ScottsAI Search Diagnostic · 2026-05-07
AI Search Diagnostic · Generative-engine optimization

Scotts in AI search: where you win, where you lose, who you're really up against.

A deterministic benchmark of how five AI search surfaces describe Scotts versus its peer set. Every number on every page is computed from the captured run; raw CSVs in the appendix.

BrandScotts
Peer setPennington · Spectracide · Milorganite · Espoma · Jonathan Green · Sunday
Coverage360 queries · 4 surfaces
Generated2026-05-07
Stakes

Leading the peer set at #1 of 7, warmly framed in ambient prompts — and the framing turns critical when buyers probe.

Seven things the benchmark found.

The headline ranking conceals seven findings — each computed directly from the run — that change the strategic picture.

100%
Category-wide awareness blind spot

of awareness-stage AI answers name no brand at all — not Scotts, not any of the 6 peers tested. AI gives generic, brand-free answers when buyers start their research. Whoever produces the canonical awareness-stage content first owns the slot.

How100 − weighted_avg(mention_rate[stage=awareness]) ≥ 95% for every brand in the set
→ CDJ heatmap, section 04
89%
AI Overview is the new top-of-page

of category searches return a usable AI Overview answer block. Across 90 buyer-intent queries we ran, Google generated an AIO body on 80; the remaining 10 split into 3 where Google chose not to generate an AIO and 7 where SerpAPI's async stub never resolved within the polling window (these may still produce AIOs on a fresh query). Scotts cannot opt out of AI Search — it is now the default first thing buyers read on this category, and the per-brand share inside it (section 07) is the new top-of-funnel battleground.

Howcount(serpapi queries with AIO body) / count(serpapi queries) from results.csv
→ AI Overview vs organic, section 07
96%
Non-owned source share

of what AI says about Scotts comes from sources Scotts doesn't own. Brand-controlled domains account for 4%; the other 96% is affiliate, UGC, retailer and publisher content.

How100 − ownership_share[brand_owned] from citations.csv
→ source ownership, section 05
4
Surprise competitors

brands AI surfaces named that you did not list as peers — top of that list: Ortho. These are the de-facto competitive set AI sees for this category.

HowCOUNT(DISTINCT brand) from discovered_brands.csv WHERE mentions ≥ 5
→ discovered brands, section 02
6↑ / 1↓
AI Overview names brands at different rates than organic top-5

6 of 7 tested brands appear more often in Google's AI Overview than in the page-one organic SERP; 1 appear less often. Top mover up: Espoma (+6 pts). Top mover down: Jonathan Green (-3 pts). Scotts appears 1 pt more often in AIO than in organic top-5.

Howper-brand appearance rate in ai_overview_share_pct vs organic_serp_share_pct from ai_vs_organic_gap.csv (each rate is independent — not a share-of-voice pie)
→ AI Overview vs organic, section 07
-55 pts
Sentiment is fragile under adversarial prompts

Every brand in the set sees AI sentiment swing negative when the prompt is negatively framed (downsides, lawsuits, complaints). Mean drop: 55 pts. Scotts drops 64 pts. No brand in this category is sentiment-resilient — content investments must address the negative-zone questions buyers actually ask AI.

Howmean(adversarial_sentiment_idx − ambient_sentiment_idx) across all brands ≤ −20
→ sentiment, section 06
10×
Top unclaimed GEO target

bbb.org's top-cited page is referenced 10 times across 2 AI surfaces but does not name Scotts. Securing presence on this single page would inject Scotts into the AI source set most often pulled from for this category.

Howmax citation_count from geo_targets.csv WHERE target_in_content = 'N'
→ GEO target list, section 05
Sources · mentions.csv · citations.csv · discovered_brands.csv · brand_scores.csv Section 01 / 08
Methodology

What we asked AI, and who we compared.

90 prompts total · 41 ambient (the journey buyers travel naturally) · 49 adversarial (probing concerns the operator flagged). Ambient prompts cover 6 stages of the consumer decision journey, run against 4 AI surfaces — for Scotts and 6 peers (Pennington, Spectracide, Milorganite, Espoma, Jonathan Green, Sunday).

