The Challenge
MasterClass is changing the game in online education, providing access to knowledge from the world’s most influential people, including Hillary Clinton, Gordon Ramsay, Serena Williams, Dr. Jane Goodall and Stephen Curry.
In 2018, MasterClass had built a strong reputation for premium content with their expert-led courses and it was time to bring that high quality approach to their blog. At the time, SEO was an untapped channel that had the potential to complement their existing channels, drive sustainable revenue, and deliver significant scale.
With courses based on hundreds of diverse topics, and direct partnerships with highly authoritative figures, MasterClass had the ingredients to quickly become a dominant player in organic search–and they needed a partner they could trust to accomplish this together.
The Graphite Team is among the top 1% of all people I’ve worked with. They helped the MasterClass team develop a solid strategy across content, search engine optimization, and conversion funnels.
The Solution
In mid-2018, MasterClass approached Graphite to build an ambitious organic growth strategy, one that would be able to outrank established SEO giants in the online education space. #1
Together, they agreed on two key objectives
- Build a strategy that could drive 10M+ monthly visits
- Increase the percentage of total website visits driven by organic search
High Impact Initiatives
Graphite’s approach to SEO is to focus on the top 5% of activities that drive high impact— we call these High Impact Initiatives (or HIIs). Across all our clients, these custom initiatives have consistently driven step-level traffic and revenue gains.
Topical SEO
The path to establishing MasterClass as a leading authority across multiple categories.
“MasterClass is a perfect storm for SEO…” says Marcos Ciarrocchi, one of Graphite’s co-founders, “...With such a wide range of topics, the universe of relevant searches and potential revenue is very large.”
Furthermore, MasterClass’ partnership with high profile celebrities provides a unique and defensible advantage –their content has a much higher likelihood of getting press and backlinks.
Scaling content production over 350 articles per month.
Graphite drove the content strategy by surfacing high impact topics based on search volume, purchase intent, and topical authority. They also trained the MasterClass team on how to write high impact briefs so that writers knew exactly what to include in an article to give it the best chance of ranking.
To save time, the team leveraged existing MasterClass content from dozens of course workbooks to create SEO-optimized articles. And within only a few weeks, newly published articles were getting traffic.
Accelerating time to impact with topical authority
While scaling content production played a critical role in MasterClass’ success, another key driver was the prioritization of which articles to produce. One of the biggest costs in SEO is the wasted effort of writing articles that never rank.
To improve topic selection, Graphite developed a scoring system for topical authority which made it easy for the team to select topics that were semantically related to content that was already performing well on the blog. This approach proved to be very effective, catapulting MasterClass into the leading position for several high value categories.
Leveraging traffic data to increase impact of conversion experiments
While traffic growth looked promising, the end goal for MasterClass was revenue. As website traffic increased, so did opportunities to convert that traffic into subscribers.
Graphite and MasterClass turned their attention to conversion by optimizing categories that had high revenue potential, meaning a combination of strong traffic volume and strong conversion rates. These categories became focus areas for on-going experimentation for both content and growth design.
The Results
In mid-2018, MasterClass approached Graphite to build an ambitious organic growth strategy, one that would be able to outrank established SEO giants in the online education space.
Catching up to industry leaders at record pace
In only a few years, MasterClass has established itself as a leader in SEO for online education, catching up to established leaders in the category. While MasterClass has seen significant growth, many of these competitors have had flat growth over the same time period.
Building SEO into the primary source of website traffic
At the start of the engagement, SEO was a small share of organic traffic. Today, organic search has become the biggest driver of net new traffic for MasterClass.
By The Numbers
Brand
Entry Level Pricing
AEO features
Models Tracked
Other Features
AI Brand Monitoring
AI Brand Monitoring offers one-time reports across LLMs that you can leverage for optimization analysis.
