The NEAR-BRAND badge and the non-branded score

What the badges mean

Every tracked question is classified into one of three kinds:

• Branded — the question contains your brand name outright ("is AEOTrack any good"). It measures reputation, not discovery: any engine will surface you when asked about you by name.
• Near-brand — the question does not name you, but contains your name as a run-together substring or a one-letter spelling neighbour. "Best AEO tracking software" contains "aeotrack" once the space is removed. Search engines retrieve lexically, so you are surfaced for spelling reasons rather than reputation.
• Non-branded — a genuine discovery question a buyer types before knowing any brand names.

The classification is deterministic, with no model involved, so you can check any verdict by eye.

Why the headline score leaves branded and near-brand questions out

A brand whose name is its category will be named by every engine on every category question. Counting those flatters the score without measuring anything a buyer sees. On one real account, eleven questions scored 17; the six non-branded ones alone scored 10, and the second number was the honest one.

The dashboard shows both: the AI visibility score over every question, and the Non-branded score built only from discovery questions. Watch the second one.

What to do about a near-brand question

Nothing, if it is a question your buyers ask. Keep it, read its answers, and let the badge remind you it is not evidence of discovery. If you added it only because it contains your category word, replace it with the phrasing a buyer would use before knowing your name.

Aliases

If engines write your name differently from your domain ("AEO Track" against "aeotrack"), add the alias under Websites → Brand aliases. Stored answers are re-read against the new terms immediately, so the change shows up without waiting for the next scheduled run.