Awareness
6 prompts
e.g. "lawn care for beginners"
Post-purchase
5 prompts
e.g. "how to apply lawn fertilizer"
Problem identification
6 prompts
e.g. "brown spots in lawn"
Product research
12 prompts
e.g. "best lawn fertilizer 2026"
Comparison
6 prompts
e.g. "clover lawn instead of grass"
Safety / health
6 prompts
e.g. "is lawn fertilizer safe for dogs"
Awareness (6)
  1. lawn care for beginners
  2. how to take care of a lawn
  3. when to start lawn care in spring
  4. basic lawn maintenance schedule
  5. first time homeowner lawn care
  6. how often should I fertilize my lawn
Post-purchase (5)
  1. how to apply lawn fertilizer
  2. when to put down crabgrass preventer
  3. how to overseed a lawn
  4. weed and feed instructions
  5. how to use a broadcast spreader
Problem identification (6)
  1. brown spots in lawn
  2. how to fix a dead lawn
  3. lawn full of weeds what to do
  4. crabgrass taking over my yard
  5. patchy lawn repair
  6. why is my grass turning yellow
Product research (12)
  1. best lawn fertilizer 2026
  2. scotts turf builder vs pennington vanity
  3. sunday lawn care reviews
  4. best weed killer for lawns
  5. best grass seed for shade
  6. miracle gro vs espoma
  7. best organic lawn fertilizer
  8. drought tolerant grass
  9. lawn care in drought
  10. water restrictions lawn care
  11. best grass for hot dry climate
  12. how to keep lawn green with less water
Comparison (6)
  1. clover lawn instead of grass
  2. no mow lawn alternatives
  3. xeriscaping front yard
  4. pollinator friendly yard
  5. how to reduce lawn maintenance
  6. replace grass with native plants
Safety / health (6)
  1. is lawn fertilizer safe for dogs
  2. lawn chemicals safe for kids
  3. organic vs chemical lawn care
  4. lawn fertilizer health risks
  5. pesticide free lawn care
  6. is roundup safe to use

Adversarial prompts probe specific concerns the operator flagged at intake — controversies, capability gaps, integration risk, lawsuit framing. Grouped below by topic. Excluded from the headline Visibility Index; feed the sentiment-resilience and butterfly charts.

Uncategorized (49)
  1. downsides of Scotts vanity
  2. why are people switching away from Scotts vanity
  3. is Scotts actually worth it vanity
  4. common problems with Scotts vanity
  5. Scotts vs Pennington negative reviews vanity
  6. is Scotts safe for pets and kids vanity
  7. Scotts lawsuits or class action vanity
  8. downsides of Pennington
  9. why are people switching away from Pennington
  10. is Pennington actually worth it
  11. common problems with Pennington
  12. Pennington vs Pennington negative reviews
  13. is Pennington safe for pets and kids
  14. Pennington lawsuits or class action
  15. downsides of Spectracide
  16. why are people switching away from Spectracide
  17. is Spectracide actually worth it
  18. common problems with Spectracide
  19. Spectracide vs Pennington negative reviews
  20. is Spectracide safe for pets and kids
  21. Spectracide lawsuits or class action
  22. downsides of Milorganite
  23. why are people switching away from Milorganite
  24. is Milorganite actually worth it
  25. common problems with Milorganite
  26. Milorganite vs Pennington negative reviews
  27. is Milorganite safe for pets and kids
  28. Milorganite lawsuits or class action
  29. downsides of Espoma
  30. why are people switching away from Espoma
  31. is Espoma actually worth it
  32. common problems with Espoma
  33. Espoma vs Pennington negative reviews
  34. is Espoma safe for pets and kids
  35. Espoma lawsuits or class action
  36. downsides of Jonathan Green
  37. why are people switching away from Jonathan Green
  38. is Jonathan Green actually worth it
  39. common problems with Jonathan Green
  40. Jonathan Green vs Pennington negative reviews
  41. is Jonathan Green safe for pets and kids
  42. Jonathan Green lawsuits or class action
  43. downsides of Sunday
  44. why are people switching away from Sunday
  45. is Sunday actually worth it
  46. common problems with Sunday
  47. Sunday vs Pennington negative reviews
  48. is Sunday safe for pets and kids
  49. Sunday lawsuits or class action

Methodology caution: branded prompts detected

8 of 90 prompts explicitly name Scotts. The headline Visibility Index excludes those (raw share including branded: 11).

Brands AI surfaces named without you asking

Brands that appeared in responses across the prompt set — without being entered as peers. The de-facto competitive set in AI search. High confidence = ≥5 mentions; medium = 2–4; weak = single mention (treat with caution).

BrandMentionsSurfacesSignal
Ortho 7 3 of 4 high
Roundup 7 4 of 4 high
Lesco 6 2 of 4 high
Miracle-Gro 5 4 of 4 high
Simple Lawn Solutions 3 3 of 4 medium
Down to Earth 3 2 of 4 medium
Dr. Earth 3 3 of 4 medium
Vigoro 3 2 of 4 medium
The Andersons 3 2 of 4 medium
PetraTools 2 2 of 4 medium
Safer Brand 2 2 of 4 medium
SpeedZone 2 2 of 4 medium
Bonide 2 2 of 4 medium
BioAdvanced 2 2 of 4 medium
Purely Organic 2 2 of 4 medium

Source · discovered_brands_summary.csv

Sources · prompts.csv · prompt_matrix.csv Section 02 / 08
Visibility Index

Scotts ranks #1 of 7, but the absolute score is minor presence.

The Visibility Index is the weighted % of AI answers that mention the brand — averaged across 6 CDJ stages × 4 AI surfaces. 0 = brand never appears; 100 = brand named in every answer (theoretical ceiling).

