March 15, 202612 min read

How to Create Clusters and Prompts for GEO Monitoring: A Step-by-Step Guide

A breakdown of how to properly create thematic clusters and search prompts for monitoring brand visibility in Yandex (search with Alice), ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Perplexity, and other AI systems.

Vladislav Puchkov

Founder of GEO Scout, GEO optimization expert

Why Clusters and Prompts Matter

Every day, millions of people ask Yandex with Alice, ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Perplexity, and other AI assistants questions. Instead of searching on Google, customers ask: "which tour operator is best for a family beach vacation?", "which payment processor should I connect for my online store?", "where to learn programming?" — and AI responds with a list of recommendations.

According to a Profound study (50M+ prompts in ChatGPT), the average AI query contains 23 words — 4-5 times longer than a Google search query. People describe their situation in detail: industry, business size, specific task.

GEO monitoring tracks whether your brand appears in these responses. But to monitor, you need to ask the right questions — prompts. And to keep prompts from becoming a chaotic list of 50 random queries, they're organized into clusters.

What Is a Cluster

A cluster is a group of prompts united by one competitive niche. A niche = a specific customer task + a specific audience.

Good Clusters Are Niches, Not Website Sections

A common mistake is creating clusters based on website structure:

Why niches, not sections? Because customers don't ask AI "tell me about company X's tours section." They ask: "which tour operator is best for a family beach vacation with kids?"

Most GEO tools group prompts by topics or funnel stages (Awareness → Consideration → Decision). The competitive niche approach is more precise because each niche has its own audience, its own competitors, and its own selection criteria.

How to Identify Your Niches

Ask yourself three questions:

1. Who are my customers? — families with children, online store owners, students, business owners
2. What task are they solving? — choose a resort, connect payments on their site, learn a profession, build a wardrobe
3. Who do I compete with for each task? — competitors may differ across niches

Each "audience + task" combination = a potential cluster.

How Many Clusters to Create

Optimal: 3-5 clusters. This is enough to cover main niches, generate 15-40 prompts, and not get lost in data.

• Fewer than 3 — too narrow coverage, you'll miss important segments
• More than 7 — hard to analyze, clusters start overlapping
• Maximum 12 — technical limit, but better not to reach it

For comparison: the industry recommends 25 to 250 prompts depending on business scale. 3-5 clusters x 5-8 prompts = 15-40 prompts — the optimal range for a mid-sized business.

What Is a Prompt

A prompt is a specific query that a potential customer asks an AI assistant. Monitoring checks: does AI mention your brand in the response to this query.

The Main Quality Criterion

A prompt should be specific enough that AI names 3-10 specific companies or products in its response:

• If AI names 50+ — the prompt is too broad, monitoring is useless
• If AI responds with general knowledge without brands — the prompt is also useless

Which Prompts Work

Best prompts:

1. Sound like real questions people ask (15-25 words)

   • ❌ best_payment_gateway_2026 — templated and unnatural
   • ✅ "Which online payment processing service should I choose for an e-commerce store in the US?"

2. Are specific enough for AI to name 3-10 companies, not 50

   • ❌ "best online courses" — too vague, AI will list everyone
   • ✅ "best web development courses from scratch in the US — where do they actually teach?" — AI will name 5-7 relevant ones

3. DON'T contain brand names — neither yours nor competitors'

   • Prompts should be brand-agnostic. This lets you objectively measure who AI recommends on its own
   • Instead of "Stripe alternatives" → "which payment service should I connect for accepting payments on my website"

4. Contain context: industry, size, task

   • "programming courses" → bad
   • "Python courses for career changers with a mentor and job placement assistance" → good

Which Prompts DON'T Work

Avoid queries where AI responds with educational content rather than recommendations:

Four Types of Prompts

Not all prompts are created equal. Each cluster should contain four types of prompts:

Overall ratio: 50-60% commercial prompts. These are where AI most often recommends specific companies.

Situational prompts are the most valuable type. According to Profound, the average AI query contains 23 words: people describe their context in detail, unlike in Google.

Cluster and Prompt Examples by Industry

Below are five examples from different industries. For each, we show: clusters + a set of 6 prompts for one cluster.

Tour Operator

Clusters:

Prompts for the "Beach vacations for families with children" cluster:

1. "Which tour operator is best for a family beach vacation with kids?" (comparison)
2. "Best tour operators with all-inclusive packages and kids' entertainment" (comparison)
3. "Which tour operator should I book a family trip to Turkey through with a child?" (comparison)
4. "We're taking two kids to the beach for the first time — which operator should we book through so there are no problems?" (situational)
5. "Which tour operators are considered the most reliable for family vacations and why?" (research)
6. "Where to buy a beach vacation package for a family with a child departing from New York" (action)

Hosting Provider

Clusters:

Prompts for the "VPS for high-traffic web applications" cluster:

