A prompt is a question a buyer might ask an AI assistant, such as "best accounting software for freelancers". Stride asks your tracked prompts on every scan and records whether each answer named you, cited your site, or named a competitor instead. Prompts are where every other number in Stride starts.
Overview
Open Visibility → Prompts. The page has two tabs:
- Tracked — the prompts Stride asks on your scans, with how each one is doing.
- Opportunities — suggested questions in your category that you don't track yet. Add the ones worth measuring on every scan.
Each tab shows a count, so you can see at a glance how many prompts you track and how many suggestions are waiting.
When to use it
- Right after onboarding, to check the starter prompts sound like your customers.
- When you launch a product, enter a new market or add a competitor, to add the questions buyers will now ask.
- When a prompt's results look odd, to open it and see the answers, sources and changes behind them.
How to use it
Review your tracked prompts
- Open Visibility → Prompts → Tracked.
- Scan the list. Each row shows the prompt, its Type, Volume, AI Difficulty and Brand mentions, plus a label saying what the next scans will do with it. Those labels, such as Scanned weekly or Not scanned — over plan limit, are explained in Scheduled scans.
- Expand a row to see its Classification, Value, Sentiment and Topic.
- Open a prompt for its detail: Mentioned, Cited, Volume, AI Difficulty, results By engine, Who's cited instead, and the Change timeline. The Change timeline and its status words are explained in Visibility Index & dashboard.
Add prompts from Opportunities
- Open Visibility → Prompts → Opportunities. The Prompt opportunities list shows untracked questions with their Source, Volume and AI Difficulty.
- Filter by source if you like: All sources, Competitor, AI or Your search data (questions drawn from your Search Console queries).
- Choose Add on a prompt to track it, Dismiss to hide it, or Not a fit to tell Stride it's wrong for you. Add all adds every suggestion that fits in your remaining slots.
- Choose Discover more to ask Stride for a fresh batch. New suggestions arrive in about a minute.
A prompt you add is measured from the next scan. Earlier scans aren't re-run for it.
📸 Screenshot — Visibility → Prompts → Opportunities: the Prompt opportunities list with the slots line at the top, one row's Volume and AI Difficulty bars, and the Add button.
Definitions
Est. Prompt Volume
Stride's estimate of how often buyers ask this kind of question, on five levels: Very low, Low, Moderate, High, Very high. The column shows five bars and a reading such as ~3/5.
Hover, focus or tap the bars to see the level and the basis line, which says what the estimate rests on:
- Estimated from prompt wording — Stride has only the question itself to go on.
- Estimated from prompt wording, refined with your Search Console signal — matching Google searches for your site sharpened the estimate.
- Estimated from prompt wording, refined with observed AI-answer evidence — Stride's own scans of this prompt sharpened it.
The signals under the basis line list what went into it, such as the number of matching Search Console impressions. Volume is an estimate, not a measured count of how often people type this prompt into an AI tool.
Est. AI Difficulty
How hard it looks to win this answer, on five levels: Very easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard, Very hard. It uses the same five bars, reading and basis line as volume. Where Stride has scanned the prompt, it leans on what it saw: answers that left you out, answers that didn't cite your site, and answers that named a tracked competitor. It describes AI answers for your brand, not a universal keyword-difficulty score.
Read the two together: high-volume, low-difficulty prompts are usually the best ones to work on first.
Value grade
A grade of A, B or C in the Value field when you expand a tracked prompt. It's based on related-query demand from your Search Console data, buying intent, and how winnable the answer looks. A is the strongest.
When a prompt shows — instead, hover it: "Value grade unavailable — needs matching Search Console query demand." Connect Google Search Console and give it time to collect query data. Prompts with no matching Google searches stay ungraded rather than getting a made-up grade.
Best practices
- Write prompts the way a buyer would ask, not the way you'd describe yourself. "Best CRM for a five-person agency" beats "Acme CRM features".
- Keep a mix of types: questions that name a category, compare options, and ask for a recommendation.
- Use Not a fit rather than Dismiss when a suggestion is wrong for your business, so your reason is recorded along with the dismissal.
- Don't judge a prompt on one scan. AI answers vary from run to run.
Plan & limits
The number of prompts you can track depends on your plan. The top of the Opportunities tab shows how many of your plan's prompts you're using and how many slots are left. When you're full, suggestions show Capped and you can't add more until you remove a tracked prompt or add slots. See the pricing page for each plan's limits.
FAQ / Troubleshooting
Why does my new prompt have no results?
Prompts are measured from the next scan after you add them. Earlier scans aren't re-run.
The Opportunities tab says "No opportunities in queue right now"
You may already track your best prompts. Choose Discover more to look again. If you filtered to Your search data, those suggestions appear after the next Search Console refresh.
Why does a prompt show "Not scanned — over plan limit"?
Your plan's prompt slots are full, so the most relevant prompts with the most search demand are scanned first. See Scheduled scans.
Is the volume a real search count?
No. It's Stride's estimate from the prompt's wording, refined with your Search Console and scan data where they exist. The basis line says which.