If a competitor is talked about extra typically, cited extra regularly, or framed extra favorably in AI solutions, they win consideration and belief earlier than searchers even know you exist.
This information reveals you how you can run an AI search competitor evaluation that reveals:
- Which manufacturers in your {industry} dominate AI search as we speak
- The place your opponents earn visibility, however you don’t
- Which subjects, pages, and sources drive their benefit
- What to prioritize to shut the hole quick
It’s a step-by-step course of you may repeat quarterly, or each time a brand new competitor, mannequin replace, or inner precedence change (similar to if you launch a brand new product) hits your radar.
Need to flip this evaluation right into a report for stakeholders?
Obtain the AI Search Competitor Evaluation Report Template, a ready-made framework to doc visibility gaps, rating energy, and the place your opponents are profitable in AI search.
It consists of:
- A competitor SWOT evaluation for AI visibility
- A subject hole matrix to point out who owns which themes
- An motion plan part with precedence scores for stakeholders
Use the step-by-step course of on this information to fill it in with actual insights and switch uncooked knowledge into a transparent plan your crew can act on.
There are three major kinds of opponents you compete with for AI visibility:
- Those who AI mentions you alongside
- Those who AI cites as a supply as an alternative of you
- Those who your viewers compares to you when utilizing AI search
Yow will discover all three in Ahrefs’ Model Radar. For example, for those who enter your model, you need to use the AI recommend characteristic to listing different comparable manufacturers to yours:
These will sometimes be opponents you’re conscious of and that you just compete with for model mentions in AI responses.
If you happen to take a look at the Search queries report, you’ll be capable to discover the opponents that your viewers regularly compares you to. You’ll be able to filter the info by in search of queries that comprise your model and phrases with comparative intent, like “vs”:
For instance, Honda is a powerful competitor of Toyota’s that searchers regularly examine:
Different manufacturers which are generally in comparison with Toyota embody Nissan, Mazda, Ford, Lexus, Suzuki, and Subaru:
To search out opponents which are cited as sources, take a look at the Cited domains report.
As a rule, you’ll see normal websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, or social media within the prime spots. These websites are too massive and authoritative to check in opposition to in most circumstances.
However you’ll additionally spot different websites in your {industry} that get cited greater than your model. Typically they’ll be {industry} publications. Different instances, they’ll be direct opponents, like Ford, Nissan, and Honda, within the instance beneath:
Choose those that take advantage of sense on your evaluation or that your stakeholders care concerning the most.
After you finalize the listing of manufacturers and web sites to check on your competitor evaluation, you’ll must outline the entities you’d wish to obtain knowledge for. Entities are the core individuals, manufacturers, merchandise, and subjects that serps can uniquely establish and connect with your online business.
You are able to do this within the search bar by clicking the choice so as to add variations as you enter every model:
For a easy evaluation, add the primary model and its area:
Do that on your model and every of your opponents.
For a extra complete evaluation, you can too add all merchandise, sub-brands, and different owned web sites to those fields. This offers you deeper insights into every model’s visibility at an in depth stage.
For instance, for Honda, you can embody merchandise which are looked for immediately, such because the Honda CR-V, Honda Accord, and Honda Civic. You possibly can additionally add its domains like honda.com, international.honda and honda.com.au :
This can be a restricted instance to present you an concept of what you may add on your model and opponents. Take the time to fill these out fully for those who’re looking for a complete evaluation of every model.
Sidenote.
Bear in mind, for those who’re in a rush or your crew solely wants high-level visibility, hold it easy. Persist with the primary model and area solely and skip sub-entities for now.
When you’re achieved, save the report so it turns into a preset you may return to at any time to check adjustments in AI visibility:
It should then present up on the primary display screen of Model Radar alongside some other saved studies which you could all the time revisit sooner or later:
This completes the setup, and now you can begin benchmarking and analyzing the knowledge.
To begin benchmarking, take a look at the Overview report in Model Radar. Pay attention to how metrics like your model’s mentions, citations, impressions, and Share of Voice change throughout varied AI search platforms:
- Mentions: The variety of instances your model is talked about in AI responses.
- Citations: The variety of instances your model’s web site is cited as a supply in AI responses.
- Impressions: An estimation of publicity primarily based on how typically responses containing your model are proven in search outcomes.
- AI Share of Voice: How typically your model is talked about in AI responses in comparison with opponents.
You too can immediately examine your model to opponents for every AI search platform:
And likewise for every metric:
Hold a report of all these benchmark metrics so you may examine them in opposition to one another sooner or later.
