TL;DR — Open Overview > GEO Matrix and scan for dark red cells to instantly spot which topic x provider combinations have near-zero visibility. Go to Compare > By Topic to size the competitive gap — a red cell where your competitor has 60% visibility is far more urgent than one where everyone is low. Check Strategy > Actions for AI-generated remediation recommendations targeting your worst cells. Pro tip: screenshot the GEO Matrix sorted by visibility ascending and annotate the top 3 red cells with competitive gap data — it is the most effective single image for getting leadership buy-in.
The Question
“Which topic + provider combination is my biggest competitive weakness?”A strong overall visibility score can mask critical blind spots. A brand might be well-cited on ChatGPT for general awareness queries while being completely absent on Perplexity for decision-stage product comparisons. The GEO Matrix is built for exactly this diagnosis: it breaks your visibility into a topic × provider grid so the worst-performing combinations become immediately visible as red cells in an otherwise green landscape. You might also be wondering:
- “I am strong overall, but are there specific topics where I am invisible?”
- “Which AI providers are my competitors dominating that I am missing?”
- “How do I know which weakness to fix first — the one with the most impact or the easiest to remediate?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Overview > GEO Matrix
Navigate to Overview > GEO Matrix — this is your primary diagnostic instrument for topic × provider weaknesses.
The matrix displays every topic (row) against every monitored AI provider (column). Each cell is color-coded by Brand Mention Visibility: dark red cells are your weaknesses. Scan the grid for patterns: a full row of red means a topic where you are weak across all providers. A full column of red means a single provider where you are weak across all topics. An isolated red cell means a very specific weakness worth investigating.
Sort rows by visibility ascending to float the worst-performing topics to the top of the matrix.
Go deeper: Overview > Compare > By Topic and By Provider
Cross-reference the GEO Matrix finding with Overview > Compare to add the competitive dimension.
Use the By Topic tab to see your visibility versus competitors for each topic. A topic where you have 8% visibility and your main competitor has 55% is a much higher priority than a topic where you have 8% and the competitor also has 10% — the competitive gap is what makes a weakness strategically urgent.
Then switch to the By Provider tab and filter to the provider where the matrix showed your worst cell. Confirm whether the competitive gap exists specifically on that provider, or whether the weakness is universal. Provider-specific weaknesses are often fixable with targeted content on sources that provider trusts; universal weaknesses require broader authority-building.
Complete the picture: Strategy > Actions
Once you have identified your highest-priority topic × provider weakness, open Strategy > Actions.
The Actions page surfaces AI-generated remediation recommendations for your identified gaps. If the weakness is “data integration topic on Perplexity,” Actions will suggest specific content types, source domains to target for citations, and technical improvements that are most likely to move that specific combination. Use the Actions page to convert the GEO Matrix diagnosis into a prioritized task list.
What to Look For
GEO Matrix — Red Cell Pattern Analysis
The first scan of the GEO Matrix should identify three pattern types: full-row weakness (a topic missing across all providers — a content or authority problem), full-column weakness (a provider where you are weak across all topics — a crawl access or source credibility problem for that specific AI), and isolated cell weakness (a specific topic × provider combination — the most actionable finding because it is the most targeted).| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Dark red cells (0–20% visibility) | Topic × provider combinations where you are effectively invisible |
| Row-level averages | Which topics have the weakest overall AI presence — content strategy priority |
| Column-level averages | Which providers have the weakest coverage of your content — distribution strategy priority |
| Cell value delta vs overall score | How much worse this combination is than your average — proportional priority |
Compare Views — Competitive Gap Sizing
The GEO Matrix shows where you are weak; the Compare views show how weak relative to competitors. The combination of “I have 5% visibility” and “my competitor has 67% visibility on this same combination” is the definition of a strategic priority. Without the competitive context, you cannot distinguish a weak cell that everyone is struggling with from a weak cell where a competitor is actively winning.Pro Tip: Screenshot the GEO Matrix sorted by visibility ascending and annotate the top 3 red cells with the competitive gap from the Compare view. This single image is the most effective way to communicate GEO weaknesses to leadership and get investment approval for content creation or link-building programs.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Funnel Stage | Check whether decision-stage prompts show a worse topic × provider pattern than awareness-stage — if so, the weakness is concentrated where it matters most for revenue |
| Period | Compare 30-day vs 90-day to distinguish a structural weakness from a recent temporary dip |
| Competitor | In Compare views, select specific competitors to check whether they are the source of the weakness or whether a third-party domain is taking the share |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
The GEO Matrix has no topic × provider cell below 15% for your strategically important topics. Red cells exist only in low-priority topics or for providers that send minimal referrer traffic to your industry. The Compare > By Topic view shows competitive gaps of less than 20 percentage points on your core topics. Actions only surfaces minor optimization suggestions rather than fundamental content gaps.Needs attention
One or more red cells in the GEO Matrix where the topic is a core product area and the provider is a top traffic source for your industry. A competitive gap of 30+ percentage points on a strategic topic × provider combination. Or: an entire topic row at zero visibility across all providers — indicating no content, no citations, and no competitive presence in that area at all. This warrants immediate content and citation-building investment.Example
Scenario: A telecom company and internet service provider has an overall Brand Mention Visibility of 35%, which seems acceptable. They want to know if this number hides critical weaknesses across their service categories.
- Open Overview > GEO Matrix. Overall 35% looks fine, but the matrix reveals a dark red row for the “5G home internet” topic across all providers (average cell value: 6%). This is the company’s most heavily marketed new product line. Additionally, the “business fiber” topic shows near-zero visibility specifically on Perplexity (3%) while showing 31% on ChatGPT — a provider-specific gap on the platform their B2B prospects use most.
- Open Overview > Compare > By Topic and check “5G home internet.” The main competitor shows 58% visibility on this topic across all providers. A second regional competitor shows 41%. The company is effectively invisible on the product category receiving the largest advertising spend.
- Open Overview > Compare > By Provider and filter to Perplexity for “business fiber.” The competitor has 49% visibility on Perplexity for this topic. Checking the Citations data: the competitor is cited primarily from three telecommunications industry publications and two independent broadband review sites — domains the company has no editorial presence on.
- Open Strategy > Actions. The top two recommendations align exactly with this analysis: “Publish 5G home internet comparison content on high-authority telecom review sites” and “Earn citations on business broadband review domains for Perplexity visibility.”
Go Further
Weakness heatmap in Looker
Build a topic-provider weakness heatmap in Looker Studio using the tag-performance data source
Automate weakness detection via API
Use the tags endpoint to programmatically detect and alert on your biggest topic-provider weaknesses
Share the weakness report with your content team
Create a shared view of topic-provider weaknesses for your content team to prioritize improvement efforts
Related Questions
How do I prioritize actions to improve AI visibility?
Turn GEO Matrix weakness findings into a ranked action plan
What is my share of voice by topic?
Understand topic-level visibility across all providers without the competitive overlay
How do I read the GEO Matrix effectively?
Learn what each cell value means and how to act on the patterns you find