# Competitors

> See which brands AI names alongside you, compare yourself with them prompt by prompt, keep a watchlist and fix merged competitor names.

Source: https://ranqo.ai/docs/guides/competitors

The Competitors page ranks the brands AI engines name alongside you in the answers to your tracked prompts, by visibility: the share of those answers that name each brand. Open it from **Competitors** in the Monitor section of the sidebar. Four cards sit above three tabs: **Overview**, the ranking of every brand; **Head-to-head**, you against one rival; and **Watchlist**, the rivals you follow and the ones on the move.

![The Competitors page: your rank, Share of Voice, #1 rank rate and tracked competitors, then the ranking table with visibility on each engine.](https://ranqo.ai/docs/screens/competitors.webp)

## Detected and tracked competitors

Ranqo finds competitors for you. Every brand an engine names in an answer to one of your prompts is detected, up to 20 per answer, with no setup. Those detected brands fill the rankings on this page and on the Visibility page.

Your **watchlist** is the set of competitors you choose to follow closely. Tracking a competitor:

- keeps it in the rankings and in Share of Voice even when AI names it only once;
- lists it under **Watching** on the Watchlist tab, even in a range where AI does not name it at all;
- puts it first in the rival picker in Head-to-head;
- adds it to the competitor chips on the Visibility trend chart, so you can plot its line next to yours.

Add a competitor to the watchlist with the box at the end of its row in the Overview table, the eye at the end of its row on the Watchlist tab, or **Watch** beside the rival picker in Head-to-head. To follow a brand AI has not named in these answers, search for it on the Watchlist tab and press **Watch** followed by its name. A message confirms each change from the Watchlist and Head-to-head tabs, with **Undo**. Untick the box, or press the eye or **Watching** again, to stop following a competitor. Removing a competitor from the watchlist does not remove its mentions from your data.

### Which competitors count

Some names in AI answers are noise: a brand mentioned once, with no website, that may not exist. A detected competitor appears in the rankings and counts toward Share of Voice when AI named it more than once in the window, or gave a valid website for it. A competitor on your watchlist always counts. See [Share of Voice](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/share-of-voice).

## Filters

The page has the same filters as the Visibility page: **All Platforms**, **All Locations**, **All Categories**, **All Themes** (when your prompts span two or more themes), **All Prompts** / **Branded** / **Unbranded**, and the date range.

- The page reads the last 7, 30 or 90 days. **Last 365 days** reads the last 90 days, and a custom range reads a window ending today, not the dates you picked: 7 days for a range of up to 14 days, 30 days for up to 60, and 90 days for anything longer. See [Time zones](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/time-zones#how-each-page-reads-a-date-range).
- The four cards and all three tabs apply every filter, except the pages card in Head-to-head, which follows Outreach's own window.

When the window holds no run, the four cards and the three tabs show the last completed run, and an **As of** note next to the date picker gives its date. Changes against the previous window are not shown then. See [Carried values](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/carried-values).

## The four cards

- **Your Rank** (*Where you place overall*): your position among all qualifying brands by visibility, for example *#3 of 18*. The arrow beside it is your change in visibility against the previous window, in points, though it is printed with a % sign.
- **Share of Voice** (*Your slice vs competitors*): your share of every qualified brand mention.
- **#1 Rank Rate** (*How often you rank first*): the share of all answers, across prompts and engines, where you are named first. Answers that do not name you count against it.
- **Tracked Competitors** (*On your watchlist*): how many competitors you follow.

## Overview tab

The table titled with your brand's name, such as **Acme's Competitors**, ranks every qualifying brand, with **Visibility**, **Position**, **Sentiment**, **Mentions** and **SoV** (Share of Voice), then one column per engine. A search box finds a brand by name.

Click a row to open that competitor's detail:

- its logo, a link to its website, its rank and mention count, and a **Tracked** badge if it is on your watchlist;
- **Visibility**, **Position**, **Sentiment** and **Share of Voice** for that competitor;
- its trend over the window when there are at least two runs to plot;
- **All Queries**: the prompts in the window, with the date, the engines asked, how many of them named the competitor and its average position.

## Head-to-head tab

**Head-to-head** compares you with one rival. **You vs** and the rival picker sit at the top, with **Watch** or **Watching** beside them. The tab opens on your top rival. The picker lists the competitors on your watchlist first, then the most visible, each with its visibility, and its search finds any brand named in these answers.

When a link opens a rival that your filters exclude, a notice says so, with **Clear filters** or **Compare with** your top rival.

### The matchup

The first card opens with a headline such as *Acme beats you on 6 of 20 prompts*. Under it, a strip shows every prompt, one block each (a single bar when you track more than 50): **You ahead**, **Even**, the rival **ahead** and, when there are any, prompts where **Neither** of you is named. Hover the rival's entry to see how many it was named instead of you on and how many it was ranked above you on.

- **Your figures beside theirs:** **Visibility**, **Position**, **Share of voice** and **Sentiment**, you on the left and the rival on the right, each with a bar where the figure is a share, and the better of each in bold. Visibility and position show their change on the previous window when they moved.
- **Answers that name you or the rival:** one bar of every such answer, split into those naming only you, both of you, and only the rival. The part that names you both opens into **When AI names you both**: how many of those answers put you first, how many put the rival first, and how many are **Even** (the same place, or one of you named without a place).
- **By engine:** when you track more than one engine, the foot of the card gives each engine's visibility for both of you.

These figures come from the same ranking as the Overview table, so the matchup agrees with the rival's row there.

