The SCR™ Score, explained
The SCR™ Score is a 0–100 measure of how often AI recommends a brand. It combines presence (are you named in the answer) and citation (are you cited as a source), weighted 0.6 / 0.4, measured separately across five engines and never averaged into one blended blur. SCR stands for the three rungs it maps to: Surfaced · Cited · Recommended.
What does SCR stand for?
SCR is the ladder a brand climbs inside AI answers. Each rung is a harder, more commercially valuable state:
| Rung | What it means | Signal type |
|---|---|---|
| Surfaced | AI names or mentions you at all when your category is asked about | Presence |
| Cited | When surfaced, you're cited as a referenced source, and represented accurately | Attribution |
| Recommended | You're presented as the preferred option versus competitors in the same answer | Preference |
Deals are won on the top rung. A brand can be surfaced everywhere and still lose if the model never recommends it over a rival named in the same breath.
How is the SCR™ Score calculated?
The score is computed from a fixed, written set of buyer-intent prompts, run across a panel of engines and sampled over multiple runs:
- A prompt set (30–50 for a paid audit) is derived from the brand's real buyer questions across awareness, consideration and conversion.
- Each prompt is run in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews (and Copilot, rolling out).
- Presence = share of answers where the brand is named.
- Citation = share of source-exposing answers (Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) that cite the brand's domain.
- Score = round(0.6 × presence + 0.4 × citation), reported per engine and never averaged into one number.
What is a good SCR™ Score?
It is relative to your category and competitors, not an absolute pass mark. A challenger brand often starts in the low tens, named occasionally, cited rarely. The goal is directional: presence on your commercial prompts, citation above zero, and appearance in AI Overviews for your category terms. What matters is the trajectory, re-tested monthly. Without a retest, it's just guesses.
How is the SCR™ Score different from a monitoring dashboard?
| Capability | Monitoring tool | SCR™ Score |
|---|---|---|
| Output | Dashboards & alerts | One 0–100 number + per-engine breakdown |
| Diagnosis | Shows the gap | Explains why (Source Map, citation-gap) |
| Action | Suggestions only | 90-day roadmap + execution |
| Re-test | Continuous data | Structured monthly re-score vs baseline |
SCR™ Score, quick answers
Is the SCR™ Score the same as a ranking?
No. A ranking is a position in a list of links. The SCR™ Score measures whether AI names and cites you inside its generated answer, a different surface with different signals.
How often should I re-test my SCR™ Score?
Monthly. AI engines change how they retrieve constantly, and freshness matters. A single measurement is a snapshot; the value is in the trend against a baseline.
How do I get my SCR™ Score?
Buy the SCR™ Audit, it runs 30–50 buyer prompts across all five engines with the citation-gap analysis and a 90-day roadmap, delivered in 5–7 days. No half-measures, one real check.