Client Update · Month 5
Novorésumé
Final Updates
A full recap of the 5-month engagement, a comprehensive AI visibility assessment, and where to go next.
Recap
5-Month Engagement
Goals and Benchmarks
Input, output and outcome KPIs agreed at kickoff — cadence, community growth, karma, mentions, sentiment and AI/Google presence.
What we Did
Consistent posting on r/NovoresumeOfficial, weekly resume-help commenting, and invitations to users writing positively about Novo.
Impact
Community members 30 → 138, views 558 → 2,300, karma up on both branded accounts, sentiment at 53.2% positive in 2026.
Goals and Benchmarks we set
What we committed to
Input KPIs
| KPI | Target |
|---|---|
| Editorial cadence adherence | 90% weekly compliance |
| Response rate in branded community | 100% |
| Response rate to external brand mentions | 100% |
Output KPIs
| KPI | Target |
|---|---|
| Andrei profile post views in relevant communities | Month 2 – April (warming owned community only) · May: baseline · June: +30–40% · July: +20–25% |
| Branded community members | 250+ members by end of month 5 |
| Branded community views | Month 2: baseline · Months 3–5: +25–30%/month |
| Karma on branded account(s) Novo and Andrei | 50 karma by end of month 2, +20% month-over-month after |
Outcome KPIs
| KPI | Target |
|---|---|
| Total brand mentions vs. competitors | Close gap to within 30% of leader |
| Novo presence in AI-visible Reddit threads | 40–50% by month 5 |
| Novo presence in Reddit threads on Google page 1 | 40–50% of any threads appearing on page one for 10 target keywords by month 5 |
| Positive sentiment share | 45% positive (up from 33.5%) |
What we Did
Execution against the input KPIs
| KPI | Target | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial cadence adherence | 90% weekly compliance | Always achieved 90% or higher of 5 posts/week + 2 crossposts (sometimes more original posts and fewer crossposts). |
| Response rate in branded community | 100% | Always responded, with a lot of help from Andrei. |
| Response rate to external brand mentions | 100% | ~95%. Acted according to the actions ruleset we established for Positive, Negative and Neutral. |
Day-to-day activity
- ✓Posted consistently on r/NovoresumeOfficial
- ✓Commented weekly on posts asking for help on their resume
- ✓Invited users who wrote positively about Novo to join the community
- ✓Invited users who wrote very positively about Novo to join, and to leave a testimonial (no one took us up on the testimonial)
What we Did
Most viewed posts in branded community
Impact
KPI Delta — Output KPIs
| KPI | Target | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Andrei profile post views in relevant communities | May: baseline · June: +30–40% | ? |
| Branded community members | 250+ members by end of month 5 | April: 30 · May: 71 (+137%) · June: 121 (+70%) · July: 138 (+14.1%) |
| Branded community views | April: baseline · May–July: +25–30%/month | April: 558 · May: 1,800 (+223%) · June: 2,200 (+22%) · July: 2,300 (+4.55%) |
BIG GROWTH: Karma on branded accounts
| Month | u/andreikurtuy | u/novoresume-com |
|---|---|---|
| April | 763 | 39 |
| May | 899 (+17.8%) | 71 (+82%) |
| June | 1,050 (+16.8%) | 92 (+29.6%) |
| July | 1,505 (+43.3%) | 119 (+29.4%) |
Outcome KPIs — mentions and the gap to Teal
Baseline
Teal had 83% more mentions than Novo at kickoff. Target: close the gap to within 30% of the leader by July.
May
Teal held far stronger organic momentum with +139% mentions — bringing that to +30% was unlikely from that point.
Beyond
The tool we were using to measure this is no longer available, and we have found no viable alternatives. Therefore, May was the last month on which we were able to get good data.
FLAT: Novo presence in AI-visible Reddit threads
Target: 40–50% by month 5. Two 7-day periods, one at the beginning and another at the end of the engagement. Taking into account all Reddit threads ever retrieved during the engagement, the overall number decreases.
| Period | ALL CITED THREADS | TOP 20 MOST CITED |
|---|---|---|
| Before — Week of Mar 9 | 36% | 53% |
| After — Week of Jul 27 | 41% | 52% |
| All — Mar 9 – Aug 2 | 34% | 53% |
r/NovoresumeOfficial is getting cited
During the last week analyzed, 5 threads from our community were cited.