Price Point
- Starter tier at $5.99 that includes 2 reports
- Standard tier at $19.99 that includes 5 reports
- Premium tier coming soon that includes 3 reports across 5 models
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
- Deepseek
- Grok
Core Features
- One-time reports with brand insights across LLMs
AI Brand Tracking
AI Brand Tracking offers a comprehensive set of features across visibility, competitors, queriers, citations and page performance.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
- Currently accepting sign ups for a waitlist
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Topic performance tracking, including recommending relevant queries based on your key topics
- Monitors overall visibility, topic coverage and competitive position
- Citation and source tracking
AISEOTracker
A new player in the space with limited information on features or functionality but good coverage across the LLMs
Price Point
- You can buy the strategy guide only for $49
- Alternatively, you can purchase lifetime access to the tool for a $249 one-time payment
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Claude
- Gemini
- Deepseek
Core Features
- Limited visibility into the features and functionality for this toolIdentify all the brands mentioned in any given search and frequency of mentions across LLMs
- Ability to easily surface the specific copy for each mention for a deeper content analysis
Ahrefs
Ahref's has added Brand Radar, their version of AEO tooling, to their popular suite of SEO tools. Brand Radar focuses on tracking your brands presence in AI search vs competitors and has a similar look and feel as the SEO tools you've likely used before.
Price Point
- While in beta, you can add Brand Radar to your current plan for free.
- Once the beta ends, you'll need a paid plan to continue using the AEO tool and pricing starts at $129/month.
Models Tracked
- AI Overviews
Core Features
- Track AI mentions and impressions over time
- Compare your mentions and impressions against your competitors
- Figure out which specific topics are driving AI traffic to your site Monitor brand sentiment in AI
- AI visibility gap analysis
Am I on AI?
Another new player in the space with a relatively robust set of features.
Price Point
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Provides a weekly AI Visibility Score that you can track over time
Ability to compare your brand’s - AI Visibility Score against competitors
- Recommends prompts to track based on business context
- Citation monitoring
Anvil
Anvil is a Y-combinator backed company that provides a robust set of tracking features. A standout feature for the platform is their Topic Cluster Heatmap
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Claude
- Perplexity
Core Features
- AI Visibility Tracking
- Ability to track performance by topics, including a Topic Cluster Heatmap for topic size and share of voice
- Recommends best queries to track
- Competitor benchmarking
AthenaHQ
Focused on brand management in AI search, Athena's CEO is a former Google Search product manager and its CTO is the former founder of AI property management software company, Cribbly. Athena is a tool with a robust set of features built by an experienced team.
Price Point
- Lite plan is $180/month for 3,500 credits
- Growth plan is $350/month for 10,000 credits and includes access to AI blindspot detection plus unlimited users
- Both plans are billed annually
- First month offered for free
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
Core Features
- Ability to track overall GEO Score, as well as Brand Mention Rate and Overall Presence Score
- Surfaces citation URLs
- Content Gap Identification
- Ability to track your market share against competitors for mentions
Azoma
Azoma focuses on helping your brand appear on chatGPT shopping and Amazon Rufus for high-intent shopping queries.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Track presence across LLMs
- General trend data and analysis
- Citation tracking
- Recommendation for optimized shopping content
Bluefish AI
Bluefish highlights its ability to influence how LLMs are perceiving and represented your brand by giving brands the ability to provide brand verified data to AI providers. It's also one of the few tools that mentions AI ad campaigns as a core feature.
Price Point
- No pricing information is available without booking a demo
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Bing Copilot
Core Features
- Track key brand metrics, including Brand Accuracy and Brand Sentiment
- Ability to syndicate "brand verified" data to AI providers to influence how your brand is perceived and represented on LLMs
- Targeted AI ad campaigns
Brandlight AI
Includes features for visibility tracking and "influencing" across the different LLMs. The company page highlights an impressive advisory board, including multiple Fortune500 CMOs.
Price Point
- No pricing information is available on the site
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Track brand visibility over time
- See how your brand's visibility is ranking vs your competitors
- Brand sentiment tracking by LLM
- Ability to see source URLs by LLM for strategic analysis
Cognizo
Cognizo offers a B2C and B2B tool for agencies. One standout for this tool is that it offers in-platform recommendations for content creation and optimization.
Price Point
- "No pricing information is available on the site
- Ability to book a demo or get a report"
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
- Meta AI
Core Features
- Track AI visibility, position and sentiment
- Reports on your brand's presence vs your competitors across each LLM it covers
- Surfaces actionable opportunities for your brand, including content creation and content optimization ideas
- Custom reports available
Evertune
Evertune prompts at scale — around 12,000 prompts per product category — delivering more stable, less volatile insights than competitors. It’s integrated with both LLM APIs and search, so it can measure what models know by default and what they surface via search. Clients can run up to 1.2M queries/month, making it one of the most comprehensive tools for tracking what AI is saying about your brand.
