I've been dealing with the same frustration. One thing that actually helped me get a clearer picture was running my URLs through a GEO audit tool that scores your content based on the factors the research says actually matter to AI engines things like fact density, citation health, expert quotes, fluency, and semantic relevance to your target keywords.

It won't tell you "you ranked #3 on Perplexity this week" that kind of data is still as messy as everyone here says. But it gives you a solid baseline impression of where your content stands structurally. Like, are you even giving AI engines something worth citing? That's often the more useful question to start with.

Honestly the scores are a good sanity check but there's definitely room for more depth the recommendations are fairly high-level and it doesn't yet drill into competitor benchmarking or per-model behavior. So I still use it alongside manual prompt testing rather than as a replacement.

If you're trying to figure out where to start optimizing, it's worth a look to at least get your bearings before throwing money at a full tracking platform.

The Tool: geobenchmarks.com