# Perth AI Search Research Methodology | AI SEO Perth > How AI SEO Perth observes AI-assisted search: query classes, platforms, repeated runs, session handling, source classes, evidence labels and limits. Methodology v2.0. Source: https://aiseoperth.net.au/methodology/ --- Methodology · v2.0 · updated 2026-09-11 # How AI SEO Perth observes AI search How AI-assisted search systems retrieve, cite and recommend sources for prompts with a Perth, Western Australia context. Research lead: Dorian Menard, founder of Search Scope. Machine-readable copy: [/data/methodology.json](https://aiseoperth.net.au/data/methodology.json). Record structure: [/data/observation-schema.json](https://aiseoperth.net.au/data/observation-schema.json). ## Research objectives 1. Record which businesses, brands and sources AI-assisted search systems name, recommend and cite for Perth prompts. 2. Record which domains and URLs are cited, and classify each source. 3. Measure how answers vary across repeated runs, session profiles and platforms. 4. Track change over time on a fixed prompt set. The programme does not try to explain why a system chose a source. It records what appeared, how often, on which surface, and how that changed. Explanations, where offered, are labelled as inference. ## Query and prompt universe A study starts from a written prompt set, not from whatever comes to mind on the day. Each prompt is assigned one query class and one buyer stage before any run, and the set is frozen for the round. Prompts are written the way a person would type them into an assistant, including the place name where the question is local. Query classes Class Definition informational What something is or how it works, no purchase intent. commercial Looking for a type of provider or product without naming one. comparison Comparing two or more named options or approaches. recommendation Asking the system to shortlist or recommend providers. local Any prompt whose answer depends on a Perth or Western Australian location. brand Asking about a named business or brand. competitor Asking for alternatives to a named business or brand. trust-validation Checking whether a named business is legitimate, reviewed or safe to use. Buyer stages: awareness, consideration, decision, retention, not-applicable. A prompt set for an industry study covers every class that applies to that industry, so a report can say which class a pattern belongs to rather than averaging across intents that behave differently. ## Platforms These are the surfaces a study may observe. A study names which of them it covered; not every platform is available, stable or reproducible for every round, and a platform missing from a report means it was not observed, not that it returned nothing. Platforms Platform Notes ChatGPT Web product with search enabled. Model label recorded per run. Google AI Overviews google.com.au results page. Not every query triggers an overview; absence is recorded. Google AI Mode Recorded separately from AI Overviews because the surface and its citation behaviour differ. Gemini Gemini app, web. Perplexity Web product, default mode unless otherwise recorded. Claude Web product with web search enabled where available. Microsoft Copilot Consumer web product. The model or surface label the platform showed at the time is recorded per run, because platforms change models without notice and two runs a month apart may not be comparable. ## Repeated runs Every prompt is run at least 3 times per platform per round. Outputs vary between sessions on the same prompt. A single run is an anecdote. Repeated runs let the publication report how often a brand or domain appeared, not whether it appeared once. Outputs vary for reasons the platforms have documented in part and left undocumented in part: sampling in the model, retrieval that can return different documents, personalisation, location inference and ongoing model changes. The programme does not try to remove that variance. It measures it, and reports frequencies with the number of runs behind them. ## Geography and session handling What can be controlled: the account used, its stated location where the platform accepts one, the time of day, and whether search or browsing is switched on. What cannot be controlled: how a platform infers location from the network, what it remembers across sessions, and what it changed overnight. Runs are therefore made from defined session profiles, and divergence between profiles on the same prompt is recorded as a measurement rather than treated as noise. Session profiles Profile Definition clean-baseline A dedicated account with no prior history, location set to Perth where the platform allows it. persona-a A seeded account with a defined history, used to measure personalisation divergence. persona-b A second seeded account with a different history. logged-out No account. Only used where the platform serves answers without login. api Programmatic access where a platform offers it. Recorded separately because API behaviour can differ from the consumer product. Location is named in the prompt where the question is local ("in Perth"), because that is how people ask, and it removes one dependency on the platform's location inference. Where a platform allows a