Fanouts

Before it answers, an assistant often searches the web. One prompt becomes one or more web searches, in the assistant’s own words. One such search is a fanout, or a query fanout. The answer usually cites pages that those fanouts returned. The Fanouts tab of AEO/GEO Insights lists the fanouts the assistants ran for this brand’s prompts. The same wording counts as one fanout, whatever its case.

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Which platforms report them

The Platforms page marks the platforms that report their fanouts. The others do not report theirs. With the platform filter on one of them, the Fanouts tab says so. An answer from one of them says so in its own view. An answer from a platform that reports its fanouts can run no fanout at all. Its view then says “No fanout ran”. That is a measurement, not a missing one. An answer from such a platform can also come with no fanout list. Its view then says that the platform sent no fanout list with this answer. That is a missing measurement: the answer can still cite sources. Such an answer counts in no figure of this tab.

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What each row shows

Three marks sit under the wording:

• A brand name means the wording names a monitored brand. A name matches by the same spelling rule as in the answers, so “Peec.ai” and “peec-ai” are one name. This brand’s name is marked in color.
• only and a site means the fanout was held to one website with site:.
• repeats the prompt means the assistant searched the prompt’s own wording. Case, outer spaces and a closing ”?” or ”.” do not matter. A persona’s sentence is not part of that wording.

A row opens onto the prompts behind the fanout, each with its market and how often it ran the fanout. Under them are the platforms that ran it, and the latest answers that ran it. A prompt links to its answers on the All Answers page. A note says when more prompts ran the fanout.

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The list

The list holds every fanout in the scope, in pages, up to the 10,000 most frequent unique fanouts. Past that number, the list and the line above it read those 10,000 only. So do the last three tiles and the Brands in the fanouts card. The list’s controls act on every fanout the list holds, not only on the page in view:

• Find a fanout searches the wordings.
• Prompt is the dashboard’s prompt filter, so the whole tab reads that prompt.
• Names keeps the fanouts that name this brand, any competitor, one competitor, or no monitored brand.
• Type keeps the fanouts that repeat the prompt, or the fanouts held to one site.
• Order has two values. With By frequency, a click on Fanout, Times or Last run sorts the list. By prompt groups the fanouts under the prompt that ran each one most, and no column sorts.
• Clear filters removes the list’s filters and the prompt.

The line above the table counts the unique fanouts that match, and how many times they ran. By default it also counts the unique fanouts of the branded prompts, which the scope leaves out. Show them adds them. When more fanouts match than the pages reach, a note under the table says so, and a filter reaches the rest. Below the Pro plan, the pages of the list reach the first 50 fanouts in the chosen order. A search of the list and a sort still act on every row. A note under the table then states the cut. Export CSV saves every fanout in scope, up to 10,000 lines, most frequent first. When a file stops there, a note beside the button says so. The file holds every fanout in the scope, whatever the list’s filters show. A note under the table says so.

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The tiles and the cards

Under each of the last three tiles, Show these fanouts sets the list’s filter. The Brands in the fanouts card sits under the list. It counts, per monitored brand, the fanouts whose wording names it. A fanout that ran twice counts twice. With the platform filter on a platform that does not report its fanouts, the counts show a dash and the tab says so. “No fanouts in this scope” means that the reporting platforms ran none.

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Scope and window

The tab takes every dashboard filter and counts analyzed answers in the period, as every other page does. The competitor filter narrows only the brand marks, the Names filter and the brand card to this brand and that competitor. The fanouts and their counts stay whole.

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Where it appears