AEOTrack

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October 23, 2026

Brand names and "Is this you?"

Why AI may write your business under another name

An answer counts as naming you when it writes one of your brand names: your domain, your brand name or one of your aliases (How the score works). AI engines do not always use those. They write your full name when your brand name is short, a name you trade under locally, an older name, or your name spelled a letter or two differently. Such an answer is about you, but until that name is one of your brand names it does not count as naming you.

For example, a roaster at acmecr.example whose brand name in AEOTrack is "Acme CR" is written by the engines as "Acme Coffee Roasters". Those answers read as "not named" until "Acme Coffee Roasters" is added.

When you add a website, AEOTrack adds the names your homepage gives the business that fit the domain (Confirm your business). The answers can still use a name your homepage does not give, or one that does not look like your domain. So AEOTrack also reads your stored answers for such names, and asks: Is this you?

Where the suggestions come from

Every suggestion is read from your stored answers of the last 90 days; finding them asks no AI engine anything. There are three kinds:

  1. A name the answers tie to your site. The answer links the name to your website, for example a link written as [Acme Coffee Roasters](https://acmecr.example/), or writes it in the same table row, list entry or line that links or cites your site. AEOTrack suggests it only when it is plainly your site's: it fits your domain (its letters, its initials, or the distinctive word your domain starts with), or at least two answers write it as the text of a link to your site. A source next to a name is not enough on its own, since a comparison page cites one site next to many names.
  2. A name on your homepage. Your homepage's title, site name or structured data can give the business a name that does not fit your domain. Such a name is not added for you; it is suggested once the answers write it.
  3. A near spelling. A name one or two letters away from one of your brand names, such as "Akme Coffee" for "Acme Coffee".

What is never suggested

  • A place, a directory or listing site, a heading or part of a sentence ("Coffee Roasters in Portland"), or an everyday word.
  • A person's name with a title, such as "Dr." in front of it.
  • One of your tracked competitors, or a word of a competitor's name.
  • Another company's own name: one whose own website is among the answer's sources.
  • One word of your own longer brand name on its own ("Acme" of "Acme Coffee Roasters").
  • A name that is already one of your brand names, one you said Not us to, or one you removed.
  • A name whose answers all count you already, since adding it would change nothing. A one-word name needs at least two answers that do not count you yet.

Where you see them

On the Dashboard and the Questions page, a banner shows the top suggestion, from your first check on: the suggestions are read from the stored answers each time, so the first check's answers are enough. For example:

Is this you? "Acme Coffee Roasters" appears in 12 answers that do not count you yet, and next to a link to your site in 3 answers.

The first number is the one that matters: the answers that would count as naming you once the name is added. "Next to a link to your site" is said only of answers that put the name and the link in the same row, entry or line. A name from your homepage reads "..., the name on your homepage, appears in N answers that do not count you yet"; a near spelling adds "and none of your brand names match that spelling". Up to five suggestions wait at a time, names tied to your site and homepage names first, and the banner shows one at a time.

In your first-result email, one line after the numbers says the same ("Is this you? 'Acme Coffee Roasters' appears in 12 answers that do not count you yet, ..."), with the link Add it as a brand name.

Before you read this as a zero

When your first result names you nowhere, but answers that cite your site write a name, AEOTrack shows that name before the zero: "Before you read this as a zero: AI answers that cite your site also write the name 'Acme Coffee Roasters' (7 answers). Is this you?", with Yes, add it and Not us for each name. The first-result email opens the same way, and its subject asks the question instead of giving a zero: Acme CR: is "Acme Coffee Roasters" you? If one of the names is yours, add it: the stored answers are read again, and the numbers change.

Add it, or say "Not us"

  • Add as a brand name adds the name to that website's brand names in one click. Every stored answer is read again with it straight away, so the answers that write it count as naming you without waiting for the next check. A question that contains the name becomes a branded question and is scored apart from the headline (Branded and near-brand questions), and the questions AEOTrack suggested may be marked as out of date (Confirm your business).
  • Not us is remembered on the website: that name is never suggested again, on any screen or in any email, for anyone in the workspace.
  • A brand name you remove later under Settings → Websites is not suggested back.
  • The email's Add it as a brand name link opens Settings → Websites with that website's brand names open: the Brand name, the list Other names AI should count as you, and, while there is one, the top Is this you? suggestion above them. You need to be signed in, and opening the link changes nothing until you save or click Add as a brand name.
  • Adding or dismissing needs edit access: a viewer, or an account that is read-only after its trial, can do neither.

Screenshot of the brand names editor under Settings, Websites, for the fictional Acme Coffee Roasters: the "Is this you?" suggestion "Acme Roastery Collective appears next to a link to your site in 25 answers that do not count you yet", with Add as a brand name and Not us, then the Brand name field, the list Other names AI should count as you with one name, the Add another name field, and Save and Cancel. The brand names editor, opened from the email's Add it as a brand name link or from the website's card: the top Is this you? suggestion above the Brand name and Other names AI should count as you.

Add a name only when it is your business. A name that belongs to another company would count its mentions as yours. If the answers are about a different business that shares your name, read Answers about a different business with your name instead.

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