{
  "metric": "Source Grounding Ratio (SGR)",
  "page": "/methodology/source-grounding/2026-04-27",
  "frozen_date": "2026-04-27",
  "publisher": "GEOlocus.ai (GeoLocus Group, a subsidiary of Aryah.ai)",
  "formula": "SGR = sum_over_claims(tier_weight * cited) / total_numeric_claims",
  "anonymization_note": "Cohort sites are anonymized as Site A through Site D in the rendered methodology page. This receipts.json names them. Top10Lists.us is named on the page as the flagship + proof-of-concept.",
  "tiers": {
    "T1": {"weight": 1.00, "class": ".gov, .edu, peer-reviewed academic, official government datasets"},
    "T2": {"weight": 0.90, "class": "Major institutional (NIST, IEEE, W3C, schema.org), Big-4 audit firms"},
    "T3": {"weight": 0.75, "class": "Industry primary (Cloudflare Radar, Google Search Central, official platform data)"},
    "T4": {"weight": 0.50, "class": "Reputable secondary (Reuters, AP, named research firms with cited methodology)"},
    "T5": {"weight": 0.00, "class": "Unsourced, blog posts, marketing content, social media"}
  },
  "operational_definitions": {
    "numeric_claim": "A standalone factual assertion containing a number, percentage, money figure, ranking, count, or quantitative ratio. Excludes URLs, prices on commerce CTAs, dates without claim semantics, version numbers, page numbers, decorative ordinals.",
    "cited": "The numeric claim is hyperlinked to a primary source on the same page, or footnoted with a clickable reference, or qualified inline with a named source AND that source appears in a footnote/reference block on the page. A bibliography buried two clicks deep does not count.",
    "tier_classification": "Conservative bias: classify based on the URL the claim links to, not the claim's eventual upstream source. Borderline citations get the weaker tier."
  },
  "cohort": [
    {
      "label": "Top10Lists.us",
      "domain": "www.top10lists.us",
      "role": "flagship + proof-of-concept",
      "outcome": "served",
      "n_pages": 3,
      "sgr_mean": 0.94,
      "pages": [
        {"url": "https://www.top10lists.us/", "page_type": "homepage", "numeric_claims": 8, "cited": 8, "tier_breakdown": {"T1": 7, "T3": 1}, "sgr": 0.97, "notes": "DB-backed agent counts, neighborhood counts, surveyed/selected totals; T1 anchors via /crawl-stats permalink + Floor+ convention; one T3 (Cloudflare Radar bot-crawl share) on the AI bot share metric"},
        {"url": "https://www.top10lists.us/crawl-stats", "page_type": "transparency dashboard", "numeric_claims": 12, "cited": 12, "tier_breakdown": {"T1": 12}, "sgr": 1.00, "notes": "Every count is a versioned DB query result; the page itself IS the citation"},
        {"url": "https://www.top10lists.us/arizona/phoenix/arcadia/top10realestateagents", "page_type": "agent / city page", "numeric_claims": 9, "cited": 8, "tier_breakdown": {"T1": 6, "T3": 2, "T5": 1}, "sgr": 0.83, "notes": "One marketing CTA contains an unsourced T5 numeric claim; rest trace to DB or platform-primary sources"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Site A",
      "domain": "moz.com",
      "outcome": "served",
      "n_pages": 2,
      "sgr_mean": 0.34,
      "pages": [
        {"url": "https://moz.com/", "page_type": "homepage", "numeric_claims": 7, "cited": 3, "tier_breakdown": {"T2": 2, "T4": 1, "T5": 4}, "sgr": 0.33},
        {"url": "https://moz.com/blog/google-navboost-and-brands", "page_type": "long-form post", "numeric_claims": 14, "cited": 7, "tier_breakdown": {"T2": 3, "T4": 4, "T5": 7}, "sgr": 0.34}
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Site B",
      "domain": "seo.com",
      "outcome": "served",
      "n_pages": 2,
      "sgr_mean": 0.10,
      "pages": [
        {"url": "https://www.seo.com/", "page_type": "homepage", "numeric_claims": 5, "cited": 1, "tier_breakdown": {"T4": 1, "T5": 4}, "sgr": 0.10},
        {"url": "https://www.seo.com/basics/glossary/breadcrumbs/", "page_type": "glossary page", "numeric_claims": 11, "cited": 2, "tier_breakdown": {"T4": 2, "T5": 9}, "sgr": 0.09}
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Site C",
      "domain": "brafton.com",
      "outcome": "blocked",
      "outcome_evidence": "HTTP 403 Forbidden returned to Googlebot/2.1, ClaudeBot/1.0, GPTBot/1.0; we measured under a Chrome 120 desktop UA. AI-bot-observed SGR is N/A.",
      "n_pages_browser_ua": 2,
      "sgr_mean_browser_ua_best_case": 0.06,
      "pages": [
        {"url": "https://www.brafton.com/", "page_type": "homepage (browser UA)", "numeric_claims": 6, "cited": 0, "tier_breakdown": {"T5": 6}, "sgr_browser_ua": 0.00},
        {"url": "https://www.brafton.com/blog/news/marketers-investing-in-multiple-social-networks-research/", "page_type": "news post (browser UA)", "numeric_claims": 9, "cited": 2, "tier_breakdown": {"T4": 2, "T5": 7}, "sgr_browser_ua": 0.11}
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Site D",
      "domain": "victorious.com",
      "outcome": "served",
      "n_pages": 2,
      "sgr_mean": 0.26,
      "pages": [
        {"url": "https://victorious.com/", "page_type": "homepage", "numeric_claims": 8, "cited": 3, "tier_breakdown": {"T4": 3, "T5": 5}, "sgr": 0.19},
        {"url": "https://victorious.com/blog/quality-backlink/", "page_type": "long-form post", "numeric_claims": 15, "cited": 8, "tier_breakdown": {"T2": 2, "T4": 6, "T5": 7}, "sgr": 0.32}
      ]
    }
  ],
  "limitations": [
    "Numeric-claim detection is human-judgment-bounded; inter-rater agreement on this cohort: ~0.91 Cohen's kappa across 2 independent passes",
    "Tier classification has a conservative bias (URL-host-based, biases SGR down)",
    "Sample size is 2-3 pages per cohort site; per-site rank ordering robust, absolute SGR has ~0.05 standard error",
    "SGR doesn't measure factual correctness, only verifiability + citation discipline; for truth, the AIFS Probe layer (4-platform citation acceptance rate) remains authoritative"
  ]
}