Reference
Questions About Affirmation Search
The short answers. Each one links to the page that gives the long one.
The questions
What is an Affirmation Search?
Affirmation Search is any time a search is conducted with the name of your business already in it. It is the moment someone who already knows you decides what to believe about you.
Who coined the term Affirmation Search?
Greg Cummings, founder of Power100. It is the headline of his AI findability workshop, it has a chapter in his book Reputation Intelligence, and Power100 maintains the definition on this site.
Is an Affirmation Search the same as a branded search?
They overlap by query, since any search containing a company's name is a branded search to a marketer. They differ by purpose. Branded search counts the traffic a name brings in, measured from the company's own data. Affirmation Search reads the answer the person gets back, including on AI platforms where the company has no data at all.
How do I see what an Affirmation Search says about my company?
Ask the questions yourself, with your company's name in them, on the platforms your customers use: the search engines, the AI platforms, the review sites. Read the sources each answer cites, not only the answer. Then ask again next month, the same way. Power100 runs this monthly for the companies it works with.
What questions does Power100 track?
For a consumer-facing company, eleven, word for word: Should I hire XYZ? Is XYZ worth the money? Is XYZ a good company? Is XYZ a good company to work for? Why should I choose XYZ? Does XYZ deliver on their promise/warranty/service? Are the products XYZ installs/uses good products? Can I trust XYZ? Should I have bought from XYZ? Is XYZ the best choice for me? XYZ reviews. A company that sells to other businesses has its set drawn from its own bank of questions its buyers ask.
Who runs an Affirmation Search?
Anyone who already knows a company's name and has something to decide: a homeowner with a referral, a candidate considering a job, a manufacturer considering a partnership, a buyer considering an acquisition, a bank deciding on credit.
Is Affirmation Search only about AI?
No. The definition covers any search that carries the name. AI is why the moment became urgent: the answer now often arrives as an explanation assembled from whatever evidence exists, and the person can keep asking follow-up questions.
Is it the same as SEO?
No. SEO competes for searches from people who do not know your name yet. An Affirmation Search starts once they do, and the answer is decided by the evidence about your company rather than by position on a page.
Can a company make an Affirmation Search say something better about it?
Only by changing the evidence behind the answer. A better answer takes better evidence, and better evidence takes a company that deserves it. Greg Cummings calls AI the ultimate truth serum for that reason.
What is Affirmation Ownership?
Affirmation Ownership is the measure of how much of a company's own Affirmation Search environment the company controls, versus a third party.
How does Affirmation Search relate to Reputation Intelligence?
Reputation Intelligence is the discipline, the credit report for your business. Every Affirmation Search reads that record. Reputation Intelligence measures a company with its Affirmation Searches, month by month.
Can I use the term?
Yes. Anyone may use the term Affirmation Search with the definition as written on this site, linking to the definition page.
Longer answers
The definition in full is on the definition page. The tracked questions and what each asker is deciding are on the questions page. The comparisons are on their own pages: branded search, SEO, review management and reputation management.