Entity authority
The accumulated trust and prominence associated with an entity in a topic.
What is Entity authority?
Entity authority emerges from consistent expertise, reliable claims, primary evidence, strong references, and recognition across independent sources. It is a useful mental model, not a single public score exposed by AI providers.
A company becomes strongly associated with password security after years of research, documentation, and third-party references.
Why it matters for AI visibility
AI answers can shape awareness and buying decisions before a person visits a website. Understanding entity authority helps teams connect what a model says with the prompts, sources, and technical signals that influenced the result. The useful next step is to observe the evidence, compare it over time, and act on the specific gap.
How to measure or use it
- Define the scope. Choose the relevant market, prompts, models, locations, and time window.
- Keep the evidence. Save the complete answer, its citations, and the page or claim being evaluated.
- Compare patterns. Look for repeated movement across prompts and models instead of reacting to one response.
- Take a specific action. Improve the owned page, correct a claim, earn third-party inclusion, or create better evidence.