1.4 Market & Search - Focused

Tier file. Focused carries a deliberately light version of this step: a glance, not a study, and no standalone report.

Included

• Three competitors reviewed at surface level - positioning, site structure, and the obvious strengths. Enough to say what the field looks like, not to tear down any of it.
• No standalone report. Findings feed 1.5 and land in the Keystone. That constraint is what keeps this step at four hours: the moment it produces its own artefact, it is a Core deliverable.

Not Included

• Positioning teardowns
• Content and journey comparison
• A search review at standing/protect-list depth
• The AI visibility check (Full)
• Any written competitor or search section

Those are the Core step.

Upgrade Triggers

• Any need for a written competitor or search section, a positioning teardown, or a search review at standing/protect-list depth → Core (both the competitor review and the search review).
• If rankings are commercially material to the client, Focused is the wrong tier for the whole Clarify, not just this step: losing rankings in a rebuild costs more than the tier saves. Raise it at the sales moment, not in delivery.

Outputs

• No standalone report. The glance lands as a thin market slide in the Keystone, labelled as a glance so a light look is never read as a thorough one