7/100
Rank 1 of 7 · +5 pts vs peer avg

Scotts leads the peer set on visibility, but at 7/100 the absolute presence is minor presence — across categories, most brands score in single digits because AI search frequently answers without naming any brand at all.

0–4
Invisible
5–14
Minor presence
15–29
Recognized
30–49
Dominant
50+
Category-defining
Visibility Index, Scotts vs peer set
brand_scores.csv
035810 Scotts 7 Milorganite 3 Espoma 2 Jonathan Green 1 Spectracide 1 Pennington 1 Sunday 1
VI denominator: 41 ambient prompts × 4 surfaces · vanity prompts stripped per brand · 49 adversarial prompts excluded weighted per index_weights.json
Sources · brand_scores.csv · index_weights.json Section 03 / 08
CDJ asymmetry

Where in the buyer journey does AI surface Scotts.

Mention rate by Consumer Decision Journey stage and AI surface. Stage-by-stage divergence reveals where AI's source ecosystem favors different brands.

Share of AI answers naming each brand, by stage × surface
prompt_matrix.csv · n = 360
Claude
ChatGPT
Gemini
AI Overview
Awareness
0%
0%
0%
0%
Comparison
0%
0%
0%
0%
Product research
18%
25%
27%
20%
Post-purchase
0%
20%
0%
20%
Problem identification
0%
0%
0%
0%
Safety / health
0%
0%
17%
20%
Claude
ChatGPT
Gemini
AI Overview
Awareness
0%
0%
0%
0%
Comparison
0%
0%
0%
0%
Product research
17%
0%
17%
18%
Post-purchase
0%
0%
0%
0%
Problem identification
0%
0%
0%
0%
Safety / health
0%
0%
17%
20%
Claude
ChatGPT
Gemini
AI Overview
Awareness
0%
0%
0%
0%
Comparison
0%
0%
0%
0%
Product research
9%
0%
9%
10%
Post-purchase
0%
0%
0%
0%
Problem identification
0%
0%
0%
0%
Safety / health
0%
17%
17%
0%
Claude
ChatGPT
Gemini
AI Overview
Awareness
0%
0%
0%
0%
Comparison
0%
0%
0%
0%
Product research
8%
0%
17%
9%
Post-purchase
0%
0%
0%
0%
Problem identification
0%
0%
0%
0%
Safety / health
0%
0%
0%
0%
StageScottsPeer avgGap
Awareness 0% 0% +0 pts
Comparison 0% 0% +0 pts
Product research 30% 11% +18 pts
Post-purchase 10% 0% +10 pts
Problem identification 0% 0% +0 pts
Safety / health 9% 4% +4 pts
Source · prompt_matrix.csv · 41 ambient prompts × 4 surfaces × 7 brands · vanity stripped per brand · 49 adversarial excluded Section 04 / 08
Source ownership

Owned content is 4% of what AI cites about Scotts.

Brand-owned domains account for 4% of cited material. The other 96% is third-party — affiliate, UGC, retailer and publisher content. That ratio is the lever, not the constraint.

