Query fan-out tracking
When an AI engine with web search answers a prompt, it often runs several web searches first. Elmo records those fan-out queries for every prompt, so you can see what the engines actually search for, which searches recur across your category, and how they rewrite your wording.
What you can do
1See every search
Open any prompt to see the web searches each engine ran while answering it, and how often each one recurred.
2Find the recurring queries
Top queries surface the searches that come up again and again across all your prompts.
3Learn how engines rewrite you
Query words show which words from your prompt engines keep, which they drop, and which they add, like 'best', a year, or 'vs'.
Data you can act on
- Queries
- The distinct web searches engines ran for your prompts.
- Average fan-out
- Average searches per run, counting runs that issued at least one web search.
- Search prompt runs
- How many times your prompts ran on engines configured with web search.
- Runs with known and unknown queries
- Search runs that exposed their queries, and those where the engine didn't search or didn't reveal what it searched.
- Added, preserved, and dropped words
- How engines rewrite your prompt wording on the way to a search.
Use cases
- Find the search phrasing to target, based on what the engines actually search for rather than what you guess.
- See the qualifiers engines add, like the current year or 'vs', and cover them in your content.
- Check whether your pages rank for the searches behind the prompts you're losing.
Why Elmo
Straight from the runs
Every figure comes from the searches recorded on real prompt runs, the same way for every provider.
Honest about gaps
Some engines don't reveal their searches. Elmo counts those runs separately instead of guessing what they searched for.
Only real rewrites
A search that just repeats your prompt says nothing about how it was rewritten, so the page leaves those out.
Related features
All features- Citation trackingWhich domains and pages AI cites for your prompts, including your own, broken down by category and tracked over time.
- Prompt trackingSuggested from your website, tagged and organized, with every AI answer kept for you to search and inspect.
- OpportunitiesContent to create, pages to refresh, and sources to pitch, generated from your own visibility and citation data.
Frequently asked questions
Something we didn't cover? Ask the maintainers directly on Discord.
What is query fan-out?
Query fan-out is an AI engine breaking one question into several web searches, retrieving results for each, and writing a single answer from what it found. The searches it runs decide which pages it can cite.
Which AI engines show their fan-out queries?
It depends on the engine and on the provider used to reach it. Elmo shows the queries wherever they're exposed, and counts runs where an engine searched without revealing its queries separately.
How do I use fan-out queries?
Treat them as the searches your content has to rank for. If an engine searches for 'best CRM for startups 2026' when answering your prompt, the pages that rank for that search are the ones it can cite.
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