Ontinue Digital Performance Report

Data Scope & Methodology

What this report measures — and why Q1 matters.

This report covers January 1 – March 31, 2026. It is the first reporting period built on clean, uncontaminated data across all measurement systems. Every future quarterly report will compare against this baseline.

🔍

Google Search Console

GSC data is unaffected by the GA4 bot contamination and is the primary source for all search performance. Q4 2025 (Oct 1–Dec 31) serves as the comparison period. All impression and click figures are direct GSC exports.

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SEMrush Site Audits

Technical health snapshots from January 9, March 3, and April 1, 2026 (the April 1 audit is treated as the Q1 close) document changes across the quarter. The improvement is the result of a dedicated technical cleanup initiated in late 2025 followed by rigorous monthly maintenance. These structural fixes provided the stability needed for Google to better index our core assets, directly supporting the quarter's visibility gains

📊

GA4 Analytics

GA4 session and user data covers January 1 – March 30, 2026 only. All data prior to November 14, 2025 is excluded due to confirmed bot contamination from Frankfurt-based IPs. Q1 is the first fully clean baseline.

⚠️

GA4 Contamination Notice — Historical data cannot be used for comparison

Prior to November 14, 2025, ontinue.com's GA4 property received significant bot traffic from Frankfurt-based IPs that inflated session counts, distorted channel attribution, and skewed engagement metrics. WHM Creative identified and filtered this contamination. Q1 2026 is the first fully clean baseline — every future quarter will improve on real, trustworthy data. GSC, which is not subject to session-level contamination, is the primary source for all search performance comparisons.

Q1 2026 Scorecard

Headline metrics — Q1 vs Q4 2025.

Four core measurements that define Q1 performance and anchor every future quarter's comparison. These four metrics reveal a significant expansion in search surface area. While clicks are up 14.2%, the near-doubling of impressions suggests that our organic footprint is reaching deeper into new, non-branded query territories than previously observed.

GSC Clicks

7,483

↑ 14.2%

Organic click volume grew Q-over-Q, driven by both branded queries and emerging non-branded terms compounding through the period.

Q4 2025 baseline: 6,552 clicks

GSC Impressions

2.15M

↑ 77.7%

Impressions nearly doubled — a direct signal that ontinue.com is surfacing across a much broader, non-branded query universe. The 77.7% surge in impressions is a strong indicator that the technical foundational work from late 2025 has unlocked the site for search engines. By resolving historical crawl barriers, we've allowed our existing content to reach its intended audience.

Q4 2025 baseline: ~1.21M impressions

Avg. Search Position

15.2

↑ 4.3 pts

Position improved from 19.5 to 15.2 — meaningful progress toward first-page visibility across a rapidly expanding query universe.

Q4 2025 baseline: position 19.5

CTR — In Context

0.35%

→ Expected

CTR declined as the impression base expanded into informational, non-branded queries — which naturally carry lower individual CTR. Clicks still grew +14.2%.

Q4 2025 baseline: 0.54% CTR

💡

Why CTR declined — and why that's the right outcome.

When a site expands its impression base into new, non-branded queries, the aggregate CTR naturally falls. Each new impression is in a category where click rates are lower than branded terms. But absolute click count grew 14.2%. This is the expected signal of a site gaining real search surface area. A rising CTR on flat or declining impressions would be the warning sign. The Q1 pattern is healthy.

Keyword Highlights

Notable query movements — Q4 2025 → Q1 2026.

Actual search queries typed by users. Both gains and declines are shown; the declines each have a possible explanation. The pattern across this table reflects broader industry shifts, as searchers naturally move away from legacy, endpoint-focused terminology (MDR) in favor of more modern 'extended' detection categories (MXDR). This represents a market-wide alignment rather than a specific campaign-driven result. However, while these directional trends are encouraging, absolute click volume remains low. These figures indicate that we are in the earliest stages of category capture, where small numerical gains result in large percentage swings.