Price Point
- No pricing information is available on the site
- Ability to book a demo
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
- Meta AI
- Deepseek
Core Features
- See how your brand performance compares to your competitors, as well as all the brands mentioned in your category
- Ability to understand the product features that LLMs believe are important for a given search
- Content Roadmap that recommends URLs to target and keywords to include in your content
- Results tracking
GPTrends
GPTrends is a new tool in the space that offers a standard set of AI tracking features and functionality.
Price Point
- You can join the beta with a 7-day free trial
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Claude
- Grok
- Gemini
Core Features
- Track and monitor AI mentions over time
- Competitor gap analysis to spot your brand's gaps
Geostar
Geostar provides data and analysis for AI visibility, prompts and citations. It also allows you to easily review crawler stats for LLMs.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
- Ability to book a demo with sales team
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
Core Features
- Visibility tracker
- Impressions manager, including AI traffic over time and source analysis
- Crawler analytics
Goodie
Goodie is one of the few tools that offers ranking by geography and language.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
- Deepseek
- AI Overviews
Core Features
- Competitive benchmarking with real-time data across different sentiment categories
- Track your brand's visibility over time and against competitors
- Sentiment analysis
- Ability to monitor across different geographies
- Optimization Hub provides recommendations for optimized earned content
Graphite
Graphite's AI Answer Tracking tool gives you a full view of how your content ranks across major LLMs, with insights to improve your AEO strategy.
Price Point
- Free
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Performance by Answer Engine
- Share of Voice
- Citations Insights
Gumshoe
Gumshoe offers the standard features but goes one layer deeper on visbility, allowing you to analyze your brand's visibility by different buyer personas and broad topic areas.
Price Point
- Free
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Brand, Persona, Topic and Model Visibility
- Ability to see top cited sources
- Competitor comparison across topics and models
Hall
Hall allows you to dive deeper into AI qustion data, your brand's AI visibility, share of voice and Citation data across 8 LLMs.
Price Point
- Free tier for 25 tracked questions across 3 LLMs
- Starter tier at $199/month for 500 tracked questions across 3 LLMs
- Business tier at $499/month for 1,000 tracked questions across 8 LLMs
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Bing Copilot
- Perplexity
- Claude
- Meta AI
- AI Overviews
- Deepseek
Core Features
- Question volume, intent analysis and keyword anlaysis
- AI Visibility Analysis across brands, competitors and platforms
- Share of voice
- Citation analysis, including top domain and top page tracking
Hubspot
AI Search Grader is Hubspot's free AEO tool that analyzes and grades your brand based on brand sentiment and share of voice.
Price Point
- Free
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Summarizes your brand's AI performance in one "grade" or score
- Asses your brand's visibility vs your top competitors
- Provides a summary of your brand's strengths and weaknesses in AI search
LLMConsole
LLM Console is a lightweight, free tool that can give you initial visibility into your brand or product's perception and ranking on LLMs
Price Point
- Free
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
Core Features
- Surfaces an initial set of topics that LLMs believe your brand or product is relevant for
- Surfaces your ranking for a relevant search vs other products or competitors in the space
LLMO Metrics
LLMO Metrics offers options for freelancers, pros and enterprise clients, with the site highlighting their enterprise clients. One standout feature for this tool is the ability to track "correct answers" and flag new citation URLs detected.
Price Point
- Freelance tier at 80 Euros / month and includes 20 prompts and 2 team members
- Pro tier at 245 Euros / month and includes 100 prompts and up to 10 team members plus advanced support
- Enterprise tier at 690 Euros / month and includes 300 prompts, unlimited members and a dedicated agent
- Custom plans are available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Perplexity
- Deepseek
- Gemini
- Bing Copilot
Core Features
- Track current position, total queries, correct answers and new web pages detected day over day
- See trends in your brand's ranking across 6 LLMs
- Surfaces citation URLs
Leverage
Founded by college students from Utah State University, Leverage focuses on helping your business rank on the most popular LLM platforms
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT, Meta AI, Gemini
Core Features
- No feature information available
Maxeo
Maxeo offers a comprehensive set of tracking features and functionality, as well as actionable recommendations to increase your brand's AI exposure.