1. "Which VPS hosting should I choose for a high-traffic web application?" (comparison)
2. "Top VPS providers for production applications" (comparison)
3. "Which cloud provider is best for hosting microservices?" (comparison)
4. "My app is growing, current hosting can't handle the load — where should I migrate?" (situational)
5. "Which VPS providers are best for production workloads and how do they differ?" (research)
6. "Where to rent a VPS with guaranteed uptime and DDoS protection" (action)

Clothing Brand (D2C)

Clusters:

Prompts for the "Essential women's wardrobe from natural fabrics" cluster:

1. "Which brands make quality basic clothing from natural fabrics?" (comparison)
2. "Best everyday women's clothing brands using cotton and linen" (comparison)
3. "Which designers specialize in minimalist everyday clothing?" (comparison)
4. "I want to build a capsule wardrobe from natural fabrics — which brands should I look at?" (situational)
5. "Which basic clothing brands from natural fabrics are considered the best value for money?" (research)
6. "Where to buy women's basic clothing from organic cotton with nationwide delivery" (action)

Online School (EdTech)

Clusters:

Prompts for the "Online programming courses for beginners" cluster:

1. "Which online programming schools are best for complete beginners?" (comparison)
2. "Best web development courses from scratch — where do they actually teach, not just sell a diploma?" (comparison)
3. "Which online school should I choose to learn Python in six months and find a junior job?" (comparison)
4. "I'm 30, want to switch careers to programming — which course should I start with?" (situational)
5. "Which online programming schools have the best graduate reviews and real job placement?" (research)
6. "Where to sign up for an online programming course with a mentor and job placement guarantee" (action)

Payment System for Business

Clusters:

Prompts for the "Online payment processing for e-commerce" cluster:

1. "Which online payment processing service should I choose for an e-commerce store?" (comparison)
2. "Best payment systems for accepting website payments with fast setup" (comparison)
3. "Which payment aggregator offers the lowest fees for online stores?" (comparison)
4. "I'm launching an online store, need to connect card payments — which service do you recommend?" (situational)
5. "Which payment systems for online stores are considered the most reliable and why?" (research)
6. "Where to connect online payment processing for an e-commerce store with installment support" (action)

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1. Identify 3-5 Competitive Niches

List the main tasks clients come to you for. For each task, define the target audience. Each "audience + task" combination = a potential cluster. Niches should not overlap.

Step 2. Write 5-8 Prompts for Each Cluster

For each niche, formulate prompts with different intents using the table above. Prompt = a real customer question, 15-25 words, no brand names.

Step 3. Test Your Prompts

Before adding to monitoring, test each prompt:

1. Ask the prompt to ChatGPT or Gemini manually — AI should name 3-10 specific companies, not give general advice
2. Check specificity — if AI named more than 15 companies, the prompt is too broad. Add context (industry, size, city)
3. Check for duplicates — prompts in different clusters shouldn't produce identical answers
4. Ensure naturalness — read aloud. If it sounds like a Google search query rather than a question to a person — rephrase

Step 4. Add Geographic Context

If your business is tied to a region, add geography to 30-40% of prompts:

• "...in the US"
• "...in New York"
• "...for the American market"
• "...for a US-based business"

This helps AI give more relevant responses for your market. AI responses differ significantly by geography — the same prompt with "in the US" and without it will produce different company lists.

Step 5. Launch Monitoring and Iterate

After initial monitoring results:

• Prompts with 0% mention rate — check if competitors are mentioned. If yes — this is a growth point. If not — the prompt may be too niche
• Prompts with 90%+ mention rate — can be archived or replaced with more challenging ones
• Add new prompts as new products or services launch
• Review clusters every 1-2 months

Automatic Generation in GEO Scout

When you sign up for GEO Scout, you enter your website URL, and the system automatically:

1. Analyzes your site — parses content, finds service pages, identifies niches
2. Generates 3-5 clusters with descriptions, keywords, and competitive context
3. Creates 5-8 prompts per cluster — with proper intents and formulations
4. Classifies intents — automatically determines commercial, informational, or transactional

You can edit the results: remove irrelevant prompts, add your own, rename clusters. After saving, monitoring launches automatically — the system checks each prompt daily across 9 AI providers: ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview, Grok, Perplexity, and YandexGPT. Based on monitoring results, the Command Center automatically generates a prioritized action plan — which clusters need attention, where competitors are outpacing you, and what specifically to do to grow visibility.

Checklist

Before launching monitoring, verify:

• 3-5 clusters — each covers a separate competitive niche (task + audience)
• 5-8 prompts per cluster — with different intents (50-60% commercial)
• Prompts are specific — AI names 3-10 companies, not 50
• Prompts are long (15-25 words) — like a question to a person, not a Google query
• No brand names — neither yours nor competitors' (brand-agnostic)
• 30-40% of prompts include geography (if business is regional)
• No "educational" prompts — "what is," "how to set up," "how much does it cost"
• No duplicates across clusters
• Diverse formulations — don't repeat the same structure more than twice