🔍 What Is a Ghost Competitor?
A ghost competitor is a domain that appears in your AI Visibility summary or reports but is missing from the competitor management area — meaning you cannot select or delete it through the normal interface. This is a known bug that can affect any tracked site.
For example, a competitor like hardscaping.com may show up in the AI Visibility summary for your client's site, yet be completely absent when you open the competitor management area to remove it.
🧭 How to Navigate to AI Visibility Competitor Management
- Log in to Search Atlas and select the correct client project.
- In the left sidebar, click AI Visibility (URL:
/llm-visibility). - Open the competitor management area within the AI Visibility dashboard.
- Review the list of competitors displayed. If a domain shown in the summary is missing here, you are experiencing the ghost competitor issue.
⚠️ What Is Happening
This is a platform-side bug in which a competitor domain becomes visible in the AI Visibility summary but is blocked from appearing in the competitor management area. As a result, the domain cannot be removed through the standard interface. Our team needs to investigate and resolve this on the backend.
🛠️ How to Escalate This Issue
Because this is a backend bug, it cannot be resolved through self-serve steps. To get it fixed as quickly as possible, please have the following information ready before contacting support:
- The exact domain name of the ghost competitor (e.g. hardscaping.com).
- The name of the affected client project in Search Atlas.
- The date and approximate time you first noticed the competitor appearing in the summary.
- A screenshot showing the domain in the AI Visibility summary and its absence from the competitor management area, if possible.
✅ What to Expect
Once you contact support with the details above, our team will investigate the data mismatch on the backend and remove the ghost competitor from your account. You will be notified when the issue has been resolved and the competitor no longer appears in your AI Visibility summary.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.