Price Point
- Starter tier at $100/month for 5 products or service categories (1,000 prompts)
- Growth tier at $500/month for 10 products or service categories (2,000 prompts)
- Enterprise tier that's fully customizable
- Ability to download a free sample report
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Bing Copilot
- AI Overviews
- Claude
Core Features
- Position and sentiment tracking
- Mention tracking for your brand and your competitors
- Tracking by product or service category
- Source and citation tracking
Model Monitor
Model Monitor offers a comprehensive set of AI tracking and monitor features across 50+ AI models
Price Point
- Pricing starts at $49/month
- Custom pricing available for agencies and enterprises
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Mistral
- Deepseek
- Claude
- Meta AI
- Grok
- Gemini
Core Features
- Real-time tracking and monitoring of AI metrics
- Ability to compare your performance against your competitors
- Optimization recommendations
Otterly AI
Started by 3 founders with deep SaaS experience, Otterly offers the basic AI tracking and monitoring features plus a feature that allows you to turn your target keywords into AI prompts.
Price Point
- Lite base plan at $29/month for 10 search prompts
- Standard plan costs $189/month for 100 search prompts
- Pro plan costs $989/month for 1,000 search prompts
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Keyword research for LLM prompts
- Prompt tracking for multiple prompts
- Automated citation tracking
- Track frequency of brand mentions
- Brand sentiment monitoring
Peec
Peec offers a robust AI tool that includes visibility, citations, ranking and mentions. They have 3 tiers for startups, SMEs and Enteprises.
Price Point
- Starter plan at 90 Euros/month for 25 prompts and 3 countries
- Pro plan at 199 Euros/month for 100 prompts and 5 countries
- Enterprise plan at 499 Euros/month for 300+ prompts and 10+ countries
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Deepseek
- Claude
- Grok
Core Features
- Track your brand's AI visibility score against competitors and over time
- Citation tracking and analysis
- Ranking feature for competitor benchmarking
- Ability to track and follow conversations where your brand is mentioned
Profound
A new player in the space, Profound's platform allows you to track your AI Visibility and Ranking against your competitors. It also tracks overall conversation volume and traffic from AI.
Price Point
- $499/month for 200 unique prompts and a basic set of features
- Custom pricing for enterprises looking for more prompts and additional features and functionality
Models Tracked
- Perplexity
- Bing Copilot
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
Core Features
- Share of Voice and Visibility Score tracking
- Indexation data
- Ability to track number of conversations mentioning you or your brand
- Ability to track referrals and traffic from LLMs
Prompt Watch
A standout feature for Prompt Watch is their LLM traffic dashboard, which tracks traffic, bounce rate and conversion rate across multiple LLMs. They also have a separate feture specifically for monitoring how your brand is appearing in AI Overviews.
Price Point
- Solo plan at $89/onth for 50 tracked prompts and 15 AI models
- Startup plan at $199/month for 150 tracked prompts and 20 AI models
- Business plan at $499/month for 350 tracked prompts and every AI model
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Deepseek
- Gemini
- Perplexity
- Grok
- AI Overviews
Core Features
- Traffic by LLM, including bounce rate and conversion data
- Visibility score and mention monitoring
- Prompt monitoring and tracking vs competitors
- AI Overview specific tracking
Promptization
Promptization offers discoverability and competitor tracking across multiple LLMs
Price Point
- Free tier with 100 API Credits
- Standard tier with 10+ AI Assistants
- Enterprise tier with custom integrations
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Meta AI
- Mistral
- Grok
Core Features
- Campaign tracking by LLM
- Competitor benchmarking
Quno
Quno offers 3 products: SEO for AI Search Engines, Brand Tracker and AI Interviewer.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Meta AI
- Claude
- Bing Copilot
- Deepseek
Core Features
- Overall visibility score and visibility score for specific models
- Industry ranking vs your competitors
- Citation tracking for content gap analysis
- Prompt analysis to help you understand how AI adapts responses based on different prompt behavior
RankScale
A differentiating feature for RankScale is their website audit feature, which can score your content, identify content gaps and help you customize your bot settings for AI.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
- Ability to apply to the early access program
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Mistral
- Claude
- Deepseek
- Perplexity
- Search GPT
Core Features
- Website audit to ensure your site is optimized for AI
- Real-time prompt tracking, including sentiment tracking
- Ability to uncover direct and indirect competitors you may not have considered before
- Competitor tracking and benchmarking, including tracking your competitor's citations
- Source tracking, including frequency analysis
- Ability to identify your brand's most influential domains
Rankshift
Rankshift offers an LLM tracking tool that helps you monitor your AI visibility and share of voice against your top competitors. It also allows you to track and analyze source data to identify optimization opportunities for your brand and products.