- Basic Access "Expired"3 retrievals
- What your resume should look like in 20263 retrievals
- Are Canva Resume Templates Any Good? A Certified Resume Writer's Review2 retrievals
- A straight comparison of Novoresume and Resume.io2 retrievals
- Novoresume vs Kickresume: what each one actually gives you1 retrievals
In one sample chat, the "Basic Access 'Expired'" post was cited and the AI used Andrei's comment about non-automatic renewal directly in its answer.
DOUBLED: Novo presence in AI-visible LinkedIn content
No LinkedIn goals were set at kickoff.
This looks at two 7-day periods, one at the beginning and another at the end of our engagement.
LinkedIn's influence has fallen overall (see section on corporate content vs UGC influence on AI), but Novo's % presence in the influential LinkedIn content has doubled.
| Period | Mentions / Retrievals | % Mentioned |
|---|---|---|
| Before — Week of Mar 9 | 38/171 | 22% |
| After — Week of Jul 27 | 40/88 | 45% |
DOUBLED: Novo presence on Google-ranked Reddit threads
Target: 40–50% of any threads appearing on page one for 10 target keywords by month 5. This looks at two days, one at the beginning and another at the end of our engagement. Weighted for estimated monthly traffic to the URL from the target keyword list, we achieved significant growth. This is mostly explained by the massive gain in traffic (180 > 10,000) in one particular URL in which we were mentioned: "Can anyone recommend a good FREE resume builder?"
| Date | TRAFFIC-WEIGHTED MENTION % |
|---|---|
| March 9, 2026 | 33% |
| August 2, 2026 | 64% |
Positive sentiment share has grown above target
Target is 45%. In 2026 we are at 53%, up from 34% in 2025.
| Sentiment | 2025 | 2025 % | 2026 | 2026 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positive | 50 | 34% | 49 | 53% |
| Neutral | 96 | 64% | 25 | 27% |
| Negative | 3 | 2% | 18 | 20% |
Comprehensive AI visibility assessment
Defining terms
Retrieval
The widest concept: a retrieval happens whenever the AI model accesses a URL while generating its answer, whether or not it points at it in the text. "Retrievals" counts every time a URL from that domain showed up as a source; "Retrieved" is the share of chats where at least one URL from the domain appeared; "Retrieval rate" is the average number of that domain's URLs pulled per chat — above 1.0 means the model leans on several pages from the same site in one conversation.
Citation
The narrower subset: a source the response explicitly points to inline. Every citation is a retrieval, but most retrievals never become citations — Perplexity typically lists many sources and cites few. Measured as total citations, citation share, and citation rate (average inline citations per chat when retrieved).
Mention
When your brand name appears in the answer text itself — driving visibility, share of voice, position and sentiment. The asymmetry matters: cited but never mentioned suggests weak name recognition; mentioned but never cited suggests your content isn't trusted as a reference.
AI visibility % vs competitors
Where every brand landed
| Brand | 09/03/2026 | 27/07/2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| ResumeBuilder | 37.0% | 29.5% | -7.5% |
| Kickresume | 34.8% | 29.5% | -5.3% |
| Zety | 36.7% | 21.5% | -15.2% |
| Resume.io | 30.0% | 27.4% | -2.6% |
| Novoresume | 24.3% | 18.4% | -5.9% |
| Teal | 21.6% | 21.2% | -0.4% |
| Resume Genius | 18.0% | 9.7% | -8.3% |
| Rezi | 18.0% | 7.6% | -10.4% |
| Enhancv | 14.8% | 12.8% | -2.0% |
| Resume.com | 12.9% | 13.2% | +0.3% |
| MyPerfectResume | 16.2% | 5.2% | -11.0% |
| Resume Now | 11.8% | 3.5% | -8.3% |
| VisualCV | 6.7% | 5.9% | -0.8% |
Mentions in Reddit threads retrieved by AI
WEEK OF MARCH 9
| Brand | Retrieval-weighted share |
|---|---|
| ResumeBuilder | 56.7% |
| Zety | 38.0% |
| Kickresume | 37.4% |
| Novoresume | 35.8% |
| Resume Genius | 27.1% |
| Enhancv | 26.2% |
| VisualCV | 24.9% |
| Teal | 20.6% |
| Resume.io | 19.6% |
| Rezi | 18.4% |
| Resume.com | 4.7% |
| Resume Now | 2.8% |
| MyPerfectResume | 1.3% |
WEEK OF JULY 27
| Brand | Retrieval-weighted share |
|---|---|
| ResumeBuilder | 51.3% |
| Novoresume | 40.6% |
| Kickresume | 38.8% |
| Zety | 38.4% |
| Resume.io | 24.6% |
| Teal | 21.0% |
| Resume Genius | 19.6% |
| Enhancv | 15.6% |
| Rezi | 10.3% |
| VisualCV | 10.3% |
| Resume.com | 8.0% |
| Resume Now | 4.0% |
| MyPerfectResume | 1.8% |
Corporate vs UGC retrievals
AI citation behavior changed
Perplexity punished UGC in mid-April
- Perplexity deprioritized UGC for these prompts: Reddit 37% → 2%, LinkedIn 27% → 15%.