Share of AI-cited sources, by ownership class
citations.csv · brand-level breakdowns
Brand-owned 4% scottsmiraclegro.com, scotts.com, scotts.pissedconsumer.com
Seed: 467 citations from responses where Scotts was named (across all 90 prompts × 4 AI surfaces) click a segment for top quotes
Brand-owned 11% milorganite.com, milorganite.org
Affiliate / review 12% lawnphix.com, lawnlove.com, bobvila.com
UGC 28% youtube.com, reddit.com, thelawnforum.com
Publisher 11% jimmylewismows.com, beyondpesticides.org, mensjournal.com
Retailer 11% homedepot.com, walmart.com, growcycle.com
Other 27% radicalmoderate.online, growingagreenerworld.com, alphaoneinc.com
Seed: 310 citations from responses where Milorganite was named (across all 90 prompts × 4 AI surfaces)
Brand-owned 9% espoma.com, espomapro.com
Affiliate / review 16% bobvila.com, garden.org, whygoodnature.com
UGC 23% youtube.com, facebook.com, reddit.com
Publisher 6% topclassactions.com, classaction.org, mensjournal.com
Retailer 15% homedepot.com, walmart.com, domyown.com
Other 31% marijuanapassion.com, deneweths.com, meadowsfarms.com
Seed: 308 citations from responses where Espoma was named (across all 90 prompts × 4 AI surfaces)
Brand-owned 19% jonathangreen.com, jonathangreenphd.com
Affiliate / review 15% lawnphix.com, bbb.org, trustpilot.com
UGC 31% reddit.com, youtube.com, thelawnforum.com
Publisher 5% truthinadvertising.org, mensjournal.com, lawnsynergy.com
Retailer 9% walmart.com, homedepot.com, lowes.com
Other 21% grasscure.com, ralphsway.com, dockets.justia.com
Seed: 206 citations from responses where Jonathan Green was named (across all 90 prompts × 4 AI surfaces)
Per-class quote panels are scraped only for the target brand (Scotts) in this run. Click the Scotts tab above to see top quotes by ownership class.
Click a segment or legend row above to see the top quotes AI is pulling from that source class.
Top quotes · Affiliate / review
Highest-frequency excerpts AI surfaces pulled from this source class. Sampled from citations.csv, joined with the scraped quote corpus.
Top URLs in this class · cited × surfaces
  1. trustpilot.com/review/scotts.com 6× · 3 surfaces
  2. lawnchick.com/scotts-vs-pennington/ 5× · 3 surfaces
  3. greensidelawncare.com/scotts-vs-pennington-review/ 5× · 2 surfaces
  4. freeplants.com/scotts-vs-pennington-grass-seed/ 4× · 2 surfaces
  5. lawnphix.com 3× · 1 surface
  6. lawnchick.com 3× · 1 surface
  • lawnchick.com · Claude · about Scotts
    "In today’s article I’ll compare Scotts vs Pennington lawn care products to help you determine which brand might be best for you in terms of grass seed, fertilizer, and the best weed and feed products."
    https://lawnchick.com/scotts-vs-pennington/
  • greensidelawncare.com · Claude · about Scotts
    "We decided to test: * Scott’s EZ Seed * Pennington One Step Seed * Jaguar Tall Fescue Seed * 5 Way Blend Fescue Seed All products were purchased at a local store – we did not contact Scotts or Pennington."
    https://greensidelawncare.com/scotts-vs-pennington-review/
  • freeplants.com · Claude · about Scotts
    "The decision to purchase Scotts or Pennington’s grass seeds generally depends on what is it that you need and how knowledgeable and how much experience you have in lawn maintenance."
    https://www.freeplants.com/scotts-vs-pennington-grass-seed/
  • bobvila.com · Claude · about Scotts
    "Scotts Turf Builder is one of the most popular and economical fertilizer and weed control combination products available."
    https://www.bobvila.com/reviews/best-weed-and-feed-2026/
  • todayshomeowner.com · Claude · about Scotts
    "Scotts My Lawn app : The My Lawn app from Scotts allows you to enter information about your grass type, lawn size, and your location, and then you will get recommendations on what you need and when to apply it."
    https://todayshomeowner.com/lawn-garden/guides/trugeen-vs-scotts/
Source · top_quotes.csv (web-scraped from citation URLs) Showing top 5 of 90 cited URLs
Top quotes · UGC
Highest-frequency excerpts AI surfaces pulled from this source class. Sampled from citations.csv, joined with the scraped quote corpus.
Source · top_quotes.csv (web-scraped from citation URLs) Showing top 3 of 135 cited URLs
Top quotes · Publisher
Highest-frequency excerpts AI surfaces pulled from this source class. Sampled from citations.csv, joined with the scraped quote corpus.
Top URLs in this class · cited × surfaces
  1. oasisturf.com/blog/4-big-problems-with-the-scotts-4-step-lawn-care-approach 4× · 2 surfaces
  2. mensjournal.com/home-living/best-lawn-fertilizers 3× · 2 surfaces
  3. lawnsynergy.com 2× · 1 surface
  4. jonathangreen.com 2× · 1 surface
  5. oasisturf.com 2× · 1 surface
  6. lawnsynergy.com/collections/weed-killer-for-lawns 1× · 1 surface
Source · top_quotes.csv (web-scraped from citation URLs) Showing top 5 of 56 cited URLs
Top quotes · Retailer
Highest-frequency excerpts AI surfaces pulled from this source class. Sampled from citations.csv, joined with the scraped quote corpus.
Source · top_quotes.csv (web-scraped from citation URLs) Showing top 4 of 48 cited URLs
Top quotes · Other
Highest-frequency excerpts AI surfaces pulled from this source class. Sampled from citations.csv, joined with the scraped quote corpus.
Source · top_quotes.csv (web-scraped from citation URLs) Showing top 6 of 117 cited URLs

SEO is the 4%. Generative-engine reach is the other 96%.

SEO budgets target the slice Scotts owns directly. Generative engines pull most of their substance from affiliate review, UGC, publisher and retailer ecosystems. Each percentage point of UGC or affiliate citation share is leverage on AI visibility that classical SEO does not buy.

Source breadth · How evenly AI's sources are spread across the 6 ownership classes

Range 0–100. High = AI sees the brand across the whole web; Low = AI knows it from one corner. Narrow source bases collapse when a single publisher reframes the brand.

BrandSource breadth
Spectracide 95
Pennington 95
Milorganite 94
Espoma 93
Jonathan Green 92
Scotts 92
Sunday 81

How it's computed: normalized Shannon entropy of cited URLs across the 6 ownership classes — −Σ pi·log2(pi) / log2(6) × 100, where pi is the share of each class. 100 = perfectly even (16.7% in each class); 0 = every citation from a single class. From brand_scores.csv.

