Intro to Research
Cognizo's research features give you three different ways to find the prompts worth tracking, depending on where you're starting from. Whether you're beginning from scratch, building on existing SEO work, or sizing up the competition, there's a research path designed for you.
Domain Research
Domain Research helps you understand the AI search prompts driving intent and traffic in your category, at the domain level. Enter any domain, and Cognizo surfaces the questions and prompts users are asking that relate to what that domain does.
It's the right starting point if you're new to AEO or haven't yet built out a prompt tracking strategy. Use it to map the landscape before you decide where to invest.
Navigate to the Research section in Cognizo and select Domain Research.
Enter the domain you want to explore. This can be your own domain or a competitor's.
Review the prompts that surface. Each one shows prompt type (informational, commercial, transactional) and volume range.
Select the prompts you want to track and add them to your Active Prompts.
Best practices
Start with your own domain before looking at competitors. Running Domain Research on your own domain gives you a baseline of how the AI search landscape sees your category. It also helps you spot gaps between what users are asking and what you're currently visible for.
Use it to validate your category assumptions. The prompts that surface aren't based on your content; they're based on what users are actually looking for in relation to your domain. You may find intent clusters you hadn't considered targeting.
Use region filters deliberately. If your business operates across multiple markets, running Domain Research for each key region can reveal meaningful differences in how users in those markets are asking questions.
Accept prompts selectively. You don't need to track everything that surfaces. Focus on prompts that align with your actual marketing priorities and the segments you serve.
Keyword Research
Keyword Research is built for teams that already have a solid SEO foundation. You bring in the keywords you're already monitoring, and Cognizo surfaces the conversational prompts your audience is using around those topics in AI search.
It bridges your existing SEO work and your AEO strategy, giving you a natural on-ramp without starting from zero.
Navigate to the Research section and select Keyword Research.
Enter the keywords you're currently tracking or want to explore. For example, if you're Brooks, you might enter "trail running shoes" or "trainers with arch support."
Review the prompts Cognizo surfaces. Each shows the prompt type and volume range.
Select the prompts that fit your strategy and add them to your Active Prompts.
Best practices
Start with your highest-priority SEO keywords. Your most important organic keywords are likely anchored to the intents your audience cares about most. Those are the right place to start bridging into AI search.
Look for intent shifts. The conversational prompts that surface around a keyword will often reveal how users frame that topic when talking to AI, which can be quite different from how they'd type it into a search bar. That shift is a useful signal for your content strategy.
Don't just track the obvious prompts. The informational prompts that surface alongside commercial or transactional ones can be just as valuable. Users who ask an informational question to an AI today might be the buyers asking a commercial question tomorrow.
Use prompt type as a filter. If you're focused on bottom-of-funnel impact right now, prioritize commercial and transactional prompts. If you're building awareness and category presence, informational prompts are your target.
Competitive Gap Analysis
Competitive Gap Analysis shows you the prompts where your competitors have AI visibility, and you don't, and the prompts where you have visibility and they don't.
Enter up to five competitors at once, and Cognizo maps out where the gaps and advantages are.
If a competitor already has visibility on a prompt, the demand is validated. The question is just whether you want to compete for it.
Navigate to the Research section and select Competitive Gap Analysis.
Enter your competitors' domains. You can add up to five at a time.
Review the prompts that surface. Cognizo will show you where competitors are building visibility that you aren't yet.
Evaluate each prompt against your strategy and add the ones worth targeting to your Active Prompts.
Best practices
Use it to validate demand, not just find gaps. When a competitor already has visibility on a prompt, you know real user intent exists behind it. That's a faster path to identifying high-priority prompts than starting from scratch.
Don't chase every gap. Not every prompt where a competitor has visibility is worth pursuing. Filter by volume and relevance to your actual business. A high-volume gap in a segment you don't serve isn't an opportunity.
Use your visibility advantages too. Competitive Gap Analysis also surfaces prompts where you have visibility and competitors don't. These are worth protecting and building on. Understand why you're winning there and double down.
Run it across multiple competitor combinations. Different competitors may be strong in different areas. Run the analysis with your closest head-to-head competitors first, then broaden to category leaders to find prompts you might never have thought to track.
Pair it with Content Studio. Once you've identified gaps worth closing, head to Content Studio to build the content that will help you show up on those prompts.
Additional Resources