# Diagnosis

For every topic cluster, Sitefire runs a diagnosis agent that analyzes why certain content gets cited by AI engines and yours doesn’t. The output is a structured report that ends with one clear recommended action.

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## What the Agent Analyzes

### 1. Visibility vs. Citations

The agent starts by mapping who gets mentioned and who gets cited. These are different signals:

- **Visibility** means an AI engine talks about your brand when answering a question
- **Citation** means it links to your content as a source

A brand can have high visibility (AI engines mention it frequently) but zero citations (they never link to its pages). This is common - and it’s the gap Sitefire closes.

### 2. Citation Landscape

Who owns the citations for this cluster? The agent classifies every cited URL:

| Classification | Example |
| --- | --- |
| **Corporate** | Company blogs, agency sites, SaaS review pages |
| **Editorial** | TechRadar, Forbes, industry publications |
| **UGC** | Reddit threads, Stack Overflow, community forums |
| **Competitor** | Direct competitor pages |
| **Own** | Your own content |

The distribution matters. If editorial sites own 50% of citations, the strategy is different than if corporate blogs dominate.

### 3. Top-Cited Content (3C Classification)

The agent classifies every top-cited page along three axes to identify the winning formula:

#### C1: Content Type

The most important signal. AI engines overwhelmingly cite the same type of page for a given query. If every cited result is a blog post, your product page won’t break through - regardless of how good it is.

| Content Type | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Blog Post / Article | Editorial content - guides, comparisons, listicles |
| Product / Feature Page | Marketing page for a product, feature, or pricing |
| Category / Listing Page | Collection or directory of items |
| Landing Page | Focused conversion page for a service or tool |
| Video | YouTube or video-dominant result |
| Interactive Tool | Calculator, checker, generator, playground |
| Documentation | Reference docs, API docs, knowledge base |
| Forum / Discussion | Reddit, Stack Overflow, community Q&A |

#### C2: Content Format

How is the content structured? A how-to guide and a comparison article serve fundamentally different intents - even though both are blog posts. Format mismatches are the most common missed opportunity.

| Content Format | Signals |
| --- | --- |
| How-to Guide | Step-by-step instructions |
| Listicle | Numbered list - “10 best…”, “top N…” |
| Definitive Guide | Long-form, “complete guide”, “everything you need” |
| Comparison | X vs Y, head-to-head evaluation |
| Review | Single product or service evaluation |
| Opinion / Thought Piece | Perspective, argument, commentary |
| Roundup | Curated from multiple sources or experts |
| Statistics Post | Aggregated data - “N statistics about…” |
| Checklist | Actionable verification list |
| Case Study | Real-world implementation with results |

#### C3: Content Angle

What is the hook? The winning angle tells you how to position your content against what already gets cited.

| Angle | Signals |
| --- | --- |
| Freshness | Current year in title, “2026”, “updated” |
| Speed / Ease | ”quick”, “easy”, “in 5 minutes” |
| Cost | ”free”, “cheap”, “budget”, “open-source” |
| Audience-specific | ”for beginners”, “for enterprise”, “for developers” |
| Depth | ”complete”, “ultimate”, “everything you need” |
| Niche Specificity | Narrow use case or industry vertical |
| Authority | ”expert-tested”, “we reviewed N products”, data-driven |

### 4. Your Existing Content

Finally, the agent looks at what you already have. Does your site have a page that matches the winning C1 + C2 profile? If so, how does it perform compared to the top-cited content?

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## The 4 Actions

Based on the diagnosis, Sitefire recommends one of four actions:

| Diagnosis finding | Action | What it means |
| --- | --- | --- |
| C1 or C2 mismatch | [Create content](/content/docs/actions/create-content/index.html) | You don’t have the right type or format of page. No amount of optimization will fix a product page competing against listicles. |
| C1 + C2 match, low citations | [Improve content](/content/docs/actions/improve-content/index.html) | You have the right page - it just underperforms. Sitefire scores it with the GEO Score and generates specific improvements. |
| UGC dominates citations | [Engage UGC](/content/docs/actions/engage-ugc/index.html) | AI engines cite Reddit threads and forum answers, not corporate content. The strategy is to participate where citations happen. |
| Editorial dominates citations | [Editorial coverage](/content/docs/actions/editorial-coverage/index.html) | AI engines cite publications like TechRadar or Forbes. The strategy is to earn coverage from the outlets that get cited. |

The key principle: when C1 or C2 don’t match, you need new content - not optimization. Only when your content type and format already match the cited results does page-level improvement make sense.