PR gap
A PR gap is where the sites AI platforms read talk about your competitors and leave you out, or describe you worse than them.
A PR gap is where the third-party sites the AI platforms read cover your competitors and don't cover you, or cover you in a way that doesn't match what you are. Reviews, list articles, news stories, directories and forum threads all count.
AI platforms lean on these sites when they decide which brands to name. If the pages they read for your category never mention you, the answers are unlikely to mention you either, however good your own website is. That makes a PR gap a job for your press and outreach work as much as your content team.
The kinds of PR gap
There are a few shapes a PR gap takes:
- A site the answers use names your competitors and leaves you out.
- A site mentions you but doesn't link to you or describe what you do.
- A site describes you wrongly, with an old price, a product you dropped or a place you don't deliver.
Each one needs a different fix. The first needs you on the page. The second needs a better mention. The third needs a correction.
An example
Say ChatGPT keeps naming Kestrel Roasters and Harrow & Pine when people ask for the best coffee subscription in the UK. It doesn't name Fernhill Coffee. Looking at the sources, the answers use the same two list articles again and again. Both name Kestrel and Harrow. Neither names Fernhill.
That's a PR gap. Fernhill's own pages may be fine. The fix is to get onto those two articles, by pitching the writers, sending samples, or offering something new for an update.
PR gaps in AnswerOrbit
The Gaps tab in Sources lists sources whose answers name one of your competitors but not you. Each gap has a score out of 100: half from how often answers use that source, and half from how many of your competitors it names. Each one suggests a way in, such as reaching out to the site or getting listed in a directory.
For sites that describe you wrongly, Claims shows the pages behind a wrong claim, and the matching recommendation comes with an evidence pack to send to the site.