> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.fixaeo.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Sentiment

> How AI answers describe you once they name you.

A mention isn't automatically a good mention.

Sentiment is how an AI answer talks about your brand when it names you. Every mention is classified as positive, neutral, or negative.

## How is sentiment calculated?

Sentiment is calculated from the overall tone and context of the answer — how it frames your brand, not whether it mentions you at all.

Alongside the three buckets, FixAEO reports a single average on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 is neutral.

You'll see it in three shapes. Your [dashboard](/dashboard) shows a single word, the largest of the three buckets. The competitive quadrant on [Industry benchmarks](/industry) plots you above or below a neutral line on its vertical axis. The [Citations](/citations) table breaks it down per domain, so you can see which sites describe you well.

<Note>
  Before anything has been classified, FixAEO shows an em-dash rather than a score. A blank is honest; a zero would read as "perfectly neutral" when the truth is "no data."
</Note>

## What's a good sentiment score?

Most healthy brands sit close to 0, and that's fine. AI answers are written to be descriptive, not promotional, so a category-leading brand still collects plenty of flat, factual mentions.

Read the direction rather than the exact figure. A steady lean toward positive is good. A drift toward negative over several weeks is the one that needs attention, and the negative mentions themselves will tell you why.

## How do you improve it?

Start by reading the answers. [Understanding AI answers](/understanding-answers) lets you filter to negative mentions and see the exact wording.

Negative sentiment usually traces back to a source. Use [Sources](/sources) to find which sites the engines read on those prompts. An outdated review or an old comparison page is a common culprit, and fixing the source fixes the answer.

<Tip>
  Set a sentiment alert so you hear about a shift instead of finding it later. See [Alerts](/alerts).
</Tip>

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card icon="eye" title="Visibility Score" href="/metrics/visibility-score">
    Whether you're named at all, before you judge how.
  </Card>

  <Card icon="chart-pie" title="Share of voice" href="/metrics/share-of-voice">
    The other axis of the competitive quadrant.
  </Card>

  <Card icon="ranking-star" title="Position" href="/metrics/position">
    How early in the answer you show up.
  </Card>

  <Card icon="gauge" title="Metrics overview" href="/metrics-overview">
    All four metrics and how they fit together.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>