Complete Visibility Suite: Which Tool When

Reading time: 16 minutes

TLDR

Start with Surmado Scan if your website has technical issues. Start with Surmado Signal if AI platforms recommend competitors instead of you. Start with Surmado Solutions if you’re facing a strategic decision. Want all three? The $100 bundle gives you 6 credits to use across all tools.

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Not sure whether you need Signal, Scan, or Solutions? This guide helps you choose based on your situation, goals, and budget.

Most businesses fall into one of five scenarios. Find yours below and follow the recommended path.

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Quick Decision Matrix

Your Situation	Start With	Cost	Timeline	Next Step
Website has technical issues (slow, errors)	Scan	$25 or $50	2-6 weeks to fix	Add Signal after fixing basics
Google traffic is fine, but AI recommends competitors	Signal	$25 or $50	Week 1: diagnosis	Run Solutions with token (Week 2)
Facing strategic decision (pricing, expansion, investment)	Solutions	$50	15 min report	Add Signal for data-informed strategy
Want both Google and AI visibility	Bundle	$100	Parallel analysis	Implement based on gaps

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The Three Tools Explained

Surmado Signal - AI Visibility Intelligence

What it does: Shows you how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and 3 other AI systems see your business.

Surmado does not sell AI placements and cannot submit your site to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Meta AI, Grok, or DeepSeek. No one can. We test how these systems already talk about you and give you a plan to improve.

What you get:

• Presence Rate (0-100%): How often AI mentions you organically
• Authority Score (0-100): How strongly AI positions you when mentioned
• Category Share: Your % of total brand mentions vs 20-40 competitors
• Platform breakdown across 7 AI systems
• Intelligence Token for Solutions integration

Delivery: about 15 minutes Cost: $25 (Basic) or $50 (Pro with PowerPoint + deeper analysis)

When to use:

• You suspect AI recommends competitors over you
• Customers mention “ChatGPT told me about [competitor]”
• You want competitive intelligence (who ranks #1 in AI?)
• You’re planning a rebrand or messaging pivot
• You need to justify AI optimization budget to stakeholders

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Surmado Scan - SEO & Technical Audit

What it does: Complete Google baseline across 4 areas: performance, technical SEO, accessibility, and security.

What you get:

• Prioritized action plan (5 items in Basic, 10 in Pro)
• Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS)
• Technical SEO (sitemaps, meta tags, schema markup)
• Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 compliance)
• Security (SSL, headers, mixed content)
• Browser compatibility (Pro: includes social in-app browsers)
• Competitor analysis (Pro only)

Delivery: about 15 minutes Cost: $25 (Basic, 30 pages) or $50 (Pro, 100 pages + competitors)

When to use:

• Website is slow (3+ seconds load time)
• Google rankings dropped recently
• You’ve never run a technical SEO audit
• Before a major website redesign
• You’re not ranking at all for target keywords

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Surmado Solutions - AI Strategic Advisory

What it does: Six specialized AIs debate your strategic decision. Python runs Monte Carlo simulations. You get a tactical roadmap.

What you get:

• Strategic recommendation: Do it, don’t do it, or do this modified version
• 30-60 day action plan with milestones and pivot points
• Financial modeling: NPV, real options analysis, ROI calculations (when you provide numbers)
• Exit triggers: When to cut losses, when to double down
• Competitive context: If you include Signal intelligence token

Delivery: about 15 minutes Cost: $50 one-time

When to use:

• Facing a major decision: “Should I invest $50K in [X]?”
• Choosing between 2-3 strategic paths
• Need board-level analysis without hiring McKinsey
• Want real options analysis (not just NPV)
• Have Signal data and want tactical action plan

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Five Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: “My Website is Broken”

Symptoms:

• Site loads slowly (4+ seconds)
• Google Search Console shows crawl errors
• PageSpeed Insights score <50
• Missing sitemaps, broken internal links
• Not ranking for ANY keywords

Recommended path:

Week 1: Run Scan Basic ($25)

• Get prioritized list of 5 critical fixes
• Focus on quick wins (meta descriptions, image compression, sitemap)

