# Recommendation Rate (Top 5, linked-only)

**Kyrylo Poltavets**  
Jan 26, 2026  
3-5 min read

Recommendation Rate (Top 5) is the percentage of buyer questions where your brand appears in the Top 5 recommendations and includes a clickable link to your website.

To understand why this matters, it helps to step back. If you’re wondering **what is a recommender system**, this is the simplified version: it’s a system that selects and ranks options for a user based on signals, context, and predicted fit. AI answer engines do the same — but in natural language.

## Definition

Recommendation Rate measures shortlist wins that can send traffic to your site. It counts only Top 5 appearances that include clickable links.

Under the hood, modern AI answers resemble **recommendation system algorithms**: they weigh candidate options, trust signals, evidence density, and scenario fit — then output a ranked shortlist.

## What counts (Dabudai standard)

Here’s **how to measure AI recommendation rate** in a way that stays consistent across runs and engines:

- Your brand appears in a **Top 5** recommendation list.
- The Top 5 appearance includes a **clickable link** to your website (any page).
- Mentions without clickable links do **not** count.

It’s also important to separate **linked mentions vs unlinked mentions in AI**: a linked mention indicates a retrievable source, while an unlinked mention is harder to validate and less likely to drive traffic.

If links are not displayed, the run may be Not Observable for linked outcomes.

## Calculation

**Recommendation Rate (Top 5) =** (Buyer questions where you are in Top 5 with a link) / (Total buyer questions measured) × 100

**Note:** based on aggregated runs.

## Quick visual

Counts: in Top 5 + clickable link  
Does not count  
Linked-only + Top 5 shortlist format

## Worked example (1 buyer question)

**Buyer question:** “Best tools for AI visibility tracking”

- If your brand appears at ranks 1–5 with a clickable link → **counts**.
- If your brand is mentioned but not in the Top 5 list → **does not count**.

In addition to shortlist placement, we also track **AI citation ranking position** — meaning where your linked source appears within the list of cited references inside the answer.

## Related metrics (quick table)

|     |     |     |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Metric** | **What it answers** | **How it differs** |
| Average Rank | Where you place when you appear | Placement quality (lower is better) |
| SOV | Weighted share across brands | Uses position and repeats |
| AI Visibility Score | How often you get any link | Overall linked presence |

## FAQ (short)

### Is Top 5 fixed for this metric?

Yes. Recommendation Rate uses Top 5 as the shortlist format.

### Do we count mentions without links?

No. This metric is linked-only.