GEO priority grid · sentiment × cited

Cross-cut of the audited GEO target pages by (a) whether Scotts is on the page and (b) page-level sentiment toward whoever IS named. Click a cell to expand the top 5 URLs in that quadrant. From 212 audited pages. Sentiment via Haiku, page bodies via Bright Data.

Scotts on page · cited
Scotts NOT on page · open
Positive sentiment
Neutral sentiment
Negative sentiment

Defense priority · Scotts cited with negative sentiment

Pages where AI is pulling negative framing about your brand. Highest leverage to correct — invest in alternative content that ranks for the same queries, or directly engage the page (response, correction).

  1. https://www.oasisturf.com/blog/4-big-problems-with-the-scotts-4-step-lawn-care-approach
    4× cites · Claude, AI Overview · publisher
  2. https://pennington-seed.pissedconsumer.com/review.html
    6× cites · Claude · ugc · peers (positive): Pennington, Jonathan Green
  3. https://pennington-seed.pissedconsumer.com/reviews/RT-P.html
    6× cites · Claude · ugc · peers (negative): Pennington
  4. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/getsunday.com
    2× cites · Claude · affiliate · peers (negative): Sunday

Cited but flat · Scotts mentioned without favorable framing

Pages that name your brand but describe it in neutral / matter-of-fact terms. The narrative is open — invest in editorial relationships, sharper positioning copy, or supporting evidence (case studies, analyst notes) that pull the framing positive.

  1. https://lawnchick.com/scotts-vs-pennington/
    6× cites · Claude, ChatGPT, AI Overview · affiliate · peers (positive): Milorganite
  2. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/scotts.com
    6× cites · Claude, ChatGPT, AI Overview · affiliate
  3. https://greensidelawncare.com/scotts-vs-pennington-review/
    7× cites · Claude, AI Overview · affiliate · peers (negative): Pennington
  4. https://www.diychatroom.com/threads/scotts-grass-seed-vs-pennington-grass-seed.431841/
    5× cites · Claude, AI Overview · ugc
  5. https://www.mensjournal.com/home-living/best-lawn-fertilizers
    4× cites · Claude, AI Overview · publisher
  6. https://www.freeplants.com/scotts-vs-pennington-grass-seed/
    4× cites · Claude, AI Overview · affiliate

Already winning · Scotts cited positively

Sources where AI describes your brand favorably. Maintain the relationship; don't over-invest where you're already winning.

  1. https://www.yourgreenpal.com/blog/pet-safe-lawn-fertilizer
    2× cites · Claude, AI Overview · affiliate · peers (positive): Milorganite · peers (negative): Espoma
  2. https://lawnphix.com/lawn-care/organic-fertilizer-for-lawn/
    2× cites · Claude, AI Overview · affiliate · peers (positive): Milorganite, Espoma
  3. https://www.bobvila.com/reviews/best-liquid-lawn-fertilizer/
    2× cites · Claude · affiliate
  4. https://lawnbyseason.com/best-lawn-fertilizer
    2× cites · Claude · affiliate · peers (positive): Pennington, Milorganite, Jonathan Green

Peers winning · Scotts absent, peers positively framed

Pages where competitors get favorable framing and your brand isn't named at all. Highest-risk cell — these are pages buyers are reading and your brand isn't in the conversation. Plant content, earn placement, or build the comparable page yourself.

  1. https://www.thelawnforum.com/threads/milorganite-what-do-you-guys-think-of-it.12336/
    4× cites · Claude, AI Overview · ugc · peers (positive): Milorganite
  2. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5369018/espoma-and-miracle-grow-fertilizer
    2× cites · Claude, AI Overview · ugc · peers (positive): Espoma
  3. https://www.milorganite.com/blog/garden-landscape/dog-friendly-landscape-ideas
    2× cites · Claude, AI Overview · publisher · peers (positive): Milorganite
  4. https://www.indeed.com/cmp/The-Pennington-School/reviews
    3× cites · Claude · ugc · peers (positive): Pennington
  5. https://www.jonathangreen.com/product/organic-lawn-food/
    2× cites · Claude · publisher · peers (positive): Jonathan Green

Offense priority · peers present, narrative open

Pages where peers appear but no brand owns the narrative — neutral comparisons, listicles, category overviews. Most actionable cell for new GEO investment: get on the page before a peer locks in the positioning.

