TomHow / Notes / Corroboration
Why AI tools name some agencies before others
An answer records a provider selection, not its cause. Inspect the actual sources and test possible explanations before copying a competitor strategy.
Thomas HowcroftFounder of TomHow, Stevenage
01 / Practical checklist
Check it as you
read the note.
02 / The note in one picture
See it on
one page.
03 / The detail
The detail,
when you want it.
Keep the observation narrow
If an answer names three agencies, the finding is that those agencies appeared for that question and capture. It is not a permanent ranking or a record of all suitable providers.
If the source links point to a directory, preserve the directory URL. Do not quietly count the named agency as receiving an owned-domain citation.
Inspect what the source actually contributes
Open the cited URL and identify the passage that supports the answer. Record whether it is a service description, comparison, profile or research page. A source can be linked without supporting every claim in the generated text.
A clear service page can help a buyer assess fit. Accurate business facts and useful public evidence are worthwhile in their own right; this note supplies no measured evidence that one particular wording causes citation.
Repair a confirmed defect before testing a theory
A blocked intended page, broken link or contradictory service description is a concrete defect. Repair it and verify the same condition afterwards.
A proposal to add a profile because a competitor has one is a hypothesis. Record the intended benefit, permitted destination and comparison method. Never invent credentials, reviews or relationships to imitate the source footprint.
Compare equivalent captures
Repeat the same questions in the same named surface and mode. Preserve failures and source-unavailable answers separately from completed observations. API output and a consumer assistant answer are different measurement surfaces.
Before-and-after movement is an observation. Other pages, sources and platform behaviour may have changed at the same time, so a new citation alone cannot prove which intervention caused it.
Check whether it is a competitor recommendation or a source citation
Read the answer around the linked source. Is the business recommended, named as an example or merely the publisher of a cited guide? Those are different roles, and the cited page may not even belong to a direct commercial competitor.
Preserve the wording and URL before assigning a category. Do not count every source link as a competitor recommendation or treat a neutral mention as a lost customer.
Identify what the cited page actually contributes
Open the cited source and find the information relevant to the answer: a specific fact, comparison, example, method or original finding. Then inspect whether your page provides that information or something else the reader needs.
For a hypothetical example, the cited page may explain a service exclusion that your page omits. Adding an accurate explanation would help the reader. It would not establish that the missing exclusion caused the earlier citation difference.
Check the platform guidance.
About TomHow
Founder of TomHow and senior operator for SEO, GEO, AEO, and AI search evidence.
About the founder
Founder of TomHow, based in Stevenage. SEO and AI search consultancy.
Where this points next.
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