Playbooks · How to Build Recognition, Step by Step

How to read your own Recognition Triangle

20 minutes·You'll need: your site, a private browser window

Before you book a diagnostic or a Snapshot, you can get a real, honest first read of your own Recognition Triangle with nothing but your own site and a browser. This playbook walks you through it.

In one paragraph

This playbook is a self-run, twenty-minute process for checking your brand against the three conditions of the Recognition Triangle: Clarity, what you stand for; Credibility, what can be verified; and Earned Authority, what others say when you are not in the room. It tells you which condition looks weakest, so you know where to start. It does not score you or benchmark you against your category; that is what the Recognition Diagnostic and the Recognition Snapshot are for.

Why do this yourself first

Most brands cannot say which of the three conditions is actually costing them recognition. They assume the problem is visibility, so they publish more, when the real gap is Credibility or Earned Authority, and more content does nothing for either.

This playbook will not give you a score. What it gives you is a direction: a first, honest read of where to look, before you spend money finding out formally.

The six steps

Work through these in order. Each one checks a different part of the Triangle.

Write your one-sentence definition

Without opening your website or your own marketing copy, write one sentence stating what you do and who it is for. Then compare it to what your homepage and About page actually say. If a stranger, or a machine, would need to read three paragraphs to get what you just said in one sentence, that is your answer.

Checks: Clarity

List what is verifiable

Go through your own site, page by page, and count how many claims sit next to something that proves them: a named client, a credential, a result, a date, a source. A claim with nothing beside it is an assertion, not a signal. Note the ratio, not just the count.

Checks: Credibility

Search yourself as if you are not you

Open a private browser window and ask two or three AI systems who you are, or who does the work you do in your area. Note whether you are named at all, what is cited if you are, and whether the description is accurate. Do not correct or coach the model. You are observing, not arguing.

Checks: Earned Authority

Map what you found to the three conditions

Line the three results up side by side. One of Clarity, Credibility, or Earned Authority will look noticeably weaker than the other two. That is the condition holding your Triangle back, not the other two, because the Triangle fails at its weakest point, not its average.

Checks: All three, together

Note your likely Recognition Pattern, lightly

The Recognition Patterns from the diagnostic (Promising Claim, Hidden Expert, Validated Generalist, Strong Foundation, Recognized Authority, Decaying Authority) each describe a specific combination of the three conditions. Use your weakest condition as a rough pointer toward one of them, and treat it as a hunch, not a result.

Directional only

Decide the one thing to fix first

Pick the single weakest condition and commit to addressing that one before touching the other two. Sequencing is most of the method: fixing Credibility before Clarity is stated plainly, or chasing Earned Authority before anything is verifiable, both waste effort.

The decision

What this does not replace

Read this before you act on your result

This is a directional self-read, not a scored one. It will not tell you exactly where you rank against the six Recognition Patterns, will not benchmark you against others in your category, and will not hand you the specific assets or templates to build.

That is deliberate. The Recognition Diagnostic (free, fifteen questions) returns one of the six Recognition Patterns formally. The Recognition Snapshot (paid) goes further again: a full, benchmarked read of what AI says about you today, with the method shown, plus the specific work to close the gap.

What Aingworth increases is the probability of accurate recognition and citation across AI-driven discovery, and we report honestly on what changes. No playbook, diagnostic, or engagement can promise that any specific AI system will name or recommend you.

Common Questions

Questions people ask about this playbook.

How long does this playbook take?

About twenty minutes for a first pass. Longer if your site has many pages to check for Credibility, or if you take time comparing answers across several AI systems for Earned Authority.

Does this replace the Recognition Diagnostic?

No. This playbook gives you a directional, self-run read. The Recognition Diagnostic is fifteen scored questions that return one of six named Recognition Patterns, and the Recognition Snapshot goes further still, with a full benchmarked read of what AI says about you today.

What if all three conditions look weak?

That is common, and it is still useful information. Pick the condition that looks weakest relative to the other two rather than trying to fix everything at once. Sequencing the work is most of the method.

Which AI systems should I ask for the Earned Authority check?

Two or three is enough for a directional read, for example ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Models disagree with each other, and that disagreement is itself informative.

Ready for the scored version?

Run the free diagnostic for a scored read across all three conditions, or explore the rest of the playbooks.

Run the Free Diagnostic All Playbooks