01 F1–F5 framework

Visibility is engineered, not guessed.

Answer engines don't reward effort, they reward structure. The method below is the order in which structure has to arrive — and each step has an output you can check.

The same seven entities, resolved

Phases
Five
Metrics
Four
Engines tested
Six
Entry point
F1 audit

03 Phase detail

What each phase takes in, and what it hands over.

  1. F1 Disconnected

    Diagnosis

    AI Visibility Audit

    Where do we appear today, and where do we not?

    We measure how the answer engines describe your brand right now, across a repeatable prompt set rather than a handful of spot checks.

    Rule 30–40 prompts × 4 models × 3 iterations

    Takes in

    • Brand, category and competitor set
    • Target questions and buying intents

    Hands over

    • Share of Recommendation, Citation Share, Top3 and co-mention baselines
    • Entity disambiguation map
    • Prioritized gap list
    F1 in full
  2. F2 Structured

    Knowledge

    Entity & Knowledge Hub

    Does the machine know who you are and what you sell?

    We build the verifiable claims and the entity architecture an engine needs before it will describe you accurately, let alone recommend you.

    Rule One canonical URL per concept

    Takes in

    • Product and service facts
    • Proof, credentials and sources

    Hands over

    • Canonical entity definitions and relationships
    • Structured data and knowledge hub pages
    • One definition per concept, reused everywhere
    F2 in full
  3. F3 Connected

    On-page

    Content Optimization

    Can a machine lift an answer straight out of the page?

    We make content extractable: a question, an answer that stands alone in two sentences, then the context — plus the schema, tables and comparisons engines actually quote.

    Rule Question → answer in two sentences → context

    Takes in

    • Existing pages and content gaps
    • Question sets from F1

    Hands over

    • Rewritten pages in the extraction pattern
    • Schema, comparisons, listicles and FAQs
    • Internal links that state the relationship
    F3 in full
  4. F4 Authoritative

    Off-page

    Authority Building

    Does anyone else confirm it?

    External signals and digital PR, written so third-party sources repeat the same three facts about you that your own site states.

    Rule Name + category + differentiator, every time

    Takes in

    • Positioning and differentiator
    • Target publications and directories

    Hands over

    • Consistent third-party mentions
    • Corroborating sources engines already trust
    • Improved co-mention set
    F4 in full
  5. F5 Recommended

    Monitoring

    AI Visibility Monitoring

    Is it holding, and against whom?

    Monthly tracking and a quarterly competitive comparison, using the same prompt set as the audit so every number stays comparable.

    Rule Monthly tracking, quarterly comparison

    Takes in

    • The F1 prompt set
    • Competitor watch list

    Hands over

    • Monthly movement in the four metrics
    • Quarterly competitive comparison
    • Next actions, ranked
    F5 in full

04 Why this order

Three reasons the sequence is not negotiable.

01 Sequential
Each phase depends on the one before it. Optimizing content before the entities are defined just spreads the ambiguity further.
02 Measurable
Every phase reports into the same four numbers, gathered the same way, so progress is comparable month to month.
03 Compounding
Structure makes content extractable; extractable content earns citations; citations feed authority. The later phases pay back the earlier ones.

05 Answers

About the method.

01 Do we have to run all five phases?

No. Every engagement starts at F1 because the audit sets the baseline, but where you go next depends on what the audit finds. Some brands need entity work first, others need content or authority.

02 How long does a phase take?

The free audit comes back in five to seven working days. A full F1 engagement — competitor set, prompt design, the whole measurement — takes two to three weeks. The build phases after it run in cycles rather than as one-off projects, because answer engines re-crawl and re-evaluate continuously.

03 Why is the prompt set fixed?

Because comparability is the whole point. Running the same 30 to 40 prompts across four models and three iterations means a change in the numbers reflects a change in your visibility, not a change in the test.

04 What if our category has no clear competitors in AI answers?

That is a finding, not a problem. Where an engine has no confident recommendation set, the cost of becoming the default answer is much lower — and F2 usually does most of the work.

06 Start at F1

Every engagement begins with the baseline.

The free AI Visibility Audit runs the F1 measurement on your brand and reports what the six engines currently say.

  • Platform-by-platform visibility snapshot
  • Entity clarity assessment
  • Competitor comparison
  • Prioritized actions

No account, no analytics access, no obligation.