How it counts
Every query you track is a star. Together they make your constellation, and everyone else's constellations share the same queries. These are the rules behind every star, number and page.
The stars
One star is one query, not one response. A query lights up if any response to it named you, and its star grows the more of its runs named you.
Lines join the queries that name you, so your constellation's shape grows as more of your queries light up.
The Gold Star
The star to aim for. A query becomes a Gold Star only when you've asked it in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, and every response named you and cited a page on your own site. One run that leaves you out, or leaves your page out, and it's an ordinary star again.
It's meant to be hard. In the live constellation, Kyriba is offered in 8 of its 10 queries, and every time in 2 of them, but it has no Gold Star. Those runs only covered ChatGPT and Gemini, and a Gold Star needs all four.
One run is one draw
Ask the same query twice and the response changes. When the same query was asked twice a few minutes apart, only about a third of the cited pages were the same both times. So:
- Every response you enter is one run, with its date. Each query shows how many times it was asked and when.
- A star flickers until it has been asked at least twice and every run agreed. A single response is never treated as settled.
- Each query row shows its runs as dots, oldest first: filled when you were named, ringed in gold when your own page was cited too.
- Runs are summed up in plain words, never a bare yes or no: Always (every run, at least two), Usually (60% or more), Sometimes (20–60%), Rarely (under 20%), Never, or One run so far, which isn't enough to say.
Named and cited
- Named means the response offers you as an option: you're a list item, a table's first cell, a bold name, or a sentence suggests you. It's the same rule as the 1,920-answer treasury study. These don't count: passing mentions ("unlike Kyriba…", "formerly…"), the reader's own setup ("if you already use Kyriba", "connects to Kyriba"), and options the answer rules out ("overkill for a team of three"). If AI calls you something else, add it under "Other names".
- Cited means a page on your website is among the response's sources: its links, footnotes, or the sources panel you pasted. A source listed only by site name (Gemini's panel, for example) counts when the name is yours.
- Citation pills and link labels (like "kyriba.com" or "Kyriba +2") are footnotes, not recommendations, so they never count as naming anyone. Anything after a "Sources" line is kept out of the response text for the same reason: panel snippets mention plenty of brands the assistant didn't name.
- A brand named without its own page cited was not necessarily named from memory. Another page can supply the name without being cited. It's a gap in what the response shows, not proof of anything.
- Queries that contain your own name are left out of your numbers, because they ask for you by name. They still count for everyone else.
Rivals
You don't list rivals. They're picked up from each response: bold names, list items that open with a name, the first column of a table, and headings. Labels like "Key features" or "Best for" are skipped. A rival counts as named wherever its name appears as a whole word. Its website is matched from a cited domain that carries its name, such as kyriba.com for Kyriba. If something picked up isn't a brand, hide it with × and it stops counting.
Every rival has its own constellation over the same queries. Use the names above the sky to switch.
Pages to get on
Every page the responses cited, sorted by what you can realistically do about it:
- Fix these first: your own page was cited and you still weren't named.
- Pages you can get on: cited in responses that didn't name you, and published by someone you can approach. Each comes with a suggestion: review sites (claim your profile, get reviews), directories (complete your listing), communities (answer the thread), trade press (pitch a story) and editorial lists (ask to be added).
- What's working for rivals: competitors' own pages, including their "alternatives" and comparison posts. You won't get on them, so they're kept as intel, not to-dos. A page counts as a rival's when its site matches any brand the responses offered, or when its own titles show it's a vendor selling software.
- Working for you: cited in responses that named you, every time.
- Background sources: banks, regulators and public bodies. Rarely something you can get on.
Pages you can get on are ranked by how often they were cited without you. A page cited without you only once goes into "cited only once": real, but not yet a plan.
One assistant, or all of them
The assistant toggle above the sky counts one assistant's responses at a time, or all of them together. Gold Stars only exist in the all-assistants view, because they need all four. Every query, every assistant shows the same thing as a grid: one row per query, one column per assistant.
Over time
Ask your queries again on another day and Over time charts the queries where you're named on each day you checked. A query counts if the latest run from any assistant, as of that day, named you, so losses show up as well as gains. Under the chart: queries gained, queries lost, and new brands in the answers since your last check.
Slides
Every card can become a 16:9 slide: download it as an image, or copy it straight into Google Slides, PowerPoint or Keynote. Download slide pack puts them all in one PowerPoint file. Slides carry the date and where the responses came from, so they stand up in a meeting.
What it can't see
- Only what you paste. Pages an assistant read but didn't cite are invisible here, and in one study those were most of what it read.
- Answers depend on the account, location and chat history they came from. Use a new chat for each run, and be consistent.
- A handful of runs is a sample, not a measurement. The more runs per query, the more the stars mean.
Your data stays in your browser unless you save it to an account. Privacy · Back to Query Universe
Built by Alex Cannon