Anything so broad the answer changes daily for reasons unrelated to you
- Ten variations of the same question — pick the phrasing a person would use
- Questions you would not act on, however interesting the answer
Choosing a cadence
Start weekly. Daily on every prompt across four engines multiplies faster than people expect, and most AI answers do not change enough day to day to justify it.
Move a prompt to daily when it is actively contested and you are working on it. Move it back down when it settles.
Next
- Reading AI visibility: the five states
- AI Research vs Prompt Lab vs AI Tracker