Weeks 2-4: Implement fixes

• Target: Improve PageSpeed from <50 to 70+
• Fix broken links, add missing meta tags
• Compress images, enable caching

Week 5: Re-run Scan Basic ($25) to validate improvements

Week 6: Once technical foundation is solid, run Signal ($25)

• Now you can see how AI systems discover you
• Technical issues don’t block AI crawlers anymore

Total cost: $43 over 6 weeks Expected outcome: Site loads 2-3x faster, Google rankings stabilize, ready for AI optimization

Why not start with Signal? If your website has major technical issues, fixing those gives you more ROI than optimizing for AI discovery. Google is still 60-70% of web traffic.

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Scenario 2: “Google is Fine, But AI Recommends Competitors”

Symptoms:

• You rank well on Google (page 1-2 for target keywords)
• Google traffic is steady or growing
• But customers say “ChatGPT recommended [competitor]”
• You suspect you’re invisible in AI search

Recommended path:

Week 1: Run Signal ($25)

• Discover your Presence Rate, Authority Score, competitive rank
• See exactly which competitors dominate AI (might surprise you)
• Get Intelligence Token

Week 2: Run Solutions ($50) with your Signal token

• Paste token into Solutions form
• Get 30-day tactical plan based on your specific gaps
• Example: “Your 0% Presence Rate means GBP optimization wins over content marketing”

Weeks 3-6: Implement Phase 1 tactics

• Typical plan: GBP audit → review campaign → FAQ content
• Budget: $0-500 (mostly time, minimal ad spend)

Week 7: Re-run Signal ($25)

• Measure improvement: Did Presence Rate move from 0% → 12%?
• Validate tactics: Which platform improved most?
• Identify pivot points: If still <5%, switch to Phase 2

Total cost: $100 over 7 weeks Expected outcome: 10-15 percentage point Presence Rate improvement, move up 3-5 spots in competitive ranking

Why not include Scan? If Google traffic is already good, your technical foundation is likely solid. Focus budget on the gap (AI visibility).

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Scenario 3: “I’m Making a Big Strategic Decision”

Symptoms:

• Considering major investment ($10K-100K+)
• Choosing between 2-3 strategic paths
• Need to justify decision to partners, board, investors
• Want financial modeling (NPV, ROI, payback period)

Recommended path:

This week: Run Solutions ($50)

• Describe decision, business context, success criteria
• Get strategic recommendation with financial modeling
• Six AI perspectives challenge assumptions, find blind spots

Optional enhancement: Run Signal ($25) first, use token in Solutions

• Makes recommendations more specific
• Example: “Your 42 Authority Score means invest in content depth, not volume”
• Adds competitive context to strategic decision

Implementation: 30-60 days based on Solutions roadmap

• Clear milestones with pivot points
• Success metrics tracked at Days 30, 60, 90
• Exit triggers defined upfront

Week 6: Return to Solutions ($50) for strategic check-in

• Based on first 30 days of data, refine tactics
• Adjust milestones, update financial projections

Total cost: $50-100 (Solutions only, or Solutions + Signal) Expected outcome: Data-driven decision with clear implementation plan, measurable success criteria, and defined pivot points

Why not include Scan? Strategic decisions (pricing, expansion, new services) typically aren’t blocked by technical SEO issues. If your decision involves website changes, add Scan after getting strategic clarity.

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Scenario 4: “I Want the Complete Picture”

Symptoms:

• Planning a rebrand or major website update
• Need to justify marketing budget to stakeholders
• Want quarterly strategic check-ins as AI landscape evolves
• Competitive market where both Google and AI visibility matter

Recommended path:

Week 1: Run Complete Visibility Suite ( $100)

• Scan Pro (100 pages, competitor analysis): Your Google SEO baseline
• Signal: Your AI visibility across 7 platforms
• Solutions: Strategic roadmap combining both insights

Week 2: Analyze and prioritize

• Solutions report gives you integrated action plan
• Example: “Your Scan shows LCP issues hurting Google. Your Signal shows 0% Presence Rate. Fix LCP first (Week 2-3), then GBP blitz (Week 4-6).”