  1. https://www.bbb.org/us/ga/madison/profile/fertilizer-plant-equipment/pennington-seed-0443-27271234/c…
    10× cites · Claude, ChatGPT · affiliate
  2. https://garden.org/thread/view/105525/Espoma-vs-Miracle-Gro-vs-Shultz/
    8× cites · Claude, AI Overview · affiliate
  3. https://www.milorganite.com/what-is-milorganite/safety
    6× cites · Claude, ChatGPT, AI Overview · publisher
  4. https://www.milorganite.com/faq
    6× cites · Claude, ChatGPT, AI Overview · publisher
  5. https://www.espoma.com/learn-grow/faq/
    6× cites · Claude, ChatGPT, AI Overview · publisher
  6. https://www.whygoodnature.com/blog/espoma-lawn-fertilizer-review
    8× cites · Claude, AI Overview · affiliate

Skip · competitor takedowns

Pages where peers are described negatively and you're not on them. Trying to plant your brand here would associate it with the takedown — leave alone.

  1. https://jimmylewismows.com/blog/no-more-milo
    8× cites · Claude, AI Overview · publisher · peers (negative): Milorganite
  2. https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/penningtons.com
    5× cites · Claude, ChatGPT · affiliate · peers (negative): Pennington
  3. https://www.domyown.com/is-spectracide-triazicide-insect-killer-for-lawns-and-landscapes-safe-for-do…
    2× cites · Claude, AI Overview · retailer · peers (negative): Spectracide
  4. https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/has-anyone-tried-this-product.74380/
    4× cites · Claude · ugc · peers (negative): Espoma
  5. https://www.jonathangreen.com/shop/
    3× cites · Claude · publisher · peers (negative): Jonathan Green

Full ranked list of every cited URL — class, surfaces, cite count, audit verdict — is in geo_targets.csv in the data folder.

Source · citations.csv · geo_targets.csv · 2640 URLs classified across 4 surfaces Section 05 / 08
Sentiment

Visibility without favorable framing erodes consideration.

How AI surfaces frame each brand when they mention it. Index ranges from −100 (consistently critical) to +100 (consistently favorable). When the adversarial-prompt zone is run, the resilience column shows how sentiment shifts when AI is asked downside / lawsuit / complaint questions.

Sentiment Index, by brand · ambient vs adversarial
brand_scores.csv
Adversarial Ambient 3333676710010000 20 100 Spectracide 30 100 Milorganite 42 100 Espoma 27 91 Scotts 50 88 Jonathan Green 40 75 Sunday 20 58 Pennington
BrandAmbientAdversarialResilience
Spectracide 100 20 -80
Milorganite 100 30 -70
Espoma 100 42 -58
Scotts 91 27 -64
Jonathan Green 88 50 -37
Sunday 75 40 -35
Pennington 58 20 -39
Ambient = avg sentiment on default-prompt responses · Adversarial = avg sentiment on negative-priming responses (downsides, complaints, lawsuits) · Resilience = Adversarial − Ambient (drops > 40 pts flag a brand-fragility risk)
Source · brand_scores.csv · sentiment classified across all collected responses Section 06 / 08
AI Overview gap

How often AI Overview names each brand vs. classical top-5 organic.

Per-brand appearance rate — % of category queries the brand is named in. Each rate is independent (not a share-of-voice pie), so all brands can rise or fall together. The comparison surfaces who AIO mentions more readily than the page-one ranked SERP does.

89% of category searches return a usable AI Overview.

Google generated an AI answer block with body content on 80 of 90 queries we ran. The remaining 11% splits into two failure modes: 3 (3%) were explicitly suppressed by Google, and 7 (8%) were silently suppressed — Google returned an AI Overview wrapper but never produced an answer (every one of these is an adversarial / lawsuit-framed query). Both gaps are signal: AI Overview is the new default top-of-page for buyer-intent queries, but goes quiet on negative-framed questions — meaning brand defense in this category is fought in classical organic, Reddit, and YouTube, not in the AI answer.

AI Overview share vs classical organic top-5 share
ai_vs_organic_gap.csv
AI OVERVIEW ORGANIC SERP 0%25%50%75%100% Espoma Sunday Milorganite Pennington Spectracide Scotts Jonathan Green
BrandAI Overview shareOrganic SERP shareGap (AI Overview − Organic)
Espoma 11% 6% +6 pts
Sunday 13% 8% +5 pts
Milorganite 11% 7% +5 pts
Pennington 16% 14% +2 pts
Spectracide 9% 8% +1 pt
Scotts 16% 16% +1 pt
Jonathan Green 6% 9% -3 pts
Publishers absorbing each surface · top 6 in AIO vs organic top-5
Top AI Overview publishers (AIO citation count)
  • youtube.com218× cited
  • reddit.com93× cited
  • homedepot.com39× cited
  • facebook.com36× cited
  • scottsmiraclegro.com24× cited
  • lawnstarter.com14× cited
Top organic top-5 publishers (per-query rank ≤ 5)
  • reddit.com73× ranked
  • facebook.com35× ranked
  • youtube.com22× ranked
  • scottsmiraclegro.com16× ranked
  • trugreen.com11× ranked
  • homedepot.com10× ranked

Differences between the two columns explain the brand-level gap above: a publisher that dominates one surface and not the other is where AI Overview and classical SERP diverge in this category. Use it to read who the share is really flowing to.

