Step 2: Configure your competitors

Clean up who you’re measured against in the Spotlight dashboard

Spotlight automatically discovers every brand mentioned in AI responses to your tracked prompts. That list is often longer than expected — it can include media outlets, trade associations, directories, and other brands that aren’t really your competitors.

This step is about getting that list accurate so your comparisons are meaningful.

1. Remove non-competitors from the dashboard

Go to Comparator Comparison → Configured Comparators.

You’ll see every brand that has appeared in your prompt responses. Review the list and hide any that aren’t direct competitors. Removing a brand doesn’t delete the underlying data — it just hides it from your dashboard so the comparisons stay clean.

When in doubt, keep it. You can always hide a brand later if it clutters your view. It’s harder to recover data you’ve dismissed.

2. Consolidate brand aliases

AI models don’t always spell brand names consistently. “MEXEM”, “mexem.com”, and “Mexem” might all appear as separate entries — but they’re the same brand, and should count as one.

To fix this:

1. Go to Settings → Brand settings.
2. Click Consolidate brands. The system automatically groups alternate spellings and variations under a single canonical name.
3. Verify that your own brand’s aliases are correctly grouped. This directly affects your Brand Presence score.

Run consolidation once after initial setup, then again every few months. New aliases appear as more responses are collected.

Consolidation causes your metrics to shift slightly — this is expected and is a sign the numbers are now more accurate, not that something broke.

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Done when: Non-competitors are hidden from your comparator view and brand aliases are consolidated so your Brand Presence score is counting correctly.

Next: Connect your content

Import your existing content so Spotlight can track what’s being cited.

Back: Set up prompts

Return to Step 1.