Signals & Opportunities
How the API detects opportunity signals across 6 search surfaces and converts them into scored, actionable opportunities with priority rankings.
The API monitors multiple search surfaces for signals — patterns that indicate a content opportunity for your brand. Signals are detected, scored, and packaged into opportunities with clear next actions.
The 6 search surfaces
The product watches six distinct search surfaces for gaps and movement:
| Surface | What it is |
|---|---|
| Google Organic | Traditional blue-link Google search results |
| Google AI Overviews | The AI-generated summary at the top of Google results |
| Google AI Mode | Google's conversational AI search experience |
| ChatGPT / Copilot | OpenAI and Microsoft conversational AI |
| Perplexity | Perplexity.ai conversational search |
| Claude / Gemini | Anthropic and Google conversational AI |
Signal categories
Across those six surfaces, the detection layer produces signals in the following categories:
| Category | What it monitors | Example signal |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Missing topics, cluster gaps, geo gaps | Your brand has no content for a high-intent keyword family |
| AI / Citations | LLM citation presence across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini | You rank on Google but no LLM cites you |
| Competitor | Competitor keyword gaps, competitive moves | A competitor ranks for keywords you don't cover |
| SERP | Organic result weakness, feature snippets | A weak page holds position 3 — takeover opportunity |
| Rank | Striking distance keywords (positions 11-20) | You're on page 2 for a high-value keyword |
| Site | Internal links, schema, CTAs, technical audit findings | Orphan pages with no internal links |
| Timeseries | Ranking decay, defensive priorities | A page dropped 15 positions in 30 days |
From signal to opportunity
Each signal passes through deterministic scoring before becoming an opportunity. No signal reaches the queue without evidence and an actionable next step.
Scoring
Every opportunity carries two scores that combine into a priority:
Immediacy — how easy and fast to win:
- Keyword difficulty (inverted) — 60%
- Gap boost (brand absent) — 20%
- Type boost (high-intent, comparison) — 12%
- Greenfield bonus (no competitor dominates) — 8%
Ceiling — how big the prize:
- Search volume — 40%
- Business value — 30%
- Intent alignment — 20%
- AI Overview bonus — 10%
Priority = 0.5 * immediacy + 0.5 * ceiling
The highest-priority opportunities appear first in your action queue.
Opportunity object
Every opportunity includes these fields:
{
"id": "opp-uuid",
"family": "Marketing Automation",
"play": "AI Marketing Tools Comparison Guide",
"summary": "No ranking content for high-intent cluster — 12K monthly volume, KD 34",
"keywords": ["ai marketing tools", "best ai marketing software"],
"priority": 0.92,
"immediacy": 0.85,
"ceiling": 0.78,
"total_volume": 45000,
"recommended_format": "comparison_post",
"contributing_signals": [
{ "type": "missing_topic_gap", "evidence": "..." },
{ "type": "aio_gap", "evidence": "..." }
]
}Key guarantees:
- Every opportunity has evidence (the SERP data or citation data that triggered it)
- Every opportunity has a
recommended_format(article, comparison, hub-and-spokes, pillar guide) - Every opportunity traces back to specific keywords and topic families
- Contributing signals show exactly which detections produced this opportunity
Action templates
Opportunities map to one of several execution templates:
| Template | When it fires |
|---|---|
create_net_new_page | Brand has no content for this opportunity |
refresh_existing_page | Existing page is decaying or under-performing |
build_hub_and_spokes | Topic family needs a hub page with supporting articles |
competitive_response_pack | Competitor pressure requires multiple response assets |
optimize_on_page_and_schema | Page exists but needs on-page/schema improvements |
internal_link_rollout | Link architecture gaps reduce page authority |
Each template defines the steps needed: brief generation, draft creation, review, and publishing.
Portfolio balance
The scoring system targets a balanced portfolio:
- 60% near-term wins — low difficulty, clear gaps, quick to publish
- 30% category authority plays — hub-and-spokes, pillar content
- 10% strategic bets — emerging topics, AI-surface plays
This prevents the common trap of only chasing easy keywords while ignoring long-term positioning.