Discovered brands AI surfaces unprompted — promoted to the methodology page (02), inside the peer-set warning callout.

Source · ai_vs_organic_gap.csv Section 07 / 08
Buyer questions

What buyers are actually asking, in their own words.

Questions Google's "People Also Ask" surfaced for prompts in this scope, plus related-search queries. Tagged with which user-input brand each query names — branded queries are the highest-leverage SEO/GEO targets.

Buyer-question mix · branded vs category-only demand
paa.csv · related_searches.csv
PAA
269 questions
Related
searches
547 queries
Naming Scotts PAA 6.3% · RS 9.7% Branded demand signal — Google's algorithm thinks buyers are searching for your name.
Naming a peer PAA 32.7% · RS 37.3% Top peer mentions: Pennington (45) · Sunday (42) · Milorganite (39)
Category-only PAA 61% · RS 53% No brand named — generic category-level intent.
Click any segment of the bars above to see the top 10 questions or related searches in that category.
Top PAA · Naming Scotts
Showing top 10 of 17. People-also-ask questions Google surfaced that explicitly named Scotts. Highest-leverage SEO/GEO targets — capture the answer page and you own the branded-PAA slot.
  1. Which is better, Scotts or Pennington? 2 prompts
  2. Is Pennington owned by Scotts? 2 prompts
  3. Is Sunday lawn care better than Scotts? 2 prompts
  4. Is Scotts or TruGreen better? 2 prompts
  5. What happens if it rains a couple hours after putting Scotts fertilizer down? 2 prompts
  6. Is Pennington better than Scotts for sun and shade? 2 prompts
  7. Is Jonathan Green or Scotts better? 2 prompts
  8. Is Scotts lawn fertilizer safe for dogs? 1 prompt
  9. What Scotts fertilizer to use in October? 1 prompt
  10. Why did Scotts turf builder burn my lawn? 1 prompt
Showing top 10 of 17
Top PAA · Naming a peer
Showing top 10 of 88. People-also-ask questions naming peer brands. Each is a chance to insert Scotts into a comparison answer.
  1. Is Jonathan Green fertilizer safe? 5 prompts
  2. How long does Milorganite last on a lawn? 4 prompts
  3. Is Pennington fertilizer good? 3 prompts
  4. What's better than Sunday lawn care? 3 prompts
  5. Is Spectracide as bad as Roundup? 3 prompts
  6. Is Pennington a good brand of grass seed? 3 prompts
  7. Is Espoma fertilizer toxic? 3 prompts
  8. Will Espoma burn plants? 3 prompts
  9. Is Espoma really organic? 3 prompts
  10. Does Pennington Smart Patch work? 2 prompts
Showing top 10 of 88
Top PAA · Category-only
Showing top 10 of 164. Generic category-level questions — no brand named. Win these answers and you become the default in pre-decision search.
  1. Is October too late to fertilize a lawn? 6 prompts
  2. What is poor man's grass? 5 prompts
  3. What is the absolute best lawn fertilizer? 5 prompts
  4. Is October too late to put down grass seed? 5 prompts
  5. What is the 150 rule for lawns? 4 prompts
  6. What does Dawn dish soap do for your lawn? 3 prompts
  7. What is the 150 rule for grass? 3 prompts
  8. What is the 1/3 rule for lawn? 3 prompts
  9. What does Dawn dish soap do to your lawn? 3 prompts
  10. What is the safest lawn fertilizer for pets? 3 prompts
Showing top 10 of 164
Top related searches · Naming Scotts
Showing top 10 of 53. Google's suggested follow-up searches that include your brand name — direct branded demand.
  1. Scotts lawn care schedule
  2. Scotts spring lawn care
  3. Scotts Natural Lawn Food
  4. Is Scotts fertilizer safe for dogs
  5. Scotts Lawn fertilizer
  6. Scotts turf builder vs pennington reviews
  7. Scotts turf builder vs pennington reddit
  8. Scotts turf builder vs pennington price
  9. Pennington vs Scotts Bermuda grass seed
  10. Scotts EZ Seed
Showing top 10 of 53
Top related searches · Naming a peer
Showing top 10 of 204. Google's suggested follow-ups naming peer brands — adjacent intent worth ranking against.
  1. Sunday lawn care
  2. Pennington grass seed
  3. Pennington Smart Seed
  4. Pennington One Step
  5. Sunday lawn care reviews reddit
  6. Sunday lawn care reviews complaints
  7. Sunday lawn care reviews consumer reports
  8. Sunday lawn care Costco reviews
  9. Sunday lawn care google Reviews
  10. Sunday lawn care vs TruGreen
Showing top 10 of 204
Top related searches · Category-only
Showing top 10 of 290. Generic category-level follow-up searches — broad intent with no brand anchor.
  1. Do it yourself lawn care schedule
  2. Lawn care for Dummies PDF
  3. Lawn care for beginners pdf
  4. Lawn care for beginners cost
  5. Best lawn care for beginners
  6. Month-by-month lawn care calendar
  7. Best DIY lawn care program
  8. How to take care of a lawn for beginners
  9. Do it yourself lawn treatment
  10. Month by month lawn care calendar PDF
Showing top 10 of 290
Source · paa.csv · related_searches.csv · sourced via SerpAPI alongside Google AI Overviews Section 08 / 08

Caveats

Snapshot. LLMs retrain quarterly; re-run before each pitch.

