Competitor Heatmap

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Purpose

The Competitor Heatmap page provides a visual matrix that pits your brand against your tracked competitors across all of your specialized topics. It allows you to quickly spot where your brand is leading the conversation and where competitors are capturing more visibility in AI search responses. By representing mention and citation rates as color-coded percentage cells, marketers can instantly identify visibility gaps. If a competitor has a dark, high-percentage cell for a critical topic while your brand has a lighter cell, you can click directly into that data point to investigate the exact prompts they are winning.

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What’s on the page

Page Header Displays the title “Competitors vs Topics Heatmap.” Filter Row Located just below the header, this toolbar allows you to narrow down the data populating the heatmap. It includes a Saved Views dropdown and multiple filters (Date range, Models, Prompt status, Locations, Countries, Personas, Prompt variation, Prompt tags, Prompts, Owned domains, Mention %, Sentiment %, and Competitors). Metric Toggle Found on the right side of the filter row, this toggle switches the metric displayed in every cell of the heatmap matrix between Mention % and Citation %. More Options (⋯) Menu Located to the right of the metric toggle, this dropdown menu houses additional page actions, specifically the option to export the heatmap. Heatmap Matrix This is the core visualization of the page. It is a dynamic table featuring:

• Topic (Row Header): Lists the topics actively tracked by your brand. Topics with no data for the selected filters are excluded.
• Brand / Competitor Columns: The first column defaults to your brand, followed by columns for each tracked competitor (complete with their logo and name).
• Data Cells: The intersecting cells display the Mention % or Citation % for that specific topic and entity. The color intensity corresponds to the percentage value (darker colors equal higher percentages).

Footer Summary Bar Located at the bottom of the heatmap matrix, this text bar confirms the total count of topics and competitors currently being displayed (e.g., “Showing 4 topics across 2 competitors”).

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What you can do here

• Switch metrics: Click the “Mention %” or “Citation %” toggle tabs above the matrix to change the data metric visualized in the heatmap cells.
• Drill down into specific prompts: Click any colored data cell in the heatmap. This will navigate you to the Prompts page, automatically filtered to show the specific topic row and competitor column you clicked.
• Reorder columns: Click and drag a competitor’s column header left or right to reorder the matrix. This also updates the column order in your CSV exports.
• Pin columns: Pin a column to keep it anchored to the left while you scroll horizontally through a large list of competitors.
• Sort by performance: Click any brand or competitor column header to sort the topic rows by that entity’s performance (highest to lowest percentage). Click again to reverse the sort, and click a third time to clear the sorting.
• Hover for crosshairs: Hover your mouse over any data cell to highlight its corresponding row and column, making it easier to read across large grids.
• Export as CSV: Click the ⋯ (More options) menu in the top right and select Export as CSV. This will download the currently filtered heatmap, respecting your custom column order. Note: Data export is a paid feature. Free-plan users clicking this will see an upgrade prompt.
• Add Competitor: If you have zero competitors set up, click the “Add Competitor” button in the center of the blank state screen to go to the Competitors page.

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Data shown

The heatmap displays aggregated percentage rates (either mentions or citations) for your brand and tracked competitors, categorized by the topics you have configured. The values are drawn from AI model responses over the selected date window. Models tracked include ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, AI Mode, Grok, and DeepSeek.

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Common workflows

Spotting and investigating a visibility gap

1. Open the heatmap and ensure the “Mention %” tab is selected.
2. Scan the rows (topics) to find a cell where your brand’s color is noticeably lighter than a competitor’s cell.
3. Click the competitor’s high-percentage cell.
4. You will be taken to the Prompts page, automatically filtered to show exactly which prompts that competitor is winning for that topic, allowing you to review the AI responses.

Exporting a localized competitor report

1. Use the filter bar to select a specific country or location (e.g., “United Kingdom”).
2. Drag the column headers to place your most important competitors next to your brand.
3. Click the ⋯ (More options) menu and select Export as CSV to download the custom-ordered matrix to share with regional marketing teams.

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Empty, loading, and error states

• Empty (No Competitors): If your website has no competitors configured, the page displays a blurred-out mock heatmap with a “No Competitors Yet” overlay. A button prompts you to “Add Competitor.”
• Empty (No Data for Filters): If your filters are too restrictive (e.g., a date range with zero responses), the matrix disappears and displays “No data available for the selected filters.” The footer will read “No topics or competitors to display.”
• Loading: An animated loading spinner appears in the center of the matrix area while competitor data or heatmap metrics are being fetched.
• Error: If the heatmap data fails to load due to a network issue, the matrix gracefully defaults to the standard “No data available” empty state.

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Linked from / links to

• Linked from: The main application sidebar under the Competitors section.
• Links to: The Prompts page (when clicking a data cell) and the Competitors page (when clicking “Add Competitor” in the blank state).

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Common support questions

Why isn’t a specific topic showing up on the left side of the heatmap? The heatmap is anchored to your brand’s strategy. It only displays topics that your brand is actively tracking. If a competitor ranks for a topic that you have not configured for your own brand, it will not appear as a row here. Why did a whole competitor column disappear when I added a Mention % filter? The Mention % and Sentiment % filters evaluate the entire column. If none of a competitor’s topics meet the threshold you set, their entire column is hidden to reduce clutter. Note that your own brand’s column is protected and will always remain visible. Why doesn’t anything happen when I click a cell with a dash (”–”)? A dash indicates that there is absolutely no data (null) for that specific combination of topic and competitor. Because there are no underlying prompts to show you, these empty cells are not clickable. Why does it say 0.1% instead of 0%? To help differentiate between absolute zero mentions (which may be a tracking gap) and very low visibility, any calculated percentage that is greater than 0 but less than 0.1% is rounded up to display as “0.1%”. Why does the Export as CSV button ask me to upgrade? Exporting data to CSV is a feature reserved for paid subscription plans. If you are on a free plan, the button remains visible so you know the feature exists, but clicking it will open an upgrade dialog.