Research competitors

Competitors compares you with the competitors you track: how often AI answers to your buyer questions name and cite each of you, and what each domain ranks for in Google. Open Strategy in the sidebar, then the Competitors tab.

Opening the page or a competitor shows results already stored. These buttons fetch new data:

• Look up in the lookup dialog
• Refresh on a list row or on a competitor's page
• Load top pages
• Keywords on a row of Top pages
• Suggest competitors and Suggest again

Nothing is looked up when you open the page. Once a month, Mark refreshes the search numbers for your sites and every competitor you track, for each of your markets.

To see who links to your own site, see Check your backlinks.

How you compare

The page opens with a How you compare card for one market at a time. When you have more than one market, pick it in the Market menu in the card's header, next to Look up a competitor.

The card starts with four tiles: Named by AI, Cited by AI, ChatGPT share, and AI Overview share. Each shows your number, and under it the tracked competitor that does best on that metric. The label says how you stand: Top competitor when they're ahead of you, Tied with when you're level, or Closest competitor when you're ahead. Point at the info icon next to a tile's name to see what it counts.

Scorecard

The scorecard table follows the tiles, in the same card.

The rows come in three parts:

• Your sites sit on top, shaded, with a You badge under the domain. A site that hasn't been looked up in this market yet says Checking soon until the monthly refresh reaches it.
• Tracked lists the competitors you've starred, with how many of 50 you track.
• Other lookups lists every other domain you've looked up in this market, and every competitor you stopped tracking, even one you never looked up.

A competitor's row shows its name, with the domain under it.

Point at the info icon next to a column header to see what it means:

• Named by AI: how often this week's AI answers to your buyer questions name the brand.
• Cited by AI: how often this week's AI answers link to the brand's site.
• ChatGPT share and AI Overview share: the brand's share of mentions among you and your tracked competitors last month. See Share of AI mentions.
• Traffic: estimated monthly visits from organic search in this market.
• Keywords: keywords the domain ranks for on Google in this market.
• Checked: when the search numbers were last updated. A lookup over 30 days old shows Refresh next to its date.

Point at a percentage to see what it counts, like "31 of 96 answers · week of Sep 22". These rates cover your own buyer questions, not the whole market. An answer an engine didn't give, such as a question with no AI Overview, isn't counted in any rate. A dash means there's nothing to count yet; point at it to see why, like "No answers yet". Your brand's AI numbers show once, on your primary site's row.

Select a column header to sort by it. Select a row to open that domain's page.

Track competitors

Select the star next to a domain to track it, and select it again to stop. You can track up to 50 competitors. At 50, the empty stars are turned off; unstar one to add another. You can't track one of your own sites.

A tracked competitor shows in AI answer numbers from the week it was already checked, because Mark matches stored answers when you open the page. When you stop tracking a competitor, it moves to Other lookups in every market, even if you never looked it up, and its history stays until you remove it from the list. Star it again to bring it back.

To clear a domain out of Other lookups, select the ⋯ menu at the end of its row, then Remove from list, and confirm. It's removed from every market, along with its stored lookups. Looking it up again is a new paid lookup, and starring it again starts it fresh, under its default name. Only Other lookups rows have this menu: unstar a tracked competitor first.

Mark looks for a competitor in AI answers by its name, which starts as the domain's name ("plantprefab.com" becomes "Plantprefab"), and by its Also named names. Add these when AI answers shorten or vary the name, like "Casita" for "Casita Builders". To change either, open the competitor, select the pencil next to its name, and type up to 5 other names separated by commas. An answer that uses the name or any of them counts as naming the competitor, in past weeks' answers too. Case doesn't matter, but the whole word does: "Casita" doesn't match "Casitas". A short name like "ADU" can match answers that aren't about the competitor. Clear the field to go back to the name alone.

Draft comparison pages

People who search a competitor's name plus "alternative" or "pricing" are often close to buying. Mark drafts two kinds of page for a tracked competitor:

• Vs page: "Your business vs Acme", who each one fits, why people look for an Acme alternative, and the differences that matter. This one page also answers "Acme alternative" searches, so Mark doesn't draft a separate alternative page that would compete with it for the same searches.
• Pricing page: "Acme pricing", what Acme charges plan by plan, and how you compare.

