Rank tracking and SERP evidence
Define the observation before comparing the number. Different collectors, schedules and rank definitions can produce different but explainable results.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Engines and surfaces | Google, Bing, regional engines, YouTube, organic results, images, shopping and local packs; verify each supported surface. |
| Country, city and device | UK country targeting, city/postcode precision, mobile/desktop, language and search-domain controls. |
| Depth and cadence | Top 10/20/50/100 or deeper; daily/weekly checks, on-demand refreshes, timestamps and failed-check handling. |
| Rank definitions | Organic versus absolute rank, pixel position, above-the-fold visibility and inclusion of SERP features. |
| Page attribution | Exact ranking URL, redirects, canonicalisation, cannibalisation, subdomains and page changes over time. |
| Evidence and history | Saved SERP HTML/screenshots, retention, competitor history, annotations and alerts. |
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Keyword research and demand
Database totals do not tell you how well a tool understands your market. Test niche UK terms and inspect where the estimates come from.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Coverage | Countries, languages, long-tail terms, niche industries, historical dates and database update frequency. |
| Demand estimates | Search-volume source, grouping, seasonality, trends, CPC and how estimates handle low-volume terms. |
| Difficulty and opportunity | Model assumptions, own-site relevance, SERP composition and changes across providers. |
| Competitor research | Organic and paid keywords, gap analysis, domain/subfolder/URL filters and historical movement. |
| Clustering and intent | Semantic versus live-SERP grouping, intent labels, topic hierarchy and explainable recommendations. |
| Bulk workflow | Imports, saved lists, query/export caps, refresh credits and regional support. |
Technical SEO and site health
A domain score is not the same as a crawl. Check whether the tool can inspect the technology and page volume your site actually uses.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Crawl controls | Page caps, scheduling, robots rules, authentication, user agents, crawl speed and staging access. |
| Rendering | JavaScript execution, rendered versus source HTML, resource loading and single-page applications. |
| Indexability | Status codes, robots directives, canonicals, redirects, sitemaps, orphan pages and pagination. |
| Site architecture | Internal links, depth, broken destinations, duplicate content, hreflang and structured data validation. |
| Performance | Field versus lab data, Core Web Vitals sources, mobile testing and actionable page-level evidence. |
| Monitoring and fixes | Change alerts, validation crawls, log-file analysis, task ownership and approved remediation. |
Backlinks and digital PR
Compare observed referring domains on your own sample. Provider authority scores and index sizes are not interchangeable.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Index and freshness | First/last seen, recrawl timing, historical/live indexes, missing links and data suppliers. |
| Link detail | Source/target URLs, anchors, nofollow/sponsored/UGC, redirects and contextual placement. |
| Competitors | Intersecting domains, gaps, new/lost links, content discovery and outreach opportunities. |
| Quality assessment | Explainable metrics, spam indicators, page relevance and manual review; avoid automatic disavow decisions from one score. |
| Workflow | Prospects, contacts, notes, outreach integrations and acquisition-status tracking. |
| Limits | Rows, export caps, API units, historical access, users and permission to retain datasets. |
Content research, production and optimisation
An AI writer, a SERP research tool and a content-performance monitor solve different problems. Evaluate the outputs against a real brief.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Research | Competitor coverage, search intent, entities, citations, topic maps and content gaps. |
| Briefs and scoring | Source transparency, language support, editorial control and how a score is calculated. |
| Generation | Model/provider disclosure, custom style, factual checking, references and per-article costs. |
| Optimisation | Titles, headings, internal linking, refresh suggestions, consolidation and human approval. |
| Publishing | CMS connections, draft status, scheduling, rollback, image rights and translation workflows. |
| Outcomes | Page-level clicks, engagement, conversions and revenue; a content score is not a ranking guarantee. |
Local SEO and multi-location businesses
Organic local rank, Google Maps rank and a geo-grid heatmap are separate measures. Define the service area and entity first.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Map measurements | Grid spacing, coordinates, scan size, depth, zoom and Local Pack versus Maps results. |
| Entities | Business Profile/place IDs, duplicate listings, categories, service areas and competitor identity. |
| Management | Listing sync, opening hours, attributes, posts and approval/audit trails. |
| Reputation | Review collection, monitoring, replies, sentiment and location-level ownership. |
| Citations | Directory coverage, duplicates, consistency, fulfilment costs and retained ownership. |
| Scale | Location groups, scan credits, bulk edits, client reports and role-based permissions. |
AI search, AEO, GEO and LLM visibility
SEO means search engine optimisation; AEO means answer engine optimisation; GEO means generative engine optimisation. These overlapping labels do not establish a standard feature set.
