Service · Web of Trust Strategy
Someone is about to check whether you are worth believing.
A technical buyer will not take your word for it. We map every independent source that vouches for you, find the gaps between them, and close the ones that matter — until the network holds without you holding it up.
Graph
Linked sources
Mapped
Sources
1,240
Density
0.38
Owned
2 anchors
Earned
3 anchors
Community
2 anchors
Sources by cluster, with the anchor count for each below. An anchor is a source other sources cite in turn.
Table view
| Cluster | Sources | Anchors |
|---|---|---|
| Owned | 312 | 2 |
| Earned | 618 | 3 |
| Community | 310 | 2 |
Linked sources
1,240
Graph density
0.38
Median path length
2.4
What it is
Reputation is a network, not a page.
Most SaaS companies and AI consultancies have trust in exactly one place: their own site. That is the one source a sceptical buyer discounts entirely. What actually convinces them is finding the same claim in three places that have no reason to agree.
So we treat it as a graph. Every source that mentions you is a node, every citation between them is an edge, and the useful question is not how many nodes you have but whether they are connected.
Find every source already citing you, including the ones you did not ask for.
Seed the gaps where a reasonable person would expect to find you and does not.
Connect clusters that never reference each other, so the web holds under scrutiny.
Connectedness
Graph density
Share of possible links between sources that actually exist. A dense graph keeps working when any single source goes quiet.
Table view
| Month | Density |
|---|---|
| Jan | 0.09 |
| Feb | 0.11 |
| Mar | 0.12 |
| Apr | 0.15 |
| May | 0.17 |
| Jun | 0.16 |
| Jul | 0.21 |
| Aug | 0.24 |
| Sep | 0.26 |
| Oct | 0.30 |
| Nov | 0.34 |
| Dec | 0.38 |
The map
Every source that vouches for you, and how they connect.
One hub, three clusters, and the cross-links between them. Node size is the number of connections; colour is the cluster. The cross-links are what we are really building — a cluster that only points at you is a dead end.
Owned
Earned
Community
Your brand
A trust graph is read by its shape: clusters that never touch are three separate audiences, not one web. Hover any node for its source.
Table view
| Cluster | Anchors | Linked sources | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owned | 2 | 10 | Properties you publish and control. |
| Earned | 3 | 13 | Third parties who chose to cite you, unpaid. |
| Community | 2 | 10 | Rooms your customers were already in. |
How it works
Map, seed, connect, compound.
01
Map
We crawl for every existing mention — threads, reviews, podcasts, AI answers — and plot it, including the ones you had no idea existed. Most clients are surprised in both directions.
02
Seed
We fill the obvious absences first — the review sites, communities and comparisons a careful buyer checks and currently does not find you in.
03
Connect
We work the edges between clusters. A podcast that cites your docs, or a Reddit thread that links a G2 review, is worth more than either alone.
04
Compound
Once density passes roughly 0.3 the network starts producing citations we did not place, which is the point at which it is working.
Where the links come from
Earned sources carry the most weight.
Owned sources are the easiest to create and the least persuasive. Earned and community sources are slower and do nearly all the convincing.
Owned
Earned
Community
Linked-source index by anchor, 100 = strongest anchor. Bar colour is the cluster, the same colour it carries in the graph above.
Table view
| Anchor | Index |
|---|---|
| Docs | 88 |
| Founder content | 71 |
| Press & podcasts | 96 |
| Reviews | 79 |
| Analysts | 54 |
| 83 | |
| Slack & Discord | 62 |
Results
Mapped webs keep paying after you stop.
Both cohorts kept publishing at the same rate. The difference is whether anyone was deliberately connecting the sources to each other.
Mapped web
Unmapped
Referred-visit index, both cohorts indexed to 100 at Q1. Referred visits arrive from a third-party source, not from your own channels.
Table view
| Quarter | Mapped web | Unmapped |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 100 | 100 |
| Q2 | 112 | 103 |
| Q3 | 127 | 106 |
| Q4 | 141 | 104 |
| Q5 | 138 | 109 |
| Q6 | 166 | 111 |
| Q7 | 191 | 114 |
| Q8 | 219 | 118 |
FAQ
Questions we get.
Mostly about the difference between this and SEO, which is a fair thing to ask.
Is this link building?
No, and the distinction matters. Link building optimises for a search engine; this optimises for a sceptical buyer who is checking whether you are real. The two overlap, but where they diverge we follow the buyer — which means we will not place a citation somewhere nobody reads.
Does this help with AI search and GEO?
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons to do it now. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini build their answers from the same third-party sources a careful buyer reads: threads, reviews, comparisons, documentation and press. A dense web of independent sources is what gets a company named in those answers, and it is very hard for a competitor to copy quickly.
How do you get an independent source to cite us?
By giving it something worth citing. Usually that is data or expertise: the benchmarks, usage numbers and hard-won lessons you already have and nobody else has published. Journalists, analysts, podcast hosts and community moderators all need material, and original technical insight is the one thing that is genuinely scarce.
What is graph density and why should we care?
It is the share of possible connections between your sources that actually exist. Low density means you have a list of mentions; high density means you have a network. Networks survive a source going quiet, lists do not.
How long does it take?
Mapping takes about two weeks. Seeding the obvious gaps takes a quarter. Getting density past the point where the network produces citations on its own has taken between nine and eighteen months in the programmes we have run.
Do you remove negative sources?
No. We do not attempt suppression, and you should be sceptical of anyone who offers it — it fails publicly and it fails badly. We add accurate sources and let weight of evidence do the work, and we flag anything defamatory for your lawyer rather than pretending it is a marketing problem.
Start here
See your own trust graph.
Start with a 45-minute trust audit: where buyers look before they book a call, what they find there, and where your competitors show up and you do not. You keep the map whether or not we work together.