To draft one, open a tracked competitor and select Draft page, then the kind. Drafting takes up to a minute, then the draft opens in the post editor. A kind that already has a post shows its status in the menu, like Draft or In review, and selecting it opens that post instead of drafting a second one. An archived post doesn't count, so the kind can be drafted again. A domain you don't track has no Draft page menu.

Below How you compare, the Next comparison page card suggests one page to write next, with a Draft page button. It picks the tracked competitor that AI answers name most often instead of you, then the one that ranks for the most keywords. Its vs page comes first, then its pricing page once you've added its prices. The card hides when every tracked competitor has its pages.

Where the facts come from

Mark writes each draft from what it already knows about the competitor:

• Prices from your price claims whose source is a page on the competitor's site.
• This week's AI answers that named the competitor and not you.
• The keywords the competitor ranks for, from its newest lookup.

Every fact about the competitor gets a number in brackets, like [2]. Mark adds a Sources section at the end that lists each number with its web address or the Mark data it came from, and the date it was checked. The draft never states a competitor fact Mark has no source for. It writes [confirm: …] instead, like [confirm: Acme Pro price], for you to check and fill in.

Add a competitor's prices

A pricing page states a competitor's prices only from a price claim whose source links to their site. Without one, every price on the page is a [confirm: …]. To add one, open Strategy > Claims & sources and select Add claim:

• Claim: the price as the page should state it, like "Acme Pro costs $49 a month."
• Category: Price.
• Source: New source, with their pricing page's text in Pasted notes and its address in Link, like https://acme.com/pricing.
• Quote from the source: the price as their page words it.

See Add a claim. The day you add the source is the checked date in Sources, so add a fresh source when their prices change.

No tables

A comparison table scrolls sideways on a phone, so drafts use headings, short lists, and one block per plan instead. A competitor page with a markdown table can't be submitted.

Review and publish

A draft is a normal competitor page post. Mark never submits, approves, or publishes it on its own. Fill in each [confirm: …] with a checked fact, or cut it, then submit it for review: the content checks refuse a competitor page that still has a [confirm: …], a table, or a price or percentage no active claim states. Once it's approved, it reaches your website the same way as any competitor page. See Publish to your website.

Mark won't draft a page about a competitor whose name or domain is on your content exclusions; it shows the exclusion's reason instead, and the Next comparison page card skips that competitor. If a draft comes back using a phrase set to Block, Mark saves nothing and asks you to try again.

An AI assistant connected to Mark can draft the same pages with draft_competitor_page. See Tool reference.

Suggest competitors

Suggested competitors, below How you compare and beside Next comparison page, lists the sites that rank for the most of the same Google keywords as one of your sites, in the market the scorecard shows. When you have more than one site, pick it in the For menu.

Select Suggest competitors to fetch the list. Mark keeps it, so the list shows the next time you open the page. The info icon next to the card's title says what the list is and the date it was fetched. Select Suggest again to fetch a fresh list; it replaces the old one. If the fetch fails, the old list stays and a line under the button says so.

The list shows up to 20 sites, most shared keywords first:

• Shared keywords: keywords both sites rank for on Google in this market.
• Est. monthly traffic: estimated monthly visits from organic search in this market.

It leaves out your own sites, search engines, marketplaces, social, review, and directory sites, and government and school sites. A site that ranks for your keywords isn't always a competitor, so star only the ones that sell what you sell. Select the star to track one; a site you already track shows a filled star and Tracking. Select a domain to open its lookup, or the lookup dialog with the domain filled in when it hasn't been looked up.

Cited in AI answers

Under the keyword list, Cited in AI answers lists up to five third-party sites that the latest weekly AI answer check in this market cited most. It needs no fetch: it reads the stored check. Answers counts the answers that cited each site and Questions the buyer questions behind them.

Not every cited site is a competitor, so star only the ones that sell what you sell. The list leaves out your own sites, competitors you track or stopped tracking, .gov and .edu sites, and search engines, marketplaces, app stores, review, directory, reference, social, video, forum, and code-hosting sites. The list shows only when the scorecard's market is one of your Strategy > Markets with a finished check.