Gainers

Query	Q4 Clicks	Q1 Clicks	Change	Signal
ontinue careers	68	214	↑ 215%	Brand demand
ontinue cybersecurity	12	52	↑ 333%	Brand + category hybrid
rockyou2024	4	21	↑ 425%	Threat news content
password attacks	47	65	↑ 38%	Non-branded
mxdr	10	17	↑ 70%	Category term
ontinue canada	0	10	New	Geo expansion

Declines — with context

Query	Q4 Clicks	Q1 Clicks	Change	Why it dropped
salty2fa	105	22	↓ 79%	Topic peak decay
ontinue mdr	22	0	↓ 100%	Legacy term
ontinue soc	24	14	↓ 42%	Legacy term
mc1182004	29	3	↓ 90%	Investigate — unknown

🌍 Top page movement: ontinue.com/de/ — +439% clicks

The German-language homepage (69→372 clicks) was Q1's standout page-level story. This is a page metric, not a query. The full /de site launched April 1 — Q2 is the first real measurement of what a complete DACH presence can deliver.

📊Baseline Observation: High Indexing, Low Activation

While Ontinue is successfully indexed for high-value commercial terms, most of these rankings currently sit on Page 2 or 3 of search results. We see high impression growth but low absolute click volume - it's a directionally positive pattern to build on.

🔄 Market Transition: MDR effectively sunsetting as a category term

The decline in 'MDR' and 'SOC' queries alongside the rise in 'MXDR' suggests that the search audience is naturally maturing. The legacy 'MDR' terminology is losing search equity across the industry, with buyers self-selecting into the MXDR category.

⚑ FLAG FOR INVESTIGATION — "mc1182004" generated 29 clicks in Q4 from an unrecognized query string. It dropped to 3 in Q1. This could be an internal document number, a product SKU, or a test artifact leaking into search. It should be identified before Q2 reporting — if it's not a legitimate search asset, it shouldn't be influencing GSC data.

Keyword Discovery — A Starting Point

323 commercial-intent rankings — here's a sample of what's in the data.

Source: SEMrush Organic Positions, April 1, 2026 — filtered to KD 0–50% and commercial intent. Ontinue is already indexed and ranking for all of these. The table below is a cross-section of what's available — a taste of the landscape. The real work is determining which of these terms actually reflect how Ontinue's buyers search, and building a content strategy around that.

Keyword	Position	Volume	KD%	Landing Page
managed security service provider	13	5,400	KD 40	/managed-security-services/
network detection and response	25	1,600	KD 42	/what-is-ndr/
managed security services provider	10	1,600	KD 43	/managed-security-services/
mdr providers	36	720	KD 17 🟢	/managed-detection-response/
remediation vs mitigation	24	720	KD 7 🟢	/vulnerability-mitigation/

What a keyword strategy engagement with WHM would look like

We'd start with the search intent layer — working with your team to understand how Ontinue's buyers describe their problem, what language shows up in sales conversations, and where the current site vocabulary matches or misses that. From there we'd map the full keyword landscape against buyer stages, validate which terms are worth pursuing, and build a prioritized content and optimization roadmap. The data above tells us there's real opportunity here. Discovery tells us which of it is actually worth chasing.

Technical Health

Site health, crawlability & backlink profile — Q1 arc.

Three SEMrush audits — January 9, March 3, and April 1 (Q1 close) — track changes across the quarter. Site health improved to 96% at quarter close. The blocked pages result is the standout Q1 technical win. The toxic backlink score, driven by parasitic spam link farms, is best addressed through quality link growth rather than disavow.

Site Health Score

SEMrush Audit · Jan 9 → Mar 3, 2026

096% at Q1 close · Up from 94%100

Site health improved from 94% (Jan 9 and Mar 3) to 96% at the Apr 1 Q1-close audit — a positive +2 point gain that reflects the crawlability remediation work taking full effect. Zero critical errors at quarter close.

✅ Jan 9: 94% → Mar 3: 94% → Apr 1: 96% · Improved at quarter close · 0 errors

Crawl & Backlink Summary

Jan 9 → Mar 3, 2026 · SEMrush

Pages blocked from crawling

22→1

Referring domains

729→885 (+21.4% Q1)

Total backlinks

3,170→3,594 (+13.4% Q1)

Toxic backlink score

HIGH→HIGH

Referring Domains & Backlink Growth

+21.4% referring domains
729 → 885 domains

+13.4% total backlinks
3,170 → 3,594 links

156 new referring domains across Q1. The growth rate is healthy, but some of the new domains contributing to the toxic score are clearly parasitic spam — not links Ontinue pursued. The toxic profile is being dragged by spam operations, not poor outreach decisions.

