# Source and article types

> How Ranqo sorts every cited site by its relationship to you, from your own site to competitors, editorial and forums, and every cited page by format.

Source: https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/source-and-article-types

Every [citation](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/citations) gets two labels. The **source type** says who the site is in relation to you: your own site, a competitor, a publication, a forum. The **content type** says what kind of page was cited: a ranked list, a comparison, a how-to guide. Together they tell you where AI reads in your category and what format it prefers.

## Source types

| Source type | What it covers |
| --- | --- |
| You | Your own website and its subdomains, plus any other domain added to your brand. |
| Competitor | A site that belongs to a tracked competitor or one AI names in your answers. |
| Company sites | Company and vendor sites in your space that are not competitors. The broad catch-all. |
| Editorial | News sites, media outlets, publications and industry blogs. |
| Forum | Forums and question-and-answer communities. |
| Review | Product review and comparison sites, directories and aggregators. |
| Social | Social networks. |
| Video | Video platforms. |
| Reference | Encyclopedias, knowledge bases, documentation and educational sites. |
| Institutional | Academic and government sites. |
| Other | Sites that could not be categorised. |

### How a site's type is decided

Two types are decided by rule, every time the page loads, so they always reflect your current setup:

- **You** is your brand's domain, any subdomain of it, and any domain your brand owns that has been added to it. See [Citations](https://ranqo.ai/docs/methodology/citations).
- **Competitor** is a site that belongs to one of your competitors: the ones you track and the ones AI names in your answers. Ranqo works out each competitor's real website from the evidence in your answers, so a competitor whose site is not simply its name followed by `.com` is still recognised. A site whose name matches a tracked competitor also counts. Add a competitor and its site is re-labelled the next time the page loads.

Every other site is classified by a model the first time it needs a type, usually during the run that cites it. The model reads the domain alongside your brand, your category and your competitors, and the result is kept and reused. It follows a few rules worth knowing:

- A site whose main purpose is publishing articles, guides or tutorials is **Editorial**, even if a software company owns it.
- A site that lists or compares products is **Review**.
- **Company sites** is kept for sites that are mainly a product or service, not a publisher.

Where a site has no model classification, Ranqo falls back to rules: a list of well-known sites, academic and government domain endings for **Institutional**, `docs.`, `developer.` and `api.` subdomains for **Reference**, `blog.`, `news.`, `insights.` and `resources.` subdomains or a site name that suggests publishing for **Editorial**, and **Company sites** for any other real domain.

### Where you see source types

- **Sources page:** the Source Types ring on the Domains tab, which switches between counting citations and counting domains, the Source column on the URLs tab, and the **All Source Types** filter on both. See [Sources](https://ranqo.ai/docs/guides/sources).
- **Visibility page:** the Source Types ring in the Top Citation Sources card.

## Content types

Each cited page is given a content type from its address and its title:

| Content type | Typical signals |
| --- | --- |
| Ranked List | "best tools for", "top 10", "10 best" |
| Alternatives | "alternatives to", "instead of", "replacement" |
| Comparison | "vs", "versus", "compare", "difference between" |
| Review | "review", "ratings", "hands-on", "pros and cons" |
| How-to Guide | "how to", "tutorial", "step by step", "getting started" |
| Guide | "what is", "complete guide", "explained", "overview" |
| Case Study | "case study", "success story" |
| Checklist | "checklist", "audit", "scorecard" |
| Research | "research", "report", "study", "survey", "statistics" |
| Documentation | a `/docs`, `/help`, `/api` or `/kb` path, or a `docs.` or `developer.` site |
| Product Page | a `/pricing`, `/features`, `/product` or shop path |
| Blog Post | a `/blog`, `/articles` or `/news` path |
| Video | a video site or a `/watch` path |
| Homepage | the site's front page |
| Other | none of the above |

### How a page's type is decided

The checks run in a fixed order and the first match wins. What a page is for comes before where it lives:

1. What the page is for, in English: Ranked List, Alternatives, Comparison, Review, How-to Guide, Guide, Case Study, Checklist, Research.
2. The same four buying formats in the other languages Ranqo supports: Ranked List, Alternatives, Comparison and Review.
3. Where the page lives: Documentation, Product Page, Blog Post.
4. Video, then a documentation site such as `docs.` or `developer.`, then Homepage, then Other.

So a blog post titled "10 best CRMs for startups" is a Ranked List, not a Blog Post, and a YouTube tutorial titled "How to set up..." is a How-to Guide, not a Video.

A page is typed again in every run that cites it, using its address and the title Ranqo has for it, which comes from the engine or is fetched from the page. When there is no title, the address alone decides.

### More formats

The Content Types rings group five formats that are rarely cited into one slice, **More formats**: Video, Documentation, Checklist, Case Study and Alternatives. The ring's legend lists what the slice holds. Every other format keeps its own slice, and **Other** always sits last whatever its size.

### Where you see content types

- **Sources page:** the Content Types ring and Content column on the URLs tab, the **All Content Types** filter, and the Citation Pool.
- **Visibility page:** the Content Types ring in the Top Citation Sources card.

A format that AI cites often in your category is a signal for what to publish. The [Blog Ideas](https://ranqo.ai/docs/guides/blog-ideas) and [Generate Blog](https://ranqo.ai/docs/guides/generate-blog) pages use the same content types when they suggest a format.