Share of AI mentions

ChatGPT share and AI Overview share come from a monthly sample of prompts people put to ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, not from your own buyer questions. Each cell is the brand's share of mentions among you and your tracked competitors. Point at a percentage to see the month and the number of mentions.

Before it shows a share, Mark checks that the sample has enough prompts about your keywords in that market. When it doesn't, the cell says Low data. ChatGPT data covers the United States in English only, so other markets say US only. A dash means the share hasn't been measured yet, or that the market has no saved keywords to check against.

Look up a competitor

1. Select Look up a competitor in the How you compare card's header.
2. Enter a domain like example.com in Domain, or paste a URL. The line under the box shows the domain Mark will look up.
3. Keep or change Location and Language. They start on your first active market's location and language from Set up your strategy, or on United States and English when no market has them set.
4. Select Look up.

More options holds two optional fields. Rank by sorts the keywords by Traffic, Search volume, or Position. Keyword contains keeps only keywords with that word in them.

When the lookup finishes, the competitor's page opens and the domain joins the list.

Read a competitor's page

The top of the page shows the star, the competitor's name and domain, and its Also named names if it has any. Under them are its market and "Checked" with the date of the lookup. The info icon next to the date says search data updates about monthly. Select Refresh to run the same lookup again. Select ← Competitors to go back to the list.

A competitor's page opens even when it hasn't been looked up, such as a competitor an AI assistant tracked for you. It shows the star, the name, the domain, and the market, and says it has no search numbers in that market yet. Select Look up to open the lookup dialog with the domain and market filled in. Nothing is looked up until you do, so the page has no Refresh, no "Checked" date, and no Keywords or Top pages tabs.

AI answers

A tracked competitor's page starts with an AI answers card for this week's answers to your buyer questions in that market. A domain you don't track says "Star to compare with you in AI answers" instead.

• By engine shows, for ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overview, AI Mode, Claude, and Perplexity, how often answers named and cited the competitor and how often they named and cited you. Claude and Perplexity are asked through their APIs, not their apps.
• Named, not you lists the buyer questions where an AI named the competitor and no AI named you. Select a question to read the stored answers and the sites they cite.
• Cited, not you lists the sites AI linked to in answers that cited the competitor and none of your sites, with how many answers linked each one. Select a site to read those answers.

Each list shows five rows at a time; use the page numbers under it for the rest. Select a column header to sort.

Three cards sit at the top:

• Estimated organic traffic: estimated visits per month from Google.
• Organic keywords: how many keywords the domain ranks for, with counts of new, lost, up, and down.
• Position spread: a bar chart of ranked keywords by Google position, so it shows how many rank near the top and how many sit further down.

Below the cards are two tabs: Keywords and Top pages.

Keywords

Keywords lists up to 100 of the domain's ranked keywords:

• Position is where the domain ranks in Google for the keyword.
• Traffic is the estimated monthly visits this ranking brings the domain.
• Volume is how many people search for the keyword each month.
• Difficulty is how hard it is to reach the top 10, from 0 to 100. Under 30 is easy, 70 and up is hard. The score is colored to match.
• URL is the domain's page that ranks.

The keywords that bring the domain the most traffic come first. Select a column header to sort by it instead. Type in Search keywords to narrow the list. The count below the table shows how many keywords match. The table shows 25 keywords a page; pick more under Rows per page.

Save keywords

Rows already saved for the competitor's market show a Saved badge.

1. Select the box next to each keyword you want, or the box above the table to select all.
2. Select Save to your keywords in the bar at the bottom.

A line confirms how many were newly saved and how many were already saved. Find them under Research > Keywords > Your keywords, where new ones show Competitor lookup as their source.

Top pages

Top pages lists the domain's pages by estimated traffic. It starts empty.

1. Optionally enter part of a URL in URL contains, like /blog, to see only matching pages.
2. Select Load top pages.

Each page shows Est. traffic and Ranked keywords, the number of keywords it ranks for. Select a column header to sort. Type in Search pages above the table to narrow the pages already loaded.

Each row has two buttons:

• Show in table switches to Keywords and shows only that page's keywords from the top 100, with no new lookup. Select Show all to see every keyword again.
• Keywords looks up that page's own ranked keywords and opens them in a panel, by traffic. Rows already saved show Saved.