How do you measure search result sentiment over time?

The mechanics: for each priority query, IMPACT™ captures every URL on page one and page two at daily resolution. Each URL gets sentiment-scored – positive, neutral, negative – based on its actual content rather than just headline tone. The aggregate sentiment for the SERP is calculated as a weighted average accounting for ranking position (higher slots count more). The same data captured weekly or monthly produces trend lines that show movement over time. The same approach applies inside AIQ™ for the AI engines: every response gets sentiment-scored per engine, and the trend lines per engine track narrative state over time. Both views reveal narrative drift before it becomes obvious, validate intervention impact when sentiment moves in response to specific work, and feed monthly reporting. The discipline is consistency in the classification methodology so trend comparisons across time are valid.