The Brand Present column in the Citations tab is designed to save you time by indicating whether your brand name appears on the cited page itself. The value is shown as Yes or No, based on an automated content analysis Scrunch runs on each URL.
This can be useful for quickly identifying which third-party citations may drive brand visibility in AI responses.
Why You Might See Inaccuracies
Sometimes customers notice:
“Our brand is definitely listed on this page, but Scrunch shows ‘No.’”
This happens because the Brand Present check relies on Scrunch’s ability to retrieve and analyze the text of the page. A few common reasons for mismatches:
Bot-blocking or firewalls
Some sites use anti-bot protections (e.g., Cloudflare, Datadome) that prevent Scrunch from retrieving the page content.JavaScript-only content
Many ranking lists or tables load via JavaScript. Most AI crawlers (and Scrunch’s page analysis) do not execute JavaScript, so the brand name isn’t visible in the raw HTML.Recent performance bug (now fixed)
In some cases, Scrunch should display a warning (“Content not available for analysis”) instead of a “No.” A recent update caused this warning not to appear. That issue has been corrected.
Important Distinction: Citations vs. AI Mentions
It’s worth noting that this indicator is separate from Scrunch’s measurement of your AI visibility and citations in model responses:
The Brand Present column is an accessory value meant to give quick context about a cited page.
Your actual brand presence in AI answers is determined directly from model outputs, regardless of whether the brand was visibly present in the underlying page.
In other words: a “No” in this column does not mean your brand is missing from AI responses. It only reflects what Scrunch was able to retrieve from the cited page itself.
How to Interpret the Column
Yes → Scrunch detected your brand name in the plain text of the cited page.
No → Scrunch did not detect your brand name. This could mean:
Your brand is truly not present, or
Scrunch couldn’t fully access the page content (bot-blocking, JavaScript, etc.).
Warning (Content not available) → Scrunch could not analyze the page at all.
What to Do If You See a Mismatch
If the page is important for your visibility, check whether the content is accessible without JavaScript and that AI bots are allowlisted (see AI User Agents Guide).
Use the Site Audit tab to test the URL and confirm whether AI crawlers can see your brand name.
Remember: even if the Brand Present column says “No,” your AI visibility metrics elsewhere in the dashboard remain accurate.
Key takeaway: The Brand Present column is a helpful shortcut, not a definitive measure. Your AI presence data is unaffected by errors here, and we’re continuously improving how we detect mentions on complex or protected sites.