A prompt counts as one the rival beats you on when, on at least one engine, the latest answer in the window named the rival and not you, or placed it above you. It reads each engine's latest answer, so it describes where things stand now, while **Visibility** counts every answer in the window.

### Where the rival beats you

The card titled with the rival's name, such as **Where Acme beats you**, lists your prompts one by one, each engine read from its latest answer in the window. Prompts where neither of you is named are left out, and the footer counts them.

- **The chips:** the rival's name followed by **ahead** (the default), **Even**, **You ahead** and **All**. A prompt is ahead for the rival when, on any engine, the latest answer named the rival and not you or placed it above you. It is even when no engine does that but on some engine you share a place, or one of you has none. You are ahead when, on every engine that names either of you, you are named alone or placed higher.
- **The line under each prompt** names the engines, for example *Named instead of you on ChatGPT* or *Ranked above you on Gemini (#1 vs #3)*. Outside the ahead view it also names where you lead.
- **The two engine columns**, yours and the rival's, show one mark per engine: in colour where the latest answer named that brand, dimmed where it did not. Hover your marks for your place.
- **A row** opens the prompt's insights page, where you can read the answers. The **⋯** menu offers **Open prompt insights** and **Write a post for this prompt**, which opens Generate Blog with the prompt as the title.

The footer repeats how many prompts the rival beats you on. When there are any, **Counter-content ideas** opens [Blog Ideas](https://ranqo.ai/docs/guides/blog-ideas) filtered to **Competitor counter** ideas.

### Pages AI cites for the rival, not you

The last card lists pages and threads AI cited in answers that named the rival and left you out, taken from your [Outreach](https://ranqo.ai/docs/guides/outreach) list. Getting mentioned on them gives AI a reason to name you too.

- Each row shows the page or thread, its site or subreddit, how many such answers it appeared in, and its play (comment, post or pitch), with **Working** once you have started it. Click a row to open it in Outreach; **See all in Outreach** opens the whole list.
- Only open targets are listed: those still to do or in progress.
- It follows Outreach's own window, the 90 days before Outreach last refreshed, and a page counts for a rival only when the rival is among the brands most often named alongside it. Your filters and date range do not apply to it.
- Until Outreach has built its list, the card says *Outreach builds this list after your next run.*

## Watchlist tab

The **Watchlist** tab lists the rivals you follow, each against you. Two chips choose the list:

- **Watching** (the default): every competitor on your watchlist, including any AI did not name in these answers, which show *Not named in these answers*. With none, it offers **Watch the top 3** and a way back to the Overview table.
- **New & rising**: the brands marked **New** or **Rising**. It appears when the previous window holds answers.

Your own row, marked **You**, sits among them in its ranked place, so each rival reads against you.

| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Rank | The brand's place in the full ranking, the same place the Overview table gives it. |
| Brand | Its logo and name. **New** marks a brand the previous window did not name at all and that is visible enough now to be more than a passing name. **Rising** marks a brand whose visibility rose by more than 15 points on the previous window, the ordinary movement between two runs. Hover either marker for the reason. |
| Visibility | The share of answers that name the brand, weighted by engine, with its change in points. Hover for how many answers name it and its visibility on each engine. |
| Position | Where AI places the brand when it names it, on average. Lower is better. |
| Beats you on | The prompts where this rival beats you, out of every prompt with an answer in the window, such as *6/20*. Hover to see how many it was named instead of you on and how many it was ranked above you on. |
| Watch | The eye: stop watching the brand, or watch one found by search. |

Click **Visibility**, **Position** or **Beats you on** to sort by it, and again to reverse. Click a row to open that rival in Head-to-head.

**Find a brand to watch** searches every brand AI named in these answers, so you can watch one that is not on your list yet. When AI has not named it, **Watch** followed by the name adds it anyway. The footer counts the brands you watch and every brand in the answers.

## Merged names and how to separate them

AI engines spell the same company in different ways: a short name, a legal name, a product name. Ranqo groups those spellings under one competitor, so its mentions are not split across three rows. The decision is made once per brand and remembered, so the same pair does not merge one week and split the next. See [Competitor identity](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/competitor-identity).

When a competitor's detail or Head-to-head shows **Also named as**, those are the spellings counted in its row, each with its own count. If one of them is a different company:

### 1. Open the competitor
Click its row in the Overview table, or choose it in the rival picker in Head-to-head.

### 2. Separate the spelling
Press the **×** on the spelling's chip. A message confirms it will no longer be counted as part of this competitor, with **Undo**.

### 3. Group it back if needed
While a separated spelling is still listed, it shows struck through with an undo arrow. Press the arrow to count it as part of the competitor again, or use **Undo** on the message.

A separation is remembered. Later runs do not merge the two names again, in either direction.

## Why some logos are a letter

A competitor's website is never in the AI answer itself, so Ranqo works it out from evidence: the website stored for a competitor you track, the site AI reported for it, the pages AI cited and, on some pages, a search of a logo directory by name, each checked against the competitor's name. When no website is confirmed, the logo shows the first letter of the name. Ranqo does not guess a domain from the name, because a guessed domain often belongs to a different company, and a wrong logo is worse than none. See [Competitor identity](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/competitor-identity).

## Related

- [Share of Voice](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/share-of-voice): The formula and which competitors count.
- [Competitor identity](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/competitor-identity): How names are merged and websites resolved.
- [Outreach](https://ranqo.ai/docs/guides/outreach): The pages and threads worth getting mentioned on.