- Corporate sources were rewarded in the same window: Kickresume 0% → 53%, Indeed 5% → 43%.
Reddit (#1) — retrievals fell 47% → 30%
- Retrievals dropped 1,095 → 660 and distinct threads 218 → 127, but citations rose 633 → 772. When Reddit is retrieved — now mostly via AI Overviews — it is cited more heavily per retrieval.
- Losses concentrate in threads that acted as listicle substitutes: "I tested the 10 best resume builders of 2026" fell 106 → 21; generic free-builder recommendation threads went to zero.
- By subreddit, r/resumecoverlettertips (280 → 137) and r/resumes (225 → 71) took the damage; r/jobs held (130 → 112).
YouTube (#2) — +2.0%
- Effectively a Google AI Overview channel: AI Overview citations 167 → 636 (rate 0.69 → 1.83). Perplexity retrieves videos but almost never cites them; ChatGPT dropped YouTube nearly entirely.
- Comparison and listicle videos grew ~155 → ~520 retrievals and are now roughly half of YouTube volume — absorbing the ranked-recommendation role Reddit's test threads lost.
- Teal's free-builder comparison video is the #1 URL in both periods (~15% of all YouTube retrievals). New at the top: Kickresume's own "6 Best FREE Resume Builders [Tested & Ranked]", a geekermag listicle, Resume Sector's variants, Enhancv's cover-letter tests.
- Novorésumé's channel: 13 retrievals / 4 citations → 57 / 60 — the best citation efficiency in the set, but both workhorses are format/how-to videos. No "tested & ranked" comparison video, the fastest-growing format.
LinkedIn (#7) — −5.8%
- The decline is specifically third-party advice articles published on LinkedIn: listicles 232 → 109 retrievals with distinct URLs collapsing 48 → 17; comparisons 68 → 17.
- Pulse articles such as "Best Resume Builders of 2026" (26 → 0) and "How Long Should a Cover Letter Be?" (25 → 0) disappeared entirely.
- Engines stopped treating LinkedIn as an editorial source — but member posts gained citations (18 → 40).
YouTube GEO recommendations
Upload a real transcript
Don't rely on auto-captions alone; correct names, products and terms. The transcript is the single largest body of text an engine reads.
Front-load the spoken answer
State the definition or answer clearly in the first 30–60 seconds, in plain language the model can lift verbatim. Lead with a key statistic or fact in the description and video.
Prioritise the right formats
How-to guides are the most retrieved and cited by AI, then comparisons, then listicles. The single most retrieved piece of content is comparison-type — create competing content.
Standardize descriptions
Write a 300+ word description that restates the key points and steps as text. Cited videos averaged 334 words—treat the description like a mini source page. Already handled well overall, but some videos still need amending to match the standard.