Weeks 2-8: Implement integrated strategy

• Phase 1: Critical technical fixes from Scan (Weeks 2-3)
• Phase 2: AI visibility tactics from Signal (Weeks 4-6)
• Phase 3: Advanced optimization (Weeks 7-8)

Week 9: Re-run Signal ($25) to measure AI progress Week 9: Re-run Scan Basic ($25) to validate technical improvements

Quarter 2: Return to Solutions ($50) for strategic check-in

• Review results from Quarter 1
• Adjust tactics based on what worked
• Set new goals for Quarter 2

Total cost: $100 upfront + $84 in follow-ups over 90 days = $183 Expected outcome: Measurable improvement across Google SEO, AI visibility, technical performance, and user experience. Validated with before/after metrics.

Bundle advantage:

• Buying separately: 2 + 1 + 2 credits = 5 credits needed
• Bundle: $100 for 6 credits (flexible use across any mix of reports)

7-day upgrade refund: If you bought Signal standalone ($25) and upgrade to $100 bundle within 7 days, we refund your $25.

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Scenario 5: “I’m in a Fast-Moving Competitive Market”

Symptoms:

• Competitors actively optimize for AI
• You want early warning when new threats emerge
• Customer research behavior shifts quickly
• You value continuous improvement over one-time fixes

Recommended path:

Week 0: Run the $100 bundle for 6 credits

• Establish baseline across Google + AI visibility
• Get initial strategic roadmap

Monthly: Re-run Signal ($25) to track changes

• See what changed this month
• Track competitor movement
• Monitor platform shifts

Every 6 weeks: Solutions strategic check-in ($50)

• Refine tactics based on Signal data
• Adjust milestones, pivot when necessary
• Track progress toward annual goals

Quarterly: Re-run Scan ($25 or $50) to validate technical foundation

• Ensure Google SEO doesn’t degrade while optimizing for AI
• Catch technical issues before they hurt rankings

Total cost: $100 upfront + $25/month + $50 every 6 weeks + $25 or $50/quarter Expected outcome: Sustained competitive advantage, early threat detection, continuous optimization

When this makes sense:

• Revenue over $500K per year (AI visibility directly impacts sales)
• Competitive market with 5+ strong competitors
• Fast-moving industry (customer behavior shifts quarterly)
• You’re already ranking well and want to defend position

When to skip:

• Revenue under $100K per year (one-time tools give better ROI)
• Stable market (competitors aren’t optimizing for AI)
• You’re still fixing foundational issues (technical SEO, basic GBP)

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Decision Tree

Start here and follow the branches:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Is your website broken?                                 │
│ (Slow, missing sitemaps, PageSpeed score <50)           │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┘
               │
        ┌──────┴───────┐
        │              │
       YES            NO
        │              │
        │              └──> Do you know how AI systems see you?
        │                   (Have you run Signal before?)
        │                              │
        │                       ┌──────┴───────┐
        │                       │              │
        │                      YES            NO
        │                       │              │
        v                       │              v
   Start with SCAN              │         Start with SIGNAL
   ($25 or $50, 2-6 weeks)      │         ($25, Week 1)
        │                       │              │
        │                       │              v
        │                       │         Run SOLUTIONS with token
        │                       │         ($50, Week 2)
        │                       │
        │                       v
        │              Are you making a major strategic decision?
        │              (Pricing, expansion, investment)
        │                              │
        │                       ┌──────┴───────┐
        │                       │              │
        │                      YES            NO
        │                       │              │
        │                       v              v
        │              Start with SOLUTIONS    Get BUNDLE
        │              ($50, this week)        ($100, Week 1)
        │                       │              │
        v                       │              │
   After fixing basics:         │              │
   Add Signal ($25)             │              │
        │                       │              │
        └───────────────────────┴──────────────┘
                                │
                                v
                   Implement tactics (30-60 days)
                                │
                                v
                   Re-run Signal/Scan to measure progress

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Budget-Conscious Strategy

Goal: Get analysis across 7 AI platforms for <$100, spread over 6-8 weeks

Week 1: Scan Basic ($25)