Price Point
- Free trial available
- Credit based pricing that allows you to customize your package in real-time
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Mistral, Claude
Core Features
- AI Visibility leaderboard
- Track your performance against your competitors' over time
- Sentiment tracking
- Citation and source tracking
- Share of voice vs your competitorsAI Visibility leaderboard
- Track your performance against your competitors' over time
- Sentiment tracking
- Citation and source tracking
- Share of voice vs your competitors
Relixir
Relixir is the AI Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) platform that helps teams rank higher & sell more on ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- Blindspot tool
- Autonomous intelligence loop
Scrunch AI
Scrunch was founded by two former Hearsay Systems team membes and is backed by notable angel investors, such as Bryant Chou from Webflow and Clara Shih from Meta AI.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Perplexity
- Meta AI
- Claude
Core Features
- Ability to monitor presence, position and sentiment across LLMs
- Competitive benchmarking and analysis
- Competitor trend spotting
- Citation tracking and analysis
- Ability to track by persona
- Recommends optimizations by prompt
- Tracks AI accuracy
Semrush
A leader in the SEO space, Semrush's AI Toolkit allows you to track your brand's visibiltiy and performance against your competitors. It also provides AI-generated tips for product development based on trends, product sentiment and what your customer is asking on AI.
Price Point
- $99/month for one domain
- No free trial offered but you are able to view a sample report
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Search GPT
Core Features
- Monitor your brand's AI Visibility
- Track how LLMs talk about you vs your competitors
- Brand and product sentiment tracking
- Track shifts in the AI conversation for your indsutry and target audience
- Track trending questions
- AI-Generated tips for product development
Share of Model
Share of Model allows you to track your performance across a large set of LLM models and social platforms to better understand perception, awareness and sentiment around your brand and products.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Claude
- Gemini
- Mistral
- Meta AI
Core Features
- Track your Brand Appearance score against your competitors
- Sentiment tracking across LLMs and social platforms
- Perception tracking for both brand and individual products
Traqer
Trager provides you the ability to track specific keywords across multiple AI platforms
Price Point
- Pricing is based on number of keywords tracked
- Starts at $49/month for 40 keywords
- Highest tier is $499/month for 1,000 keywords
- Ability to contact sales for custom plans
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- AI Overviews
- Perplexity
Core Features
- Keyword tracking across multiple keywords, brands and LLMs
- Ability to veiw full AI responses for deeper analysis
- Automated weekly updates
Waikay
Waikay focuses on the ability for brands to take control of their AI narrative and manage their reputational risk.
Price Point
- Small business plan at $19.95/month for 8 reports
- Medium business plan at $69.95/month for 30 reports
- Large business plan at $199.95/month for 90 reports
Models Tracked
- Sonar
- Gemini
- ChatGPT
Core Features
- AI Brand Score by topic and LLM
- Fact checking ability to help ensure brand reputation and data accuracy
- Competitor benchmarking
- Ability to track AI peformance over-time
Xfunnel
XFunnel offers a robust set of tracking and monitoring capabilities across LLMs. A standout feature on the platform is the ability to track conversations (vs just keywords) and the ablity to monitor performance for unique buying journeys across persona, region, vertical and product.
Price Point
- Free tier with 100 AI Search Queries / month and basic analytics
- Pro tier (coming soon, not yet launched) at $199/month with ulimited AI Search Queries and Advanced Analytics
- Enterprise tier with custom pricing and custom offering
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Meta AI
- Bing Copilot
- Claude
Core Features
- Monitor visibility and sentiment across multiple LLM platforms
- Track share of voice and ranking against your competitors
- Ability to discover questions your target customer may be asking
- Tracking across conversations vs keywords
- Citation analysis, including UGC radar
- Content gap analysis and recommendations
Xlr
XLR8 allows you to track a comprehensive set of AI metrics with a focus on going deeper by category.
Price Point
- No pricing information available
- Ability to book a demo with sales team
Models Tracked
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Core Features
- AI Visibility score across categories
- Competitor analysis across categories
- Ability to track AI conversations by category
- Source analysis, including most cited sources and source type
- Content optimization recommendations (in beta)