0:00Introduction
Lesson 2.4: competitors and citation share.
0:05Your competitors in AI
In AI answers, your competitors aren't always the ones you think. There are the direct ones, who sell what you sell. But often the winners are directories, comparison sites, media and marketplaces.
0:19Who wins instead of you
Let's go back to video-burst.com, still at its baseline. Its strongest competitor isn't another production company: it's clutch.co, a directory of agencies, which beats it on 16 of the 49 questions. Of the five names cited most often in its place, three are directories, not production companies. And they win with category pages, like video production Michigan. When your page doesn't answer, the engines cite the list you appear on.
0:49Citation share
To compare yourself over time, use citation share: out of all the answers, how many are yours? Count the answers you appear in, and divide by the number of questions times the number of engines. Use the same formula for every competitor: that way you see who's gaining ground, and who's losing it. The worksheet has a ready-made tab for this, with one row per competitor.
1:13Study the winning page
Then open the winning page, and ask: what does it have that mine doesn't? Is the answer up front, or three paragraphs down? Are the facts there: prices, areas, services, timelines? What's the structure like: headings, lists, comparison tables? And what about trust: reviews, authors, sources? Is it up to date? That gives you your list: three things to do, for each competitor.
1:39What to do
Then, two paths to take together. A page that answers better than the directory, with your facts: services, prices, area, how long you've been in business, and your customers' questions with the answers. And your presence on the directory that wins, with a complete, consistent listing. We'll cover that in Module 8.
2:00Your task for today
Your task for today: from your audit, take the three names that win most often. Work out their citation share, and yours. And for each one, in the Competitors tab, write down the winning page and three things to do.
2:28Next lesson
Module 2 is done. In Module 3, we'll check that AI bots can read your site. See you there.