When you’ve benchmarked the fundamental visibility metrics, it’s time to look deeper. In contrast to conventional website positioning metrics, AI visibility extends past measuring if you seem. How you present up is equally essential.
Open the AI Responses report in Model Radar to see how every of the manufacturers in your evaluation is talked about in AI-generated solutions.
Begin by hovering over one of many manufacturers and choosing the “Solely model” possibility:
You too can choose the opposite choices relying on what kind of research you wish to do:
- Solely model: This report will present you queries and AI solutions the place the one model talked about is the one you’ve chosen. It’s nice for assessing brand-specific queries and responses.
- With others: This report reveals queries and/or responses that comprise all of the manufacturers you’re evaluating. It’s nice for assessing subjects which are more likely to point out you alongside opponents.
- Others solely: This report reveals queries that solely point out the opposite manufacturers you’re evaluating in opposition to. It’s nice for locating subjects that point out your opponents however not you.
Search for frequent language patterns for every model and the way AI differentiates one model from one other:
For example, when evaluating Toyota and Honda, you may discover patterns, similar to Honda is usually talked about first, with attributes like affordability or compact automobiles being the preferred. Or that Toyota might seem second, framed round reliability and SUVs.
These variations improve your evaluation by offering a deeper understanding past top-level visibility. They present you (and stakeholders) every model’s positioning and perceived authority in AI solutions.
As you overview these responses, take note of parts like:
- Quantity of Mentions: Are you talked about roughly typically than your opponents throughout the subjects your viewers searches for?
- Placement Throughout the Response: Do you seem earlier than or after opponents? Which model will get the lion’s share of visibility within the response, higher capturing a searcher’s consideration?
- Depth of Protection: Are you summarized in a single line or described with detailed context like options, use circumstances, and advantages?
- Positioning and Framing: How does AI describe you (because the chief, an alternate, or simply another choice)?
- Sentiment: Does the language round your model really feel optimistic, impartial, or detrimental?
- Credibility: Does the response embody robust credibility cues round your model or a competitor’s (e.g., “industry-leading,” “award-winning”)?
Any such evaluation offers you the qualitative layer behind the numbers, displaying how AI fashions body, prioritize, and describe every model.
You’ll be able to go even deeper in your evaluation by evaluating every model’s subject possession.
Take a second to listing out the subjects or product classes that you want to your model to be seen as a pacesetter for. After getting an inventory, add them to the Market or area of interest search field in Model Radar:
It’s simpler to look these one at a time.
For every subject, take a look at the Overview > AI Share of voice metrics:
It’s value benchmarking your AI Share of Voice for every of the subjects you’d like to steer and the way you examine in opposition to different manufacturers in AI search.
You too can observe adjustments over time:
You too can take a look at the Matters report to check every model facet by facet for frequent themes and sub-topics:
For instance, you can uncover insights like:
- Irrelevant subjects to exclude with filters. For instance, queries about storage doorways could also be related to the subject of SUVs, but it surely’s unlikely any automobile model will earn significant mentions in these responses.
- Different opponents which are linked to the subject. For instance, searchers regularly join manufacturers like Honda, Lexus, Ford, and Tesla to SUVs. These could also be extra opponents to maintain an eye fixed on.
- Unbranded subjects to enhance your visibility for. For instance, Toyota is talked about in additional responses about “greatest SUVs,” whereas Honda is talked about extra for “compact SUVs”.
- Particular attributes linked to the subject. For instance, Honda might optimize its related merchandise to extend visibility for “MPG SUV” or “SUV for towing” queries.
To search out every model’s top-cited pages in AI search, take a look at the Cited Pages report and apply the area filter proper above the listing of pages:
Add your model first. Then verify every competitor separately to be able to extra simply see every model’s greatest pages.
If you happen to’re doing an in depth evaluation, add every of the opponents’ web sites that you just scoped out in Step 2 of this course of to see citations throughout all of them.
You too can check out completely different filter settings to concentrate on essentially the most related pages or broaden the scope to be sure to haven’t missed something.
For example, I like to make use of the Area scope setting, which robotically consists of the entered area and its subdomains. I additionally swap the and/or toggle to “OR” to broaden the outcomes of this evaluation.
Relying on how deep you wish to go, you can too alter the filters on the prime. For instance, say we wished to see Honda’s prime citations for unbranded queries solely, we might apply this filter:
When you’ve added all of the filters you need, you’ll be left with an inventory of the top-cited pages in AI responses for every model.