⚠ Toxic Score — What It Is & What to Do

HIGH · Jan 9 → MEDIUM · Mar 3 → HIGH · Mar 31

The Apr 1 audit confirms HIGH, driven by identifiable spam: Telegram-based link farm anchors account for ~200 backlinks ("SEO ANOMALY" and "BHS_LINKS" operators). These are parasitic operations targeting the site, not paid placements. The 85% of referring domains are non-toxic — the signal is concentrated in a small number of very spammy sources.

On disavow: Google's spam algorithm now handles most of this automatically, and aggressive disavow files risk accidentally excluding legitimate links. The better Q2 strategy is to outcompete with volume — earning more high-quality referring domains from cybersecurity media, analyst coverage, partner sites, and owned content distributes authority broadly and naturally dilutes the spam concentration without the risk of a misfiled disavow.

Additional Issues Surfaced in Apr 1 Audit — Q2 Action Queue

13 broken external links

Multiple ION advisory pages link to patchapalooza.com which is now a 404. Simple fix: remove or replace all outbound links to this dead domain across the resource library.

2 legacy German pages — deprecate, don't fix

Two standalone German-language pages have hreflang mismatches (tagged en instead of de). Now that the full /de site has launched, these pages should be evaluated for deprecation — if equivalent content exists in the new /de structure, redirect them there and retire the old URLs rather than patching hreflang tags on pages that may no longer belong in the sitemap.

100 orphaned pages — strategic question, not a quick fix

100 pages have no internal links pointing to them — many are glossary and "what is" pages. Before deciding what to do with them, the right questions are: Are they bringing qualified traffic? Do they have brand recognition or GEO value by putting Ontinue into AI-generated answers on category terms? Or are they diluting crawl budget and authority? This is part of the broader content strategy conversation in progress — the answer will determine whether these pages get promoted, consolidated, or retired.

AI Visibility & GEO Baseline

How AI systems discover and cite Ontinue.

As search moves toward generative AI, we’ve established our first footprint with an initial AI Visibility score of 20. While we are periodically cited in Google’s AI Overviews, we've identified a measurable gap in ChatGPT and Gemini that correlates directly with third-party review volume."

AI Visibility Score · SEMrush

out of 100

Low · Q1 2026 Baseline

This is where Ontinue begins Q2. Having a baseline at all puts Ontinue ahead of most competitors not yet measuring AI discoverability. The work to improve it starts now — and every point gained is legible against this number.

Total AI Mentions · February Spike Context

56 total mentions
↓ 31.7% MoM from February

February saw a spike likely reflecting a one-time crawler event rather than sustained demand. March's figure of 56 is the more representative baseline. Q2 will clarify which month reflects the true floor.

AI Mention Source Breakdown

Where Ontinue is cited by AI systems · Q1 2026

Google AI Overview

83.9%

ChatGPT

~2%

Gemini

~2%

Other sources

~12%

⚠️ Concentration risk: 83.9% of AI visibility is in Google AI Overview. Diversifying into ChatGPT and Gemini citations is a Q2 priority.

AI Platform Referrals — GA4 + SEMrush

Citations and referred sessions by platform · Q1 2026 baseline

ChatGPT
mentions

Gemini
mentions

ChatGPT
GA4 sessions

125

Total AI
referrals

SEMrush AI mentions measure citation frequency in AI responses. GA4 sessions (ChatGPT: 65, Perplexity: 21, Claude.ai: 20, Gemini: 19) measure click-through referrals to the site. Both are Q1 baselines.

Live Query Testing — April 2, 2026

What ChatGPT and Gemini actually say about Ontinue.

Seven buyer-intent queries were tested across ChatGPT and Gemini on April 2, 2026. The results reveal a clear and actionable pattern: Ontinue's AI visibility is query-dependent, and the query framing is a lever that content and PR strategy can influence.

