Channel 03 · Authority Signals

Where the open web
talks about your brand.

Directories (G2, Capterra, Crunchbase, Yelp), review sites (Trustpilot), editorial publishers (TechCrunch, industry blogs), and forums. Every public mention of your brand and your competitors, classified by citation type and ranked per topic.

Citations · "Vehicle Data API"128 found
01Marketcheck 29
02Your brand YOU22
03VinAudit 17
04J.D. Power 13
05Auto.dev 8
Directory Editorial Review
Gap List · 5 directories you're missingAction
capterra.com
Listed: Marketcheck, VinAudit
Submit →
g2.com
Listed: Marketcheck, J.D. Power
Submit →
crunchbase.com
Listed: Marketcheck
Submit →
producthunt.com
Listed: Auto.dev, VinAudit
Submit →
Five citation types

Every URL, classified.

For every authority topic and every target (your brand + every active competitor), we discover up to 10 public URLs and auto-classify each into a citation type.

Directory
Vendor / company directories where you are listed by name and category.
e.g. G2, Capterra, Crunchbase, Yelp, BBB
Review
Aggregated review pages where users post first-hand experiences.
e.g. Trustpilot, G2 Reviews, ProductHunt
Editorial
Long-form content published by media outlets and industry publishers.
e.g. TechCrunch, news outlets, blogs
Forum
User-driven communities where your brand comes up in discussions.
e.g. Reddit, Quora, Hacker News, Stack Overflow
Social Listing
Profile pages on social platforms that act as a brand directory.
e.g. LinkedIn company page, Twitter/X profile
Why citations matter

AI engines pull from directories. SEO long-tail anchors hide there.

When an AI assistant recommends a tool, it often grounds the recommendation in G2, Capterra, or Crunchbase content it has seen. Three directory listings means your brand appears in three search results when a user searches once. Directories are the cheapest, longest-lasting authority surface a brand can claim, and they're easy to miss without a tool watching them.

1Search performed
3+Results returned (if you're listed)
Gap List

Where your competitors are listed and you are not.

The Gap List surfaces directories where competitors appear but your brand doesn't, with a one-click submit link for each. A G2 or Capterra submission takes 30 minutes and pays back forever. Schedule the scan weekly and the gap list refreshes itself.

In the BrandCrux loop

Authority Signals are one channel. Topic Authority is the composite.

Every citation gets classified by type and tagged with the authority topic it belongs to. Per-topic, your citation count rolls into the composite Topic Authority score alongside AI mentions, SERP positions, social engagement, and on-site crawl depth.

Find every directory you should be on.

Free 300-credit trial. Directory scans cost 5 credits per topic × target. A 5-topic × 5-target scan = 125 credits, and surfaces dozens of directories you didn't know you were missing.

Start free →