Ask what is collected and how.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Exact engines | Google AI Overviews and AI Mode separately; ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and others only where documented. |
| Collection method | Consumer interface versus API, web-search enabled state, model/version, account/session settings and tool disclosure. |
| Prompt sampling | Custom/discovered prompts, topic intent, variants, follow-ups, repeats, country/language and run schedule. |
| Mentions and citations | Brand/entity matching, aliases, linked domain/URL citations, citation order, factual accuracy and sentiment evidence. |
| Metrics and competition | Visibility denominator, share of sampled answers, competitor set, missing-response rules and weighting assumptions. |
| Verification and history | Full responses, dates, cited passages, exports, engine changes, reproducibility and uncertainty. |
AI optimisation and commercial outcomes
Tracking identifies observations; optimisation proposes work; analytics measures visits. Keep those layers separate when assessing a GEO platform.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Readiness | Indexability, bot access, rendering, machine-readable content and evidence behind recommendations. |
| Source opportunities | Cited publishers, topic gaps, competitor landing pages and traceable content suggestions. |
| Automation | CMS changes, agent actions, approval controls, audit logs, rollback and human review. |
| Bots and logs | Verified crawler identity, access patterns, server logs and distinction between fetching and model training. |
| Traffic and conversions | AI referrers, UTM tags, consent gaps, sessions, lead quality and assisted journeys. |
| Causality | Controlled changes and comparable prompt samples; a larger mention score alone cannot prove increased revenue. |
Reporting, forecasting and attribution
Choose reporting around the decision someone needs to make, and preserve the definitions behind each chart.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Dashboards | Channel scope, segment filters, client access, score definitions and source-level drill-down. |
| Delivery | Scheduled PDFs, interactive links, white-label domains, email limits and permission safety. |
| Forecasts | Search demand, CTR assumptions, seasonality, scenarios and explicit conversion-rate assumptions. |
| Analytics | GA4/GSC imports, sampled/estimated data, freshness, connector failures and retention. |
| Attribution | Models, windows, paid/organic separation, consent limitations and reconciliation with CRM outcomes. |
| Collaboration | Tasks, annotations, audit history, comments, client approvals and accountable owners. |
APIs, automation and portability
A listed API or MCP connection does not mean every dataset is included or every operation is safe to automate.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| API scope | Endpoints, historical data, read/write permissions, authentication, rate limits and billing units. |
| Connectors | Looker Studio, Sheets, BigQuery, analytics, CRM and CMS; native versus third-party maintenance. |
| Agent access | MCP tools, read-only options, model access to sensitive data and human approval for writes. |
| Bulk actions | Imports, webhooks, batch jobs, idempotency, schedules and failed-job retry behaviour. |
| Exports | CSV/JSON, raw responses, date coverage, row limits and reproducible metrics. |
| Exit route | Data ownership, cancellation export, retention after closure and migration support. |
Pricing, quotas and contract terms
Normalise the same sites, queries, locations, devices, engines and cadence. Different billing units make headline prices misleading.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Usage units | Keywords, keyword combinations, checks, prompts, model runs, crawl pages, seats and API requests. |
| Refresh cost | Daily versus weekly allocations, instant checks, repeated AI runs and retry billing. |
| Add-ons | AI engines, backlinks, content articles, white-label reports, integrations and extra users. |
| Total cost | Billing currency, tax treatment, exchange fees, setup, onboarding and annual prepayment. |
| Contract | Renewal dates, minimum term, cancellation, downgrade rules, refunds and grandfathered plans. |
| Trials | What is included, historical limitations, payment requirement and representative sample size. |
Security, privacy and procurement
Request the documents and controls needed for your organisation. A public marketing claim does not establish compliance for your particular use.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Access | SSO/SAML where needed, MFA, roles, client separation and account recovery. |
| Processing | DPA, subprocessors, storage regions, international transfers and handling of uploaded client data. |
| Retention | Deletion/export controls, backup periods and training or reuse of customer prompts and content. |
| Assurance | Current audit scope, security reports, incident process and procurement evidence. |
| Operations | Uptime commitments, status pages, backups, support escalation and change notifications. |
| Ownership | Legal supplier, acquisition/rebrand history, continuity, licensing and permitted use of datasets. |
UK coverage and practical fit
A tool can support the UK without being UK-based or billing in sterling. Verify the exact requirement rather than relying on a country flag.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Search market | UK databases, national/city/postcode coverage, mobile results and British English. |
| AI locale | Country controls, UK personas, currency/location context and actual response evidence. |
| Support | UK working-hour overlap, onboarding, documentation and named escalation routes. |
| Billing | GBP availability, original currency, VAT invoice and actual checkout amount. |
| Team fit | Learning time, accessible interface, performance at scale and saved operating workflows. |
| Success criteria | A fixed sample, signed-off reports, accuracy checks, adoption and measurable time saved. |