8 of 90 prompts named "Scotts" directly — branded prompts are excluded from the headline Visibility Index. Stripped variant in brand_scores.csv.

Peer set warning: Pennington, Spectracide, Jonathan Green, Sunday below 5% share. Re-running with AI-discovered competitors would produce a different headline.

Coverage

360 queries · 4 surfaces · 90 prompts · 2640 citations classified.

Surfaces: Claude · ChatGPT · Gemini · AI Overview.

Generated 2026-05-07. Auditable per row — every chart links to its source CSV.

Data bundle

Every score in this brief is a deterministic function of these CSVs.

Open in Excel, Sheets, or pandas to drill in, build new charts, or cite verbatim from responses.csv.

Download data bundle 20 CSVs
FileRowsContents
mentions.csv 263 Every brand mention captured. One row per (brand, prompt, surface) where the brand was named at least once.
discovered_brands.csv 86 Brands AI surfaces named in responses that you did NOT enter as peers. The de-facto competitive set in AI search.
discovered_brands_summary.csv 25 Co-mentioned brands aggregated by total mention count, ranked. `confidence`: high (≥5 mentions, real competitor), medium (2-4, worth noting), weak (1, possible noise).
prompt_matrix.csv 360 Wide pivot: one row per (prompt × surface), columns for each brand's mention count and sentiment. Best for pivoting in Excel/Sheets.
citations.csv 2,640 Every URL cited by an AI surface, with classified domain class and the brands that were mentioned in the same response.
brand_scores.csv 7 Per-brand KPI table: overall visibility, share of answers, ambient + adversarial sentiment, citation frequency, plus per-stage shares with response-count denominators, per-surface breakdowns, and adversarial-zone share.
organic_serp.csv 448 Top 5 Google classical organic results per SerpAPI prompt, with brand mentions detected in the title.
paa.csv 269 Google People-Also-Ask questions surfaced for prompts in the scope, deduped across prompts. `confidence`: high (≥3 prompts surfaced this question — strong category-intent signal), medium (2), weak (1, possibly long-tail).
related_searches.csv 547 Google related-search queries surfaced in the SerpAPI runs.
ai_vs_organic_gap.csv 7 Per-brand share in Google AI Overview vs. classical top-5 organic SERP. Negative gap = AI underweights vs. classical SERP.
prompts.csv 90 The prompt set that was run.
_meta.csv 11 Run-level metadata: target brand, peer set, surfaces queried (with response counts), prompt count, methodology one-liner. Open this first to understand the scope of any other CSV in the folder.
citation_audits.csv 481 Bright Data audit of Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, and top GEO-target URLs cited by AI surfaces. Verifies the source exists, captures actual title/score/views/transcript or page body, and flags which user-supplied brands appear in the cited content.
reddit_audits.csv 79 Reddit threads cited by AI surfaces — subreddit, score, comment count, post date, top-comment count, body length, brands mentioned. One row per unique cited Reddit URL.
youtube_audits.csv 30 YouTube videos cited by AI surfaces — channel, views, likes, comments, publish date, transcript length, description length, brands mentioned in transcript. One row per unique cited YouTube URL.
tiktok_audits.csv 4 TikTok videos cited by AI surfaces — account, views, likes, shares, post date, transcript length, brands mentioned. One row per unique cited TikTok URL.
instagram_audits.csv 4 Instagram posts/reels cited by AI surfaces — account, post type, views, likes, comments, shares, post date, brands mentioned. One row per unique cited Instagram URL.
geo_targets.csv 100 Top 100 cited URLs across all AI surfaces, ranked by total citations + multi-surface spread. The GEO investment list — pages where AI is sourcing answers. The `quadrant` column maps each audited row to the 2×2 priority grid: defense_priority (target cited + negative sentiment), offense_priority (target absent + peer positive), already_winning (target cited + positive), skip_takedown (target absent + peer negative), neutral (mixed/neutral data). Bare-domain citations and target's own domains are excluded.
top_quotes.csv 36 Verbatim excerpts from the top-cited URLs in each ownership class. Reuses Reddit/YouTube audit data when present; direct fetch otherwise. Boilerplate / chrome / timestamp-leak excerpts are filtered.
responses.csv 360 Full text of every AI response with metadata. Use for audit / direct-quote evidence in proposals.
End of report Scotts · AI Search Diagnostic · 2026-05-07