> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.fullreach.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Choose your competitors

> Which brands to monitor beside this brand, how the choice moves share of voice, and how to make sure every mention counts.

A competitor is a brand that the project monitors beside this brand. Visibility counts each brand on its own. Share of voice counts this brand against the monitored brands only. So the choice of competitors sets what share of voice means.

This guide is the judgement. [Competitors](/reference/competitors) is the page that manages them.

## Which brands to monitor

<Steps>
  <Step title="Start from the wizard's list">
    The setup wizard finds competitors on the web. Keep the ones that a buyer could choose instead of this brand. See [Get started](/guides/get-started#the-setup-wizard).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the brands the answers name">
    The AI platforms can name other brands than the ones your sales team meets: marketplaces, large platforms, a newcomer. **Detected, not yet monitored**, on the Competitors page, lists the brands that the answers name and that nobody monitors yet. It is part of the Advanced tier. On another tier, read the brands in [the answers](/reference/answer-view) themselves.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Leave out the places that only talk about the category">
    A review site, a publisher or a forum that the answers cite is a source, not a competitor. [Sources](/reference/sources) shows those sites.
  </Step>
</Steps>

After a week, look at the Overview's **Top competitors** and at the detected list again. A brand that leads the answers and is not monitored makes share of voice read too high.

## Keep the set stable

Every monitored brand takes part of the share. Add a large brand, and every other brand's share of voice falls, with no change in any answer. Remove one, and the share is counted again without it.

* Compare share of voice only over the same set of competitors.
* Read [visibility](/reference/metrics/visibility) for a figure that the set does not move.

[Share of voice](/reference/metrics/share-of-voice) states how the share is counted.

## Make every mention count

An answer counts a brand when it writes the brand's name or one of its other spellings. Give each brand the spellings that the answers use. Examples are an abbreviation, the name without its legal form, or a product name that stands for the company.

**Seen in answers**, under a brand's spellings on the Competitors page, lists the spellings that the answers used and that the project does not hold. Add a spelling there to count it in every answer already collected. [How answers are analysed](/reference/analysis#finding-a-brand) states the match.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.