# Managing Competitors

Tracking competitors helps you understand where you stand in the AI search landscape and identify opportunities to improve your visibility.

## What is Competitor Tracking?

Competitor tracking lets you monitor how other brands perform in AI-generated responses alongside your own brand. This helps you:

- Benchmark your performance
- Identify visibility gaps
- Learn from competitor strategies
- Spot trending opportunities

## Adding Competitors

### Manual Addition

1. Navigate to **Competitors** in the main menu
2. Click **Add Competitor**
3. Enter the competitor’s information:
   - Brand name
   - Website URL (logo will be automatically fetched from their website)
4. Select competitor type:
   - **Direct**: Companies offering similar products/services
   - **Indirect**: Companies in related markets
   - **Ignored**: Companies you want to exclude from tracking (won’t appear in lists or reports)
5. Click **Save**

### Competitor Types

**Direct Competitors**: Brands that directly compete with your offering. These appear in comparison queries and competitive analysis.

_Example_: If you sell project management software, tools like Asana, Monday.com, and ClickUp are direct competitors.

**Indirect Competitors**: Brands in related markets that might appear in AI responses about your industry.

_Example_: Collaboration tools, time tracking apps, or productivity platforms that serve adjacent use cases.

**Ignored Competitors**: Brands you want to exclude from tracking and analysis. These won’t appear in any lists, reports, or competitive analysis.

_Example_: Irrelevant brands that show up in AI responses but aren’t actual competitors, or brands you want to hide from reports.

## Competitor Metrics

For each competitor, ClayHog tracks:

### Visibility Score

How often the competitor appears in AI responses compared to your brand.

### Citation Count

Total number of times the competitor’s content is cited by AI models.

### Citation Share

Percentage of total citations that go to this competitor.

### Sentiment

How positively or negatively AI models discuss the competitor.

### Prompts Mentioned

Which of your tracked prompts mention this competitor.

## Using Competitor Insights

### Identifying Content Gaps

When competitors have higher visibility:

1. Check which prompts they dominate
2. Review what content they have that you don’t
3. Analyze their citation sources
4. Create better, more comprehensive content

### Finding Citation Opportunities

Look at competitor citations to find:

- **Authoritative sources** in your niche
- **Content formats** that get cited often
- **Topics** that generate citations
- **Gaps** where you can contribute

### Tracking Competitor Changes

Monitor competitor visibility over time to:

- Detect new content campaigns
- Spot algorithm or model changes
- Identify seasonal trends
- React to competitive threats

## Competitive Analysis Page

The Competitive Analysis page provides a comprehensive view of how you stack up against competitors.

### Key Metrics

**Total Citations**: All citations across tracked prompts

**Your Citations**: Citations pointing to your content

**Your Citation Share**: Your percentage of total citations

**Competitors Tracked**: Number of competitors you’re monitoring

### Timeline Chart

See how visibility changes over time for you and competitors:

- Compare multiple brands on one chart
- Filter by date range
- Identify trends and patterns
- Spot correlation between events

### Citation Gaps

This section shows where competitors are getting cited but you’re not:

- **Prompt-specific gaps**: Queries where competitors dominate
- **Content type gaps**: Formats you’re missing
- **Topic gaps**: Subjects you should cover

### Competitive Table

A detailed comparison table showing:

- Brand names and logos
- Total citations
- Citation share
- Visibility score
- Sentiment
- Trend indicators

Sort and filter to find specific insights.

## Filtering Competitive Data

### By Competitor Type

Filter your view to show:

- **Direct competitors**: Your main rivals
- **Indirect competitors**: Related market players
- **All competitors**: Both direct and indirect (ignored competitors are never shown)

### By AI Model

See how different AI platforms favor different brands:

- ChatGPT citation patterns
- Gemini citation patterns
- Perplexity citation patterns
- Claude citation patterns
- Google AI Overviews citation patterns
- Cross-platform comparisons

### By Date Range

Compare time periods to:

- Measure month-over-month changes
- Analyze seasonal patterns
- Track campaign impact
- Identify long-term trends

## Competitive Strategies

### 1\. Focus on Your Strengths

Identify prompts where you have high visibility and:

- Create more content on those topics
- Maintain and update existing content
- Build on your authority

### 2\. Address Weaknesses

For prompts where competitors dominate:

- Analyze what makes their content citeable
- Create more comprehensive coverage
- Build authority through quality content

### 3\. Monitor New Competitors

Watch for emerging competitors by:

- Reviewing your competitor list regularly
- Tracking new brands that appear in AI responses
- Analyzing their growth trajectory
- Marking irrelevant brands as “Ignored” to clean up your reports

### 4\. Learn from Success

When competitors gain visibility:

- Study their recent content
- Note their citation sources
- Identify their content strategy
- Adapt successful tactics

## Understanding Competitive Positioning

### Brand Quadrant

The Brand Quadrant chart positions brands based on:

- **Visibility** (X-axis): How often they appear
- **Sentiment** (Y-axis): How positively they’re discussed

Brands in the top-right quadrant have both high visibility and positive sentiment.

### Visibility Heatmap

The heatmap shows competitive performance across:

- Different prompts
- Time periods
- AI models
- Geographic regions

Use it to identify patterns and opportunities.

## Competitor Best Practices

### 1\. Track the Right Competitors

Focus on:

- Top 5-10 direct competitors
- Major industry players
- Emerging threats
- Alternative solutions

Don’t track too many competitors, it dilutes insights.

### 2\. Regular Monitoring

Check competitive data:

- Weekly for quick checks
- Monthly for detailed analysis
- Quarterly for strategic reviews

### 3\. Combine with Other Metrics

Use competitor data alongside:

- Your own citation tracking
- Prompt performance
- Content analytics
- Industry trends

### 4\. Act on Insights

Don’t just monitor, take action:

- Create content to fill gaps
- Improve existing content
- Build strategic partnerships
- Adjust your positioning

## Privacy and Ethics

### Ethical Monitoring

ClayHog only tracks publicly available information:

- AI model responses
- Public citations
- Visible brand mentions

We don’t access competitor accounts or private data.

### Competitive Intelligence Guidelines

Use competitive insights to:

- ✅ Improve your own content
- ✅ Identify market opportunities
- ✅ Benchmark your performance
- ✅ Understand industry trends

Don’t use them to:

- ❌ Copy competitor content
- ❌ Engage in unfair practices
- ❌ Violate competitor trademarks
- ❌ Spread misinformation

## Next Steps

- Dive deeper into [competitive analysis](/content/help/competitive-analysis/index.html)
- Learn about [citation tracking](/content/help/citations/index.html)
- Explore [visibility metrics](/content/help/visibility-metrics/index.html)