AEO Topic Opportunity Finder — User Guide
NordicPulse AI tool for finding content gaps where competitors are cited in AI search but you're not.
What is AEO Topic Opportunity Finder?
Only 61-62% of keywords overlap between traditional SEO and AI search. AEO Topic Opportunity Finder uncovers the remaining 38-39% where you're invisible. The tool expands your seed keywords to 80+ buying-intent variants, scans each with Serper for Google AIO presence and citations, cross-checks top gap keywords against Perplexity with real API calls, groups results into thematic clusters with gap scores, and generates a concrete content strategy.
Cost: 100 credits per run
How to use the tool
1. Fill in the form
- Your domain — The domain you want to analyze (e.g.
example.com) - Brand name — The name AI models might cite you as
- Competitors — Up to 5 competitor domains to compare against
- Seed keywords — 5-20 keywords representing your core topics. The tool expands these to 50-100 relevant queries with AI.
- Industry — Optional. Helps AI generate more relevant keywords.
- Search market — Norway (nb-NO) or USA (en-US)
2. Wait for the analysis
The tool runs 5 phases with a real-time segmented progress bar:
| Phase | What happens | Approx. time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Expand keywords | Gemini generates ~80 buying-intent keyword variants | 3-8s |
| 2. AIO scanning | Serper checks each keyword for AI Overview presence and citations | 10-20s |
| 3. Perplexity | Cross-checks top 10 gap keywords with real Perplexity API calls | 10-15s |
| 4. Clustering | Gemini groups keywords into 8-15 thematic clusters | 3-5s |
| 5. Strategy | Gemini generates a 4-part content strategy | 5-8s |
Total time: approximately 35-60 seconds.
3. Read the results
Understanding the results
Summary cards
- Gap score — Overall gap score 0-100 (higher = bigger opportunity)
- AIO trigger rate — Percentage of keywords that trigger AI Overview in Google
- AI Share of Voice — Your brand's share of AIO citations
- Keywords with gap — Keywords where competitors are cited but you're not
- Clusters found — Number of thematic clusters generated
Source type distribution
Visual bar showing what type of sources AI prefers:
| Source type | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Brand-friendly | Green | AI cites business sites — you CAN rank here |
| Media-only | Blue | AI cites only major media — requires PR/outreach |
| E-commerce | Amber | AI cites product platforms — requires product data |
| Mixed | Gray | Mix of source types — adapt strategy per keyword |
Topic clusters
Expandable cards sorted by gap score (highest first):
- Priority badge — critical (red), high (amber), medium (blue), low (gray)
- Gap score bar — Visual 0-100 with color coding
- Keyword table — AIO status, brand citation, competitor citations, buying intent
- Content recommendation — Specific strategy per cluster
Competitor leaderboard
Table ranking competitors by total AI citations:
- Domain, total citations, average position, top clusters
Content strategy (4 sections)
| Section | Focus |
|---|---|
| Quick Wins | Fast changes to existing content that can increase AI visibility |
| New content | Specific new articles/guides to write, with angle and target keywords |
| PR targets | Media platforms to contact for topics where source type is "media-only" |
| Structured data | Specific Schema.org markups to add per cluster |
Data integrity
| Badge | Source | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Serper — Live (green pulse) | Serper API | Real Google AIO data |
| Perplexity Sonar — Live (green pulse) | Perplexity API | Real citation cross-check |
| AI Analysis (cyan) | Gemini | Keyword expansion, clustering and strategy |
Tips
- Use 10-20 diverse seed keywords for best coverage
- Focus on clusters with high gap score AND source type "brand-friendly"
- Prioritize Quick Wins — they have the fastest ROI
- Run the analysis monthly to track progress in closing gaps
- Use the content strategy as actionable briefs for your content team
Related tools
- AI Citation Cluster — Map who is cited per topic in AI search
- Trending AI Search Volume — Discover keywords with growing AI search volume
- Pillar Content Gap Mapper — Identify missing pillar content
- Dark Traffic Estimator — Estimate hidden AI traffic in direct visits
Last updated 2026-03-19