Query	Platform	Ontinue cited?	What appeared
best MXDR providers for Microsoft environments	ChatGPT	✓ Yes	Dedicated section as "Best for automation + modern SOC experience." Listed in comparison table alongside Microsoft Defender Experts, Quorum Cyber, CyberProof. Recommended for "lean teams wanting automation + low noise."
top MDR vendors 2026	Gemini	✓ Yes	Named under "For Microsoft Ecosystems" as a top-tier choice alongside BlueVoyant for orgs "all-in on Microsoft 365 security."
top MDR vendors 2026 for Microsoft environments	ChatGPT	✗ No	Microsoft Defender Experts, Expel, Sophos MDR, Red Canary, Arctic Wolf.
top MDR vendors 2026	ChatGPT	✗ No	CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Palo Alto, SentinelOne (Tier 1). Arctic Wolf, Sophos, Rapid7 (Tier 2).
managed detection and response comparison	ChatGPT	✗ No	CrowdStrike, Microsoft, SentinelOne, Secureworks, Arctic Wolf, Palo Alto.
top MDR vendors for Microsoft 2026	Gemini	✗ No	Microsoft Defender Experts, Deepwatch, CrowdStrike, Huntress, BlueVoyant.
best MXDR providers for Microsoft environments	Gemini	✗ No	BlueVoyant, Critical Start, Expel, Microsoft Defender Experts — despite Ontinue being a Verified Microsoft MXDR partner.

"MXDR" is the query framing where Ontinue gets in the room

Ontinue surfaces for MXDR-specific queries but is largely absent from legacy MDR searches. These generic categories remain dominated by long-standing incumbents who have spent years accumulating review volume. While 'MDR' is a fading term, its historical momentum still dictates citation frequency in general AI vendor comparisons.

When Ontinue appears, the positioning is accurate and favorable

ChatGPT describes Ontinue ION as "~99% incident auto-resolution, Microsoft Teams collaboration, data stays in your Sentinel instance" — this reflects actual product differentiation. The AI isn't misrepresenting the brand. The Q2 challenge is increasing frequency of appearance, not correcting what's said once Ontinue is present.

Why incumbents dominate broad queries — and the path to changing that

CrowdStrike (455 Gartner reviews), Arctic Wolf (788), and Sophos (1,027) appear in every broad MDR query because AI systems weight review volume, analyst citation density, and third-party mention frequency — advantages built over years. Ontinue's path into those broader queries runs through: growing Gartner and G2 review volume, earning more analyst and media citations, and deepening ownership of the MXDR + Microsoft niche where the positioning is already working.

Review Landscape — Competitive Context

Gartner Peer Insights ratings.

Gartner review volume directly correlates with AI citation frequency in vendor comparison responses. This is a core GEO lever — more reviews means more AI mentions.

Vendor	Gartner Reviews	Avg Rating	5-Star %	vs Ontinue
Sophos	1,027	★★★★★ 4.8	—	14× more reviews
Arctic Wolf	788	★★★★★ 4.9	—	10.8× more reviews
CrowdStrike	455	★★★★★ 4.7	—	6.2× more reviews
Ontinue ← you are here	73	★★★★★ 4.7	77%	Baseline · 95% recommend

Quality signal is strong — volume is the gap

Ontinue's 4.7★ and 95% likelihood-to-recommend are competitive with Sophos (4.8★) and identical to CrowdStrike (4.7★). The quality signal is there. Every new Gartner review compounds directly into AI citation probability.

G2: Zero reviews — unactivated platform

G2 is one of the most-cited sources in AI-generated B2B software buying guides. Ontinue has a G2 profile but zero reviews. Even 5–10 reviews would unlock G2 category grid eligibility and meaningfully increase AI citation probability.

GA4 Analytics

Sessions, users & channel mix — Q1 2026 clean baseline.

January 1 – March 30, 2026. No bot contamination. This is the first GA4 data that can be used as a reliable baseline — every subsequent quarter will have a real foundation to measure against.

Total Sessions

52,815

Q1 2026 · Clean data only

Active Users

45,462

Jan 1 – Mar 30, 2026

New Users

46,655

First-time visitors to site

Session Channel Mix

Default channel grouping · Q1 2026 · 52,815 total sessions

Direct

36,914

70%

Organic Search

10,556

20%

Referral

3,714

All other channels

1,631

💡

Direct at 70% — expected for this business model

Direct traffic includes direct URL entry, dark social, and email/sales outreach — all meaningful for a security brand with a sales-led motion. Organic at 20% reflects early-stage SEO investment; this ratio should shift as content and authority compound.

Key Conversion Events

GA4 event tracking · Q1 2026

generate_leadPrimary conversion event

603

form_submitContact & demo requests

145

AI Platform Referral Sessions

GA4 sessions attributed to AI tool referrals · Q1 2026 baseline

ChatGPT.com65 sessions

Perplexity.ai21 sessions

Claude.ai20 sessions

Gemini19 sessions

Total AI referrals125 sessions

Small in absolute terms now — but this category is growing rapidly across B2B. It will be a headline metric by Q3 2026.