• Fix critical technical issues first
• Prioritize 5 quick wins

Weeks 2-3: Implement Scan recommendations

• Free work (meta tags, image compression, sitemap)

Week 4: Signal ($25)

• Now that technical foundation is solid
• Discover AI visibility gaps

Week 5: Solutions ($50) with Signal token

• Get tactical action plan
• Start GBP blitz, review campaign

Weeks 6-8: Implement Solutions Phase 1

• Most tactics are free (GBP optimization, review outreach)

Total cost: $84 spread over 8 weeks Savings vs bundle: $15 cheaper, but sequential vs parallel analysis

Trade-off:

• Budget path ($84): Takes 8 weeks to get full picture
• $100 bundle: Takes 1 week to get full picture, integrated strategy

If you can afford $100 upfront, bundle is better value.

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When to Re-Run Each Tool

Signal

One-time:

• Establish baseline
• Identify major gaps
• Get competitive intelligence

Monthly:

• Track progress after implementing tactics
• Validate what’s working (Presence Rate improving?)
• Catch competitor movement (did someone jump 10 spots?)
• Fast-moving competitive markets benefit from monthly re-runs

Example monthly cadence:

• Week 0: Signal baseline (0% Presence Rate)
• Week 4: Re-run after GBP blitz (now 12% ✓)
• Week 8: Re-run after review campaign (now 22% ✓)
• Week 12: Validate sustained improvement (25% ✓)

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Scan

One-time:

• Before major website redesign
• After site migration
• When Google rankings drop suddenly

Quarterly:

• Ongoing maintenance (catch issues before they hurt rankings)
• Validate technical SEO doesn’t degrade
• Track Core Web Vitals improvements

After major changes:

• New hosting provider → Re-run Scan
• Site redesign → Re-run Scan
• Major plugin/theme update → Re-run Scan

Example quarterly cadence:

• Q1: Scan baseline (PageSpeed 48)
• Q2: Re-run after optimizations (PageSpeed 78 ✓)
• Q3: Re-run to catch regressions (PageSpeed 76, slight drop)
• Q4: Re-run after fixing new issues (PageSpeed 81 ✓)

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Solutions

One-time:

• Major strategic decision (pricing, expansion, investment)
• Need board-level analysis quickly

Every 4-6 weeks:

• Strategic check-ins based on new data
• When Signal shows unexpected changes
• When tactics plateau (Presence Rate stuck at 12% for 6 weeks)

When entering new markets:

• Expanding to new geography
• Launching new service line
• Targeting new customer persona

Example 6-week cadence:

• Week 0: Solutions baseline strategy (GBP blitz recommended)
• Week 6: Solutions check-in (Presence Rate moved 0% → 15%, keep going)
• Week 12: Solutions pivot (Presence Rate stuck at 16%, switch to schema markup)
• Week 18: Solutions validation (Presence Rate now 28% ✓)

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Pricing

Individual Reports

• Scan Essentials: $25 (1 credit)
• Scan Pro: $50 (2 credits)
• Signal Essentials: $25 (1 credit)
• Signal Pro: $50 (2 credits)
• Solutions: $50 (2 credits)

Bundle

• Price: $100 for 6 credits
• Use across any tool: Mix Scan, Signal, and Solutions as needed
• Advantage: Flexible credit use, not locked into specific reports

Money-Back Guarantee

• All reports: 7-day money-back guarantee
• Not happy with your report? Full refund, no questions asked

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Special Cases

Case 1: You’re Rank #1 on Google But Invisible in AI

Symptoms:

• Page 1 for all target keywords
• Google traffic is strong
• But 0% Presence Rate in Signal

Why this happens:

• Google SEO (backlinks, keywords, technical) ≠ AI discovery (GBP, reviews, structured data)
• You’ve optimized for 2015 search, not 2025 AI discovery

Recommended path:

1. Skip Scan (you don’t need Google SEO help)
2. Run Signal ($25) → Diagnose AI visibility gaps
3. Run Solutions ($50) with Signal token → Get AI-specific tactics
4. Implement (typically GBP optimization, review campaigns, FAQ content)

