What kind of questions should I track for maximum impact?
Answer
Tracking the right questions is essential to uncovering where your brand appears in AI-generated answers. Google's AI overviews and the direct conversational answers that AI search services provide are eroding clicks for informational and low-intent searches.
This article breaks down how to identify high-impact questions that give you meaningful visibility data and help guide your content and search strategy.
What makes a strong, high-intent question
Not all questions are equal. High-impact questions usually share a few traits:
They have commercial or transactional intent.
These are questions people ask when they’re closer to making a decision, like “best CRM tools for agencies” or “alternatives to [competitor] for startups.”
They reflect how real users search.
Phrase your questions naturally. Think of how someone would talk to a tool like ChatGPT, not how they would type into Google 10 years ago.
They point toward a solution or recommendation.
Questions that imply a need for expert suggestions or brand guidance tend to generate responses where your product could appear.
They are lower on the search funnel
Consider creating content that overcomes sales objections or concerns and directly addresses the buying decision.
How to tie questions to your product or service
Start with the core problems your product solves. Then build questions around those use cases. For example:
If you’re a project management tool:
“What are the top project management platforms for remote teams?”
If you're in legal tech:
“Best contract automation tools for small businesses”
If you serve multiple personas, create a small set of questions for each audience segment so you're not tracking only one viewpoint.
Examples by industry or use case
Here are some sample directions across common industries:
SaaS tools:
“Alternatives to [competitor] for startups”
“Best lightweight CRM for solo founders”
Agencies:
“Best SEO tools for agencies with multiple clients”
“Top reporting platforms for marketing agencies”
AI tools / platforms:
“What AI tools are good for summarizing research?”
“How to monitor my brand in AI-generated content”