location setting it is set to Perth, Western Australia, and the setting is noted in the record. ## What gets recorded One record per prompt per platform per run. The record contains: - `prompt (verbatim)` - `query_class` - `buyer_stage` - `industry` - `location` - `platform` - `model_or_surface` - `observation_date, observation_time, timezone` - `run_number` - `session_profile` - `brands_mentioned` - `brands_recommended` - `brand_order` - `citations_present` - `cited_urls` - `cited_domains` - `source_classes` - `response_notes` - `region_or_session_notes` - `source_capture` - `methodology_version` Mentions and recommendations are recorded separately. A mention is any business named in the answer; a recommendation is a business the answer presented as a shortlist entry or suggested option. Order is kept. Citations are recorded as shown; where a surface displays no citation the record says so, which is not evidence that no source was used. ## Source classification Each cited domain is classified into one of the following classes at the time of the observation. Source classes Class Definition owned A domain owned by a brand named in the answer. third-party An independent site that is none of the classes below. platform-owned A property owned by the platform answering, for example Google Maps for a Google surface. ugc User-generated content: forums, Reddit, review threads, Q&A sites. directory Business directories and listing sites. publisher News and editorial publishers. brand-source A brand's own profile on a third-party platform, for example a Google Business Profile or a LinkedIn company page. A domain can belong to different classes in different observations: a business's own site is `owned` when that business is named in the answer and `third-party` when it is cited for a question about someone else. ## Evidence labels Every non-obvious claim published on this site, in reports and reference pages alike, carries one of five labels. Evidence labels Label Meaning DOCUMENTED Stated by a platform or another primary source, with a link and a date. OBSERVED Measured directly by this publication, with the dataset and date named. TESTED An experiment with a defined methodology, sample and limitations. INFERRED A conclusion drawn from several signals. Written as inference, never as fact. HYPOTHESIS Worth testing, not established. An inference is never presented as a fact. "X appeared in nine of twelve runs" is an observation. "The system prefers X" is an inference, and it is written that way or not at all. "The system trusts X" is not a claim this publication makes. ## Limitations - Session variance: the same prompt returns different answers across runs. - Personalisation: account history, saved preferences and prior chats can change results. - Location: platforms infer location differently and not all of them let it be set. - Model updates: platforms change models and retrieval behaviour without notice, so observations are dated and versioned. - Logged-in state: consumer products behave differently logged in, logged out and through an API. - Citation availability: some surfaces show citations inconsistently or not at all, so absence of a citation is not evidence a source was unused. - Sampling: a fixed prompt set is a sample of the questions people ask, not the population. - No universal score: this publication does not compute a single ranking or 'GEO score'. Frequencies are reported per prompt set, platform and period. The last point matters most. This publication does not produce a ranking, an index score or a "GEO score" for any business or platform. It publishes frequencies from defined prompt sets on defined dates, with the runs behind them, and leaves the reader able to check. ## Versioning Any change to prompt sets, platforms, session profiles, recorded fields or classification rules increments the version. Observations carry the version they were collected under and are never re-labelled. Version history Version Date Note 1.0 2026-09-09 Initial methodology published. No observation rounds completed. 2.0 2026-09-11 Scope widened for the first observation round: 20 industries rather than one, 200 questions rather than 25, four platforms rather than five, and collection through an API rather than a browser session. Published as the Perth AI Search Study 2026. On this page - [Research objectives](#objectives) - [Query and prompt universe](#query-universe) - [Platforms](#platforms) - [Repeated runs](#repeated-runs) - [Geography and session handling](#sessions) - [What gets recorded](#recorded) - [Source classification](#source-classification) - [Evidence labels](#evidence-labels) - [Limitations](#limitations) - [Versioning](#versioning) Files - [methodology.json](https://aiseoperth.net.au/data/methodology.json) - [observation-schema.json](https://aiseoperth.net.au/data/observation-schema.json) - [All data and downloads](https://aiseoperth.net.au/data/) Published by Search Scope AI SEO Perth is published by Search Scope, a Perth SEO consultancy founded by Dorian Menard. Search Scope provides commercial SEO and AI search optimisation services; this website is maintained as its specialist Perth AI search research and reference publication. [Search Scope](https://searchscope.com.au/)