Total cost: $75 Timeline: 60 days to move from 0% → 15-20% Presence Rate

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Case 2: You’re Invisible in Both Google and AI

Symptoms:

• Not ranking on Google (page 3+)
• 0% Presence Rate in AI
• Website is slow, few reviews, incomplete GBP

Why this happens:

• New business (<1 year old)
• Never invested in SEO or online presence
• Foundational issues across the board

Recommended path:

1. Run Complete Visibility Suite ( $100)
   • Scan shows technical issues
   • Signal shows AI gaps
   • Solutions prioritizes: Fix technical first, then AI
2. Weeks 2-6: Implement Scan recommendations (technical SEO)
3. Weeks 7-12: Implement Signal recommendations (AI visibility)
4. Week 13: Re-run both Scan + Signal ($34 total) to measure progress

Total cost: $133 over 13 weeks Timeline: 3-6 months to establish baseline visibility

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Case 3: You’re a Solo Founder on a Tight Budget

Symptoms:

• Revenue <$50K/year
• Budget <$50 for marketing tools
• Want maximum ROI from minimal spend

Recommended path:

Option A: Start with free tactics, validate with Signal later

1. Week 1-4: Implement free tactics (complete GBP, get 10 reviews, add FAQ to website)
2. Week 5: Run Signal ($25) to measure baseline
3. Week 9: Re-run Signal ($25) to validate your free work actually helped

Total cost: $50 over 9 weeks

Option B: Get strategic direction first, implement for free

1. Week 1: Run Signal ($25)
2. Week 1: Run Solutions ($50) with Signal token → Get prioritized action plan
3. Weeks 2-8: Implement free tactics from Solutions roadmap
4. Week 9: Re-run Signal ($25) to measure improvement

Total cost: $100 over 9 weeks

Best choice: If you’re disciplined and will implement tactics, Option B gives better ROI (strategic direction prevents wasted effort).

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Common Questions

Q: Should I buy all three tools at once (bundle)?

A: If you can afford $100 upfront, yes. The integrated strategy from Solutions makes Scan + Signal insights more actionable. If budget is tight, start with Signal ($25) + Solutions ($50) = $75, add Scan later.

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Q: I already ran Signal 2 months ago. Do I need to re-run before using Solutions?

A: No! Your Intelligence Token is valid for 90 days. Paste your old token into Solutions, and you’ll get strategy based on your most recent Signal data.

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Q: Can I run Scan on my competitor’s website?

A: Yes! Scan Pro ($50) includes competitor analysis. You can run Scan on up to 3 competitor domains to benchmark your performance.

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Q: What if I don’t have time to implement the recommendations?

A: All reports include effort estimates (“3 hours,” “2 weeks,” “$500 budget”). If you lack time/expertise:

1. Share Solutions roadmap with your agency/marketing team
2. Hire a freelancer on Upwork to implement Scan technical fixes
3. Focus on highest-impact, lowest-effort items (usually GBP optimization)

Reports show you the gaps. Implementation is up to you.

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Bottom Line

Choose based on your primary gap:

Primary Gap	Start With	Add Later
Technical issues, slow site	Scan ($25 or $50)	Signal ($25) after fixing basics
Google is fine, AI recommends competitors	Signal ($25)	Solutions ($50) with token
Strategic decision needed	Solutions ($50)	Signal ($25) for competitive context
Want both Google and AI visibility	$100 bundle	Re-run Signal/Scan monthly via API automation
Competitive market	Signal monthly ($50)	Scan quarterly

Default recommendation for most businesses:

1. Week 1: $100 bundle
2. Weeks 2-8: Implement integrated action plan from Solutions
3. Week 9: Re-run Signal ($25) to measure progress
4. Quarter 2: Return to Solutions ($50) for strategic check-in

Total: $174 over 90 days for Google SEO optimization and AI visibility tracking across 7 platforms

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Ready to Get Started?

Run your first report

Learn more about Surmado →

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→ Related: Getting Started with Surmado | How Signal + Solutions Work Together | Understanding Your Signal Report