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A figure never leaves Citino as a bare number. Visibility, share of voice, position, sentiment, and the retrieval and citation rates on the source reports all arrive in the same shape, and there is no option to drop the band or the sample size. A number charted without them is how a chance wobble gets reported as a trend.

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Fields

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number | null
The figure, in its unit. A percentage is on a 0 to 100 scale, to one decimal place. null when there are no answers behind it yet (n is 0), never 0: “not measured yet” and “measured and named in none” are different findings.
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string
How to read value, band and delta. percent for visibility, share of voice and the source rates. rank for position, where 1 means named first and lower is better: print it as a place, not with a percent sign. score for sentiment, from 0 (negative) to 100 (positive). The other units appear on a few figures elsewhere in the API.
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number | null
The ± range, in the same unit as value: the true figure could reasonably be anywhere from value - band to value + band. In the app’s words: “How far the true number could reasonably be from the one shown. It is wide when there are few answers or few questions behind it, and narrows as more come in.” See below for when it is null.
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integer
How many answers the figure rests on. “How many answers a number is based on. The more answers, the more you can trust it.” For position and sentiment, only the answers that named the brand count, so their n is usually smaller than visibility’s.
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number | null
The change since the previous period of the same length, in the figure’s unit: percentage points for a percentage, never a percent of a percent. null when there is nothing to compare with. Report rows always carry null, because a row covers one bucket and has no previous one.
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boolean
true when the change is smaller than the band, so it could be chance. “How much this moved since the previous period of the same length, in percentage points. “Within noise” means the move is smaller than the ± range, so it could be chance.” Also true whenever delta is null. A within-noise change is not a movement: do not colour it, arrow it, sort by it or alert on it.
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boolean
true when the figure rests on few answers. “This number rests on only a few answers, so read it as an early signal rather than a settled result. It firms up as we collect more each day.” The value is still there; show it with a quiet mark beside it rather than hiding it. Read this flag rather than working out your own threshold: it is set where the figure is computed, and differs by metric.
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string
measured for an ordinary figure. no_data when nothing has been measured yet: value is null and note says why. never_named when a percentage is 0 with answers behind it: the brand was measured and named in none of them. That is a finding, not an error.
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string
Present only when n is 0, saying “needs one full run”.

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When band is null

  • A figure over a single prompt. The band measures how much a figure would move if the set of questions were drawn again, so it needs more than one question. On the brands report with prompt as a dimension, and on figures computed for one prompt (Prompt detail, for example), band is null. n and low_sample are still set.
  • Domain and URL rates. A retrieval or citation rate is a share of answers Citino counted directly, not an estimate, so it carries no band, as on the Sources screen.
  • Not enough to compute one. A figure with no answers behind it has no band.
A null band is not a zero band. Do not draw it as a certain number; show n beside it instead.

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Using figures well

  • Keep the band and n with the value, in your warehouse and on your charts. Draw the band as a shaded range or an error bar.
  • Do not add up or average figures from different rows. Visibility on one engine and visibility on another rest on different numbers of answers, so their average is not your overall visibility. For a total, ask for the report with fewer dimensions: a row with no dimensions is the same figure Overview shows for the window.
  • Compare like with like. Every figure is counted over the scope the response states: the days, the engines and the claimed segments. Two figures from different scopes are different measurements.
  • In CSV, each figure becomes four columns: the value, _band, _n and _low_sample. See CSV output.

The ± band and n

What the band and the sample size mean, for a reader.

Within noise

Why a small change is not news.

How bands are computed

The method behind the band.

Reports

Figures by date, engine, segment and prompt.