Heatmap

The Heatmap is your bird's-eye view of the competitive citation landscape. It shows you, your competitors, and all citation sources in one visual grid. Gaps and opportunities become immediately obvious.

Reading the heatmap

The heatmap is a matrix. Imagine Nike tracking Adidas, Under Armour, and New Balance:

• Rows are citation sources (Runner's World, Wirecutter, Reddit r/running) sorted by authority
• Columns are brands (Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, New Balance)
• Cells show whether that brand is cited by that source

Color coding:

Brighter colors indicate stronger sentiment or more prominent mentions.

Visual Patterns to Spot

Imagine looking at the heatmap as a visual landscape:

Vertical green stripe - Nike has a solid column of green cells from top to bottom. Strong! You're covered across most sources. The goal is to maintain this and deepen coverage.

Horizontal red row - The Wirecutter row shows green for Adidas and New Balance, but red for Nike. This high-authority source recommends competitors but not you. Priority outreach target.

Checkerboard - Mixed coverage where Nike wins some (Runner's World) and Adidas wins others (GQ Style). Normal in competitive markets. Focus on flipping the highest-authority reds.

Blue exclusives - A small running blog only cites Nike. Understand what they love about you and replicate that positioning for bigger sources.

Interacting with the heatmap

Hover over any cell to see details: Source name and authority score, brand name, citation count, and sentiment summary.

Click any cell to open the source detail panel. See the full context of what that source says about that brand.

Filter to focus your view:

• Show only gaps (red cells) - your priority list
• Show only your citations (green cells) - what's working
• Filter by authority threshold - focus on high-impact sources
• Hide dismissed sources - ones you've already evaluated

Using the heatmap strategically

Prioritizing outreach. Look for high-authority rows (top of the grid) with red cells. If Runner's World cites Adidas but not Nike, that's a high-priority gap. Runner's World has massive authority - getting Nike included there could flip dozens of AI responses.

Competitive intelligence. See at a glance where Adidas dominates vs where Nike leads. Are there source categories where you're systematically weak? Maybe Nike wins on performance running sites but loses on lifestyle publications.

Measuring progress. Run research weekly and watch your green cells expand. Export the heatmap before and after a PR push to show concrete progress.

Executive reporting. The heatmap is a visual proof point. Export it for stakeholder presentations - "We've closed 12 citation gaps this quarter."

Next steps

Found some gaps worth pursuing? Head to Outreach to prioritize and track your efforts.