Read the prompt coverage grid

What the numbers in the cells mean

Cell scores come from your rank in that one answer, not from a percentage of anything.

The legend under the grid colours those into Strong 60–100, Partial 30–59, Weak 1–29 and Absent. In the example above, the amber 35 is a Partial cell (an 11th-to-20th placement), the red 20 is a Weak one (21st or lower) and every dashed 0 is Absent. An Absent cell is drawn as a dashed outline rather than filled, so it is the one state you can spot without reading a number.

An engine's score is the average of its usable cells, rounded, and the overall score is the average of the engine scores. A miss scores 0 and still counts in the average, so absent cells are expensive.

Excluded cells are not misses

Sometimes an engine answers a question by asking where you are instead of recommending anyone. That answer names no business, so scoring it 0 would make a present business look invisible. Synup marks the cell Excluded, shows a dash instead of a number, and leaves it out of the coverage and the score.

When every engine does this for a prompt, the whole prompt is excluded. The Prompts covered card on Overview then reads, for example, 15/16 · 1 excluded: 15 of the 16 prompts had at least one engine name you, and the 16th is excluded rather than counted as a miss. A prompt that was answered and not named is Absent, and an excluded prompt is not.

Read the row, then the column

In the Lakeview example above, the Gemini column is the clearest problem. Gemini has a dashed 0 on eight of the 16 questions, including top rated family dentist, where should I go for teeth whitening, dentist open now and root canal specialist, so it names the business on 8 questions while ChatGPT names it on 12. Reading across the rows, affordable dentist, dentist with Saturday hours and best cosmetic dentist are Absent on all three engines, so those three are questions to win rather than an engine to win.

That is the difference between the two readings. A column of misses points to an engine problem (check sources and listings for that engine). A row of misses points to a question problem (publish content, set hours, or add the service that question asks about).

The questions are chosen for you

You cannot add, edit or remove a discovery prompt. Synup writes them from your category and place, and deliberately never names your business inside the question, because a question that named you would prove nothing. They are saved with the location and reused each time the report updates, so a row is comparable from one month to the next.

A report usually has up to 16 questions. If Synup could not write them, a shorter standard set of six is used, such as best …, top rated …, recommend a …, where should I go for …, affordable … and … open now. Either way the wording is fixed for that location, so a row that reads oddly for your business is worth noting but not something you can rewrite.

Select a cell to read the answer

Every cell is a button. Selecting one opens a panel on the right with the engine, the question and the stored answer.

• How the answer mentioned you appears when you were named, and shows the answer text. What the answer recommended instead appears when you were not.
• Details shows Your position (#1, Not mentioned or Excluded) and your Visibility score for that cell.
• The text is an excerpt of the engine's answer, shortened, not necessarily the whole reply. For a report made before answers were stored, the panel says the answer was not captured and that regenerating the location will store it.

For an Excluded cell the panel opens with Why this was excluded, an explanation that the engine asked for a location instead of answering, and the engine's reply.

This is most useful on your worst cell rather than your best. Open an Absent cell and read which businesses the engine recommended instead. The names you see there are the same businesses to look for on the Competitors tab.

Ask Sydekick about this prompt

At the bottom of the panel there is a separate button, Ask Sydekick about this prompt. It hands that one question and engine to Sydekick for the location you are viewing. It is optional, it needs a location in scope (if none is, it asks you to pick one in the scope bar first), and it is separate from opening the cell: opening a cell only reads the stored report and never starts Sydekick or changes anything. What Sydekick suggests afterwards is its own step, so read any suggested action before you approve it.

Where to go next

• Who does AI recommend instead of me? — the businesses that filled the cells you missed
• Which sources do AI engines cite about me? — where those answers came from