VisibilityPaidNot scored

Competitor Comparison

Not currently scored, pending redesign (T-150). This guide explains how AI citation rate compares against competitor URLs for the same queries, and what we will measure when the check returns.

This factor is not currently scored

We took this check out of the scoring engine because its results were misleading, so it does not affect your GEO score today and does not appear in your report. The guide below explains what we plan to measure once the redesigned check ships (T-150).

Why It Matters for AI Visibility

**This factor is not currently scored.** We pulled it out of the scoring engine because its results were misleading, so it contributes nothing to your GEO score today and does not appear in your report. A redesigned version is tracked as T-150. Everything below describes the competitive picture the check is meant to give you, and what we will measure once it returns. Your GEO score does not exist in a vacuum. When a user asks ChatGPT "What is the best project management tool?", the AI engine chooses which brands to mention based on relative authority -- not absolute quality. If three competitors are cited in every response and your brand appears in none, you have an AI visibility gap that directly costs you traffic and consideration. The idea behind this factor is to measure your citation rate against actual competitors: identify a handful of competitor domains, generate relevant queries, and check both ChatGPT and Perplexity for brand mentions. The result would be a head-to-head comparison: how often do AI engines mention you versus your competitors for the same queries? The competitive framing matters because AI citation is a zero-sum game for attention. Perplexity typically mentions 3-5 sources per response. Google AI Overviews cite a handful of pages. If competitors consistently outperform you in AI mentions, they capture the AI-driven discovery that should be going to your brand. Understanding this gap is the first step to closing it.

How We Score It

**We do not score this factor right now.** It contributes zero weight to your GEO score, and no competitor comparison appears in the free results or in the paid report. The retired version picked competitor domains out of the external links on your page, which turned out to be a poor proxy: an article that cites a research lab or links to a partner was treated as competing with it, and a page with no outbound links got a flat neutral result. Because the inputs were wrong, the outperform rate it reported was wrong too, so we removed it rather than keep publishing a number nobody could act on. T-150 covers the redesign. The replacement will take competitors as an explicit input instead of guessing them from links, and it will report the underlying per-query mentions alongside any headline number so you can check the comparison yourself. Until that ships, use the ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview citation checks for your own pages, and run competitor URLs through the analyzer separately to compare factor by factor.

Category weight: 15% of the score depending on page type. See how the overall score is calculated

See how your site scores on this factorAnalyze My Site

How to Improve

  • 1

    Audit what competitors are doing that you are not

    Run competitor pages through a GEO analyzer and compare factor scores. Look for gaps in schema markup, content structure, and authority signals. If a competitor has FAQPage schema, definition statements, and five quality external citations and you have none of these, that explains the citation gap.

  • 2

    Build deeper topical authority than your competitors

    AI engines cite the most authoritative source on a topic. Publish comprehensive, expert-level content that covers your core topics more thoroughly than competitor pages. Original research, unique data, and in-depth guides build the kind of authority that AI models learn to reference.

  • 3

    Improve your technical accessibility for AI crawlers

    If competitors allow GPTBot and ClaudeBot in their robots.txt and you block them, they will be indexed and you will not. Check your Crawl Trust score and ensure all major AI crawlers can access your content. Technical accessibility is a prerequisite for any AI citation.

  • 4

    Create content that directly addresses comparison queries

    Users frequently ask AI engines to compare products. Create dedicated comparison pages, feature tables, and "alternatives to" content that positions your brand alongside competitors. When Perplexity answers "X vs Y," it needs pages that explicitly make this comparison.

  • 5

    Get cited by third-party authoritative sources

    When publications like TechCrunch, industry reports, or academic papers mention your brand, those references feed into AI training data. Pursue press coverage, analyst reports, and guest publications that build external authority signals AI engines rely on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this factor part of my score?

No. It is switched off in the scoring engine, so it carries no weight and does not appear in the free results or the paid report. Every other factor is scored as normal.

Why was it turned off?

The retired version guessed your competitors from the external links on your page, which produced comparisons against sources you were citing rather than rivals you compete with, and a flat neutral result for any page with no outbound links. A number built on the wrong inputs is worse than no number, so we removed it. T-150 tracks the redesign.

How can I compare myself against competitors in the meantime?

Run each competitor URL through the analyzer and compare the factor scores side by side, and use the ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview citation checks on your own pages to see where you are cited today.

Does outperforming competitors on AI citations mean I rank better in traditional search?

Not necessarily. AI citation rates measure how often AI engines mention your brand when answering relevant questions. This is a separate signal from traditional search rankings. You could rank first on Google but be outperformed by a competitor in ChatGPT responses if their content is more authoritative or structured for AI extraction.

Related Factors

Visibility

ChatGPT Citation Check

Visibility

Perplexity Citation Check

Visibility

Google AI Overview Checker

Check Your GEO Score

Run a free analysis on your website and see how you score across all 51 factors.

Analyze My Site