Collect this listing for every AI search platform you care about getting visibility for (like AI Overviews, ChatGPT and so forth).
Then, repeat for some other opponents.
When analyzing these lists, search for content material alternatives and gaps you may shut in your web site. For instance, your content material might have:
- A visibility hole: Your model seems much less typically than opponents in AI citations.
- A subject hole: A competitor covers a subject, and also you don’t. Create a brand new web page to shut the hole.
- A format hole: AI typically cites a specific kind of content material format (e.g., guides, movies, opinions) that you just’re lacking.
- A freshness hole: A competitor wrote concerning the subject extra just lately and will get extra visibility because of this.
To shut these gaps, you’ll probably must create new content material or replace current content material. Ahrefs’ AI Content material Helper may help with this. It analyzes your content material as you kind, permitting you to cowl important gaps.
The ultimate verify value doing is to research how your opponents are talked about across the internet. Model mentions in third-party content material are a powerful issue that influences visibility in AI responses.
As a rule, AI will cite another person’s content material (even for queries about your model) than yours.
So, it’s value checking which sources affect details about your model and opponents. In Model Radar, you may take a look at the Net pages report to seek out all mentions of any model on-line.
To search out gaps in internet mentions, I like to look every competitor individually in the primary search bar.
Then I take advantage of the filters within the Net pages report back to take away mentions on their very own web sites after which export the outcomes.
For example, you need to use “-site:yourcompetitor.com” to take away a competitor’s model mentions on their very own web site.
When you’ve eliminated irrelevant outcomes, export the listing so you may examine it in opposition to your model and different opponents in a spreadsheet. Check out this straightforward template. Add your exported knowledge to columns B–H, guaranteeing they’re aligned appropriately. Then manually fill within the model in column A.
Hold including every model’s export to the underside of the listing.
When you’ve added knowledge for a number of manufacturers, right here’s what the comparability view will look like:
The empty cells level to missed alternatives. Begin by scanning for posts or responses that spotlight a number of opponents however go away your model out; these are probably your quickest wins.
Subsequent, analyze how your opponents earned their most impactful mentions:
- Content material varieties: Are their mentions embedded in weblog posts, analysis studies, or case research? These codecs may be value replicating or focusing on in your outreach efforts.
- Publications and sources: Are the identical authors or web sites referencing them persistently? If that’s the case, they might be trusted voices in your house and appropriate candidates for outreach or collaboration.
- Marketing campaign triggers: Was the point out related to a product launch, viral put up, or a singular framework? Determine what sparked the eye to information your personal strategic strikes.
- Distribution ways: Visitor articles, joint content material, or associate campaigns may be amplifying their presence.
Reverse engineering what’s working on your opponents helps you shut visibility gaps, perceive which ways really transfer the needle in your class, and how you can make them work on your model.
By this level, your competitor evaluation will reveal how every model performs throughout AI search; who dominates visibility, who’s catching up, and the place you’ve got room to maneuver. The ultimate step is packaging these findings right into a story your crew can act on.
Begin by translating your observations into clear, actionable priorities:
- Repair: Shut visibility or notion gaps in comparison with opponents. These value you model authority in AI responses, typically as a consequence of inaccurate descriptions, lacking model knowledge, or underperforming subjects.
- Construct: Strengthen content material and topical protection the place opponents lead. Create or replace pages that align with the codecs and attributes AI rewards most.
- Affect: Strengthen relationships with publications, creators, and knowledge sources that regularly feed AI solutions in your class and point out opponents greater than you.
Then, summarize your findings in a stakeholder-ready report. Obtain our AI Search Competitor Evaluation Report template for those who don’t have already got one.
Change all of the pink sections and summarize your key findings in scorecards and fast snapshots of key factors.
Additionally, it’s value making competitor monitoring a recurring workflow.
Run the identical evaluation month-to-month or quarterly to measure how share of voice and model framing evolve throughout AI fashions and markets.
AI search adjustments quick, and common benchmarking turns your one-off examine into an ongoing strategic benefit.
Last ideas
An AI search competitor evaluation goes past measuring who’s profitable visibility by explaining why they’re profitable.
By combining quantitative knowledge (mentions, citations, impressions, share of voice) with qualitative context (framing, sentiment, credibility), you may pinpoint the levers that affect AI notion on your model in contrast with opponents.
Over time, these insights make it easier to refine positioning, content material technique, and digital PR, not only for Google, however for each AI system deciphering your model.
