Total Graph Authority Methodology
AI assistants recommend a brand when three independent sources of trust point to it and describe it the same way. This paper is the full method for earning that position. Read it as a marketing leader to see what the work involves, or as a practitioner to run it yourself.
- →The model behind the method, and how an AI answer uses the five graphs
- →All five graphs in depth, each with the signals that move it
- →Eight phases, every one with an owner, steps, an output, and an exit check
- →A 100-point scorecard, six outcome KPIs, and a monitoring routine
- →A worked sample at every phase, following Northwind end to end
Total Graph Authority is the position a brand holds when its entity, its content, its links, its citations, and its community all agree. One version of the brand, repeated by sources that have no reason to coordinate. That agreement is what an assistant reads as trust.
Entity graph
Who the brand is, and whether every source describes it the same way. The foundation the other four build on.
Content graph
The first-party pages an assistant lifts from: clear claims, defined terms, answers it can quote without guessing.
Link graph
The independent pages that point to the brand and back up what it says about itself.
Citation graph
Where the brand is named in the sources an assistant already trusts, in the words a buyer would use.
Interaction graph
The social and community signals that show a real audience uses the brand, not just a marketing team.
Prompt set, competitors, and owners agreed before any work begins.
Where the brand stands today across every engine and every graph.
The 100-point scorecard turns the audit into a ranked list of fixes.
Make every source agree on who the brand is and what it does.
Write the pages an assistant can quote, structured to be lifted.
Earn the independent citations and links that confirm the claims.
Give the community something to use, so the interaction graph is real.
Track the six KPIs, then move effort to the graph with the most to gain.
Want this run on your brand?
Read the method, then let us benchmark where you stand. A free AI search audit scores your brand and your named competitors across the engines buyers ask.