SEO tools
Which SEO platforms do AI engines reach for first?
Ahrefs was named in 100% of answers across one AI engine.
- Engines
- DeepSeek (deepseek-chat)
- Prompts asked
- 10
- Answers counted
- 10
- Measured
- 2026-09-13
Who got named
Across 8 brands we tracked. “Named in” is the raw count — with 10 answers, each one is 10% of the sample.
| Best position | Brand | Named in | Rate | Avg position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ahrefs | 10/10 | 100% | 2.7 |
| 1 | Semrush | 10/10 | 100% | 2.2 |
| 1 | Screaming Frog | 6/10 | 60% | 3.3 |
| 1 | Moz | 5/10 | 50% | 2.5 |
| 1 | Surfer | 4/10 | 40% | 3.7 |
| 4 | SE Ranking | 4/10 | 40% | 4.0 |
| — | Sitebulb | 4/10 | 40% | — |
| 3 | Majestic | 3/10 | 30% | 4.5 |
Question by question
Which of the 8 tracked brands each prompt named — Ahrefs, the leader, is highlighted.
- What is the best SEO tool for an agency?Ahrefs · Semrush · Screaming Frog · Surfer · Sitebulb
- Best keyword research softwareAhrefs · Semrush · Moz
- Ahrefs vs Semrush — which should I buy?Ahrefs · Semrush
- Best SEO tools for tracking rankings in 2026Ahrefs · Semrush · Moz · SE Ranking
- What do professional SEO consultants use?Ahrefs · Semrush · Moz · SE Ranking · Screaming Frog · Surfer · Sitebulb · Majestic
- How do I choose an SEO tool?Ahrefs · Semrush · Moz · SE Ranking · Screaming Frog · Sitebulb
- Semrush alternatives that cost lessAhrefs · Semrush · SE Ranking · Screaming Frog · Surfer · Majestic
- Best SEO software for a small businessAhrefs · Semrush · Moz · Screaming Frog
- Best technical SEO crawlerAhrefs · Semrush · Screaming Frog · Sitebulb · Majestic
- What is the best SEO tool for content writers?Ahrefs · Semrush · Surfer
Ahrefs and Semrush were named in exactly the same answers — the gap between them is how often they appear, not which questions they appear in.
How this was measured
- Each prompt was asked verbatim — no instruction to produce a list, no mention of AnswerWatch. Biasing the answers would make the numbers meaningless.
- A brand counts as named when its name (or an alias we recorded) appears in the answer text, matched on word boundaries so “Core” does not match inside “Score”.
- Position is the 1-based place in the answer’s main ranked list — the longest list it wrote. Answers often add smaller side-lists (“best for small teams”, “also consider”); counting those would let a brand look like #1 for winning a two-item list. A brand named only in prose, or only in a side-list, has no position and shows “—”.
- The brand list is curated, not the whole market. These are brands we chose to track, so a brand missing from this page is not evidence that AI ignores it. Answers sometimes name companies we did not track; those are not counted.
- Failed API calls are excluded from rates rather than counted as “not named”, and are reported above.
Where does your brand land?
This page measures a category. The free scan measures your own domain against your own buyers’ questions, and tells you which fixes would change the answer.
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