A Discovery Gap is the set of questions where AI names a rival and not you. It is measurable, it is specific, and it is usually the first thing a business owner wants to do something about.
Free. You’ll get the competitor names, not a vague percentage.
Most visibility reporting tells a business how it is performing in isolation. That is comfortable and largely useless. The number that changes behavior is the one with a competitor’s name attached.
A Discovery Gap report lists the specific questions where a rival is named and you are not, with the rival identified. It converts an abstract marketing problem into a list of things to go and fix, in priority order.
Owners rarely act on “your visibility is 58%”. They act immediately on “Bayside is being recommended for emergency callouts in your three best towns and you aren’t.”
“Who does emergency roof repair in Elmwood?”
One row of a Discovery Gap report. A typical report has between eight and twenty.
The whole point is that it can be read in two minutes and acted on the same day.
| Question | Who is named | You | Likely cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency roof repair in Elmwood | Summit Roofing, Cedar Ridge | Absent | No emergency hours stated in listings |
| Storm damage roofing near me | Cedar Ridge, Ironwood Exteriors | Absent | Service not itemized anywhere on site |
| Best roofer in Elmwood | Summit Roofing | Position 3 | Thin independent corroboration |
| Flat roof replacement cost | Ironwood Exteriors | Absent | No content addressing the question |
| Roofer open on weekends Elmwood | Summit Roofing | Absent | Weekend availability not published |
Illustrative. Your report uses your market, your competitors and your service area.
The gap is derived from the same question set and the same measurement as the Search Presence Score, so the two always agree with each other.
Twenty to forty questions in customer language, agreed up front and held constant. Changing the questions would change the gap, which would make month-to-month comparison worthless.
Every business named in every answer, not just yours. This is what makes the gap specific rather than a percentage — you find out exactly who is taking the work.
Each gap is matched to the most probable reason: missing hours, un-itemized service, weak corroboration, no content on the topic, or a factual error steering the answer elsewhere.
The same questions are re-asked monthly. Closed gaps drop off the report; new ones appear as competitors improve. The report is a work list that shrinks, not a dashboard that sits there.
No. The Discovery Gap report is included in the Growth plan and above, and it forms part of every $497 audit. It has its own name because it is the section clients actually read, not because it is sold separately.
Yes, and you should. We start with whoever the assistants actually name in your market — which is frequently not who the owner expected — and then add any specific rivals you want watched.
Then either the cause was misattributed or the fix was insufficient, and we tell you which we think it is. Some gaps stay open because the named competitor is genuinely better corroborated and closing it is a twelve-month job rather than a three-month one. We would rather say that than keep billing against a row that never moves.
Less well, and it is worth knowing that before you buy. If the assistants aren’t naming anyone in your category, there is no gap to report — the work is coverage rather than competition, and a different section of the report matters more.
The free scan returns your largest gaps with the competitors named. Most owners find at least one they didn’t know about.