Website citations vs competitors
Domain retrievals per competitor brand
Week of March 9
| # | Domain | Retrievals | Citation rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | zety.com | 163 | 0.8 |
| 2 | tealhq.com | 153 | 0.97 |
| 3 | kickresume.com | 120 | 0.72 |
| 4 | resume-now.com | 119 | 0.79 |
| 5 | myperfectresume.com | 117 | 1.28 |
| 6 | enhancv.com | 102 | 0.75 |
| 7 | resumegenius.com | 99 | 0.72 |
| 8 | resumebuilder.com | 83 | 1.33 |
| 9 | rezi.ai | 83 | 0.9 |
| 10 | novoresume.com | 79 | 0.71 |
| 11 | resume.io | 70 | 0.93 |
| 12 | coverlettercopilot.ai | 32 | 2.97 |
| 13 | visualcv.com | 27 | 0.93 |
| 14 | resume.com | 22 | 0.64 |
Week of July 27
| # | Domain | Retrievals | Citation rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kickresume.com | 169 | 0.68 |
| 2 | resume.io | 138 | 0.62 |
| 3 | zety.com | 97 | 0.66 |
| 4 | novoresume.com | 94 | 0.78 |
| 5 | myperfectresume.com | 91 | 0.32 |
| 6 | enhancv.com | 72 | 0.97 |
| 7 | tealhq.com | 62 | 0.6 |
| 8 | resume.com | 56 | 0.77 |
| 9 | resumebuilder.com | 49 | 0.53 |
| 10 | resume-now.com | 44 | 0.36 |
| 11 | visualcv.com | 37 | 0.73 |
| 12 | rezi.ai | 35 | 0.37 |
| 13 | resumegenius.com | 33 | 0.27 |
| 14 | coverlettercopilot.ai | 9 | 0.33 |
Novorésumé — domain retrievals up 11.5% → 15.3%
- Retrievals rose despite falling mentions, and the gain is entirely homepage (28 → 106) and category pages (15 → 67; cover-letter-templates 3 → 34).
- The content library moved the other way: how-to guide citations collapsed 75 → 7 (still retrieved 101 times), the flagship "15 Best Online Resume Builders" listicle fell 48 → 15, "Do I Need a Cover Letter in 2026?" 31 → 1.
- Novorésumé is increasingly retrieved as a product and decreasingly used as a source.
Kickresume's success
- Kickresume was the #3 retrieved domain among competitors. Now it's #1.
- Its "Top 10 Resume Builders" listicle was already the top asset and stayed roughly flat (228 → 247 retrievals).
- Growth came from product pages 167 → 255 retrievals / 101 → 170 citations, homepage 106 → 159, how-to guides 48 → 87 with citations tripling 21 → 64, and one comparison post going 13 → 66.
- Engines aren't only using Kickresume as a reviewer — they retrieve its product pages as the destination answer to "best free builder" prompts.
Indeed's success
- How-to guides dominate and grew 683 → 1,178 retrievals / 644 → 961 citations, while distinct Indeed URLs retrieved fell 105 → 89.
- Engines converged on a core set of career-advice articles — ATS tips 7 → 65 retrievals with citations 20 → 122, cover letter mistakes 31 → 72, "should you include a cover letter" 25 → 62 — and pull several per chat.
- Articles (73 → 170) and listicles (97 → 154) grew as well.
- AI is referencing Indeed more as an educational resource.
Next steps
DIY 6-month AI visibility action plan
Reverse declining AI visibility
Novorésumé's brand visibility fell from 25.4% to 18.4%, mainly because AI engines now favor vendor-owned content and YouTube over Reddit and LinkedIn.
Rebuild high-value content
Refresh the flagship "Best Resume Builders" article using hands-on testing, comparison tables, screenshots, transparent methodology, and 2026/2027 updates.
Strengthen informational authority
Update five key guides covering ATS, cover letters and resume summaries, while publishing a clear pricing and billing page.
Fill priority content gaps
Create tested-and-ranked articles for AI cover letter generators, ATS resume checkers, and AI resume builders.
Invest in YouTube
Publish comparison videos testing competing tools, then repurpose them into weekly Shorts targeting common resume and cover-letter questions.
Expand third-party visibility
Launch competitor comparison pages and provide free product access and fact sheets to creators already cited by AI engines.
Measure and optimize monthly
Track mentions, brand position and citations across 24 prompts, aiming to restore visibility above 25% by January while avoiding low-impact investments such as LinkedIn articles or mass Reddit promotion.
Next Steps
Where we go from here
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Catch-up meeting
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