Understanding the Query fanouts Tab
Last updated: October 13, 2026
When an AI engine answers one of your tracked search terms, it often runs its own web searches first to find information. These searches are called fanouts. The Query fanouts tab shows them across all your tracked search terms: what the engines search for, which websites they search, and where your brand shows up.
Where to Find It
In your brand's sidebar, under Insights, click Query fanouts. The filters in the filter bar apply here too, including the date picker, engines, topics, tags and prompts.
To see the fanouts behind one single answer, open that result's detailed view instead. See 📄 Understanding your Search Term Results.
Why It Matters
Fanouts show what AI engines look up before they answer. They tell you which topics, phrases and websites the engines rely on for your search terms. Use them to see where your brand is found, where it is missing, and which questions your content should answer.
The Three Views
View | What it shows |
|---|---|
Overview | Your key numbers and summary cards for the selected period |
All queries | Every fanout in the period, with search and sortable columns |
New queries | Only fanouts that did not appear in the previous period of the same length. This view appears only when there are new fanouts |
Your Key Numbers
The top of the Overview shows four numbers. Each one shows the change against the previous period of the same length. Hover over the info icon to see the previous value.
Number | What it tells you | Where to look next |
|---|---|---|
Fanout searches | How many times engines ran a search while answering your tracked search terms | Fanout activity over time |
Queries per run | How many searches an engine ran on average per answer, counting only answers with fanouts | All queries |
Unique queries | How many different searches there were, with repeated wording counted once | All queries (click the number) |
Run coverage | The share of answers where the engine ran at least one search | Fanout activity over time |
Start Here: Wins & losses
Wins are fanouts where your brand shows up often and ranks well. Losses are fanouts where your brand rarely appears. Both only include fanouts with at least 5 appearances in the period.
Losses are the searches to work on first: the engines look for this information, and your brand is not in the answers that follow. Click a row to open the tracked search term it came from.
Detection and Avg rank describe your brand, not the fanout
In All queries and in Wins & losses, Detection is the share of answers where your brand appeared, counting only the answers where the engine ran that search. Avg rank is your brand's average position in those answers.
Neither number tells you how often the search itself was run. That is Appearances. Keep this in mind when you quote these numbers in a report.
The Sections in Detail
Fanout activity over time
Fanout searches over time, stacked by engine. The time steps follow the Aggregation setting in the date picker. Hourly shows as daily here.
If the chart does not appear, the selected period has activity in fewer than two time steps. Choose a longer date range.
Probed domains
The websites the engines searched directly, for example with a site: search. Owned marks your own domains. Click a row for more detail.
New fanouts and Shifting fanouts
New fanouts are searches that did not appear in the previous period of the same length. Click View all to open the New queries view.
Shifting fanouts are search terms where an engine's searches changed a lot from one run to the next. A search term needs at least five runs with fanouts on the same engine to appear here.
Appendix signals
Words and phrases the engines added to your search terms when they searched:
Exact Phrases: phrases of several words that were not in your search term
Associated Concepts: pairs of words that often appear together in fanouts
Words: single words the engines added
Each signal appears at least twice. Click one to filter All queries to the fanouts that contain it.
The All queries table
Each row is one fanout. From shows which of your tracked search terms it came from. Click the query to open that search term.
Appearances: how many times engines ran this search in the selected period
Detection: the share of those answers where your brand appeared
Avg rank: your brand's average position in those answers. Lower is better. A dash means your brand was never ranked
Engines: the AI engines that ran this search
Use the search box to find a fanout. Click a column header to sort, and click it again to reverse the order.
Exporting and Sharing
Click Export in the page header and choose to CSV or to Google Sheets. The export contains the list you are looking at: your search and any appendix signal filter apply, and in New queries it only contains the new fanouts. Export is available on selected plans, see rankscale.ai/pricing.
To share the tab, select Query fanouts when you create a share link. People with the link can view the tab but cannot export. See 📄 Sharing your Dashboard.
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📄 Understanding your Search Term Results