📋 Attribution Gap — Untracked Paid Ad Spend on b2bdaily.com

b2bdaily.com appears as a referral source with 466 sessions in Q1 GA4 data. These sessions correspond to confirmed Ontinue display ad placements running on the b2bdaily.com network — shown below. Because the ads were not properly UTM-tagged, paid media traffic was bucketed as organic referral. Flagged to Alberto for UTM remediation. Actual paid-driven traffic was likely higher than 466.

Leaderboard placement — b2bdaily.com, March 3, 2026

Vertical display unit

Both placements show live Ontinue creative running without UTM tracking — "Identify & Respond to Threats Faster" (leaderboard) and "Transform Your Security Operations with MDR" (vertical).

What Q2 Should Show

Four benchmarks this baseline sets up.

Q1 established the starting line. Here is what a successful Q2 looks like — and why these targets follow directly from the Q1 data.

Click volume holds above 7,483 and position continues toward page one

March's run rate of 2,701 clicks creates forward momentum. If held, Q2 total clicks should reach 8,000+. Position movement from 15.2 to below 14.0 would be a meaningful milestone toward first-page visibility across non-branded terms.

Target: 8,000+ clicks · Avg position < 14.0

AI Visibility — establish the measurement practice and protect the baseline

A meaningful score increase in a single quarter is unlikely without a sustained GEO program already running. The honest Q2 goal is: re-run the same 7 live queries tested April 2 at Q2 close and document what changed; confirm the score doesn't drop below 20 (the Feb → Mar decline shows this isn't guaranteed); and activate at least one new citation surface — G2 reviews, a trade publication mention, or an analyst reference. Score movement is a Q3–Q4 story. Q2 is about building the foundation that makes it possible.

Target: Score ≥ 20 · 7 queries re-run at Q2 close · 1 new citation source activated

G2 profile activated — first reviews on record

Zero G2 reviews is a quantifiable gap with direct AI citation consequences. Even 5–10 G2 reviews from existing customers would unlock G2 category grid eligibility and measurably increase the probability of being cited in AI-generated vendor comparisons.

Target: 5+ G2 reviews published in Q2

Full /de site launch impact — Q2 is the first real DACH measurement

The full German-language ontinue.com launched April 1, 2026 — the first day of Q2. The Q1 +439% growth in /de traffic happened with a partial presence. Q2 is no longer about validating demand; that question is answered. Q2 measures how effectively the new full /de site converts existing DACH intent into traffic, and whether it surfaces for a broader set of German-language queries. The hreflang fixes flagged in the Apr 1 audit should be prioritized immediately to ensure Google routes DACH searchers to /de correctly.

Target: /de traffic > 1,000 clicks · Hreflang fixed in Q2 week 1

Toxic score diluted by quality link growth — not by disavow

The HIGH toxic score is driven by identifiable spam link farms, not by poor outreach. Google's spam algorithm handles most of this automatically. The Q2 strategy is to earn more legitimate referring domains from cybersecurity media, analyst coverage, and partner ecosystems — diluting the spam concentration through volume of quality, which is more effective and far less risky than disavow. Target: 50+ new quality referring domains in Q2.

Target: 50+ quality domains · Dilute toxic %, not remove it

Ontinue
Digital
Performance.

What this report measures — and why Q1 matters.

Google Search Console

SEMrush Site Audits

GA4 Analytics

GA4 Contamination Notice — Historical data cannot be used for comparison

Headline metrics — Q1 vs Q4 2025.

Monthly click trajectory — Q4 reference to Q1 acceleration.

Notable query movements — Q4 2025 → Q1 2026.

323 commercial-intent rankings — here's a sample of what's in the data.

Site health, crawlability & backlink profile — Q1 arc.

Crawlability Crisis Resolved: 22 Blocked Pages Down to 1

Site Health Score

Crawl & Backlink Summary

How AI systems discover and cite Ontinue.

AI Mention Source Breakdown

AI Platform Referrals — GA4 + SEMrush

What ChatGPT and Gemini actually say about Ontinue.

Gartner Peer Insights ratings.

Sessions, users & channel mix — Q1 2026 clean baseline.

Key Conversion Events

AI Platform Referral Sessions

📋 Attribution Gap — Untracked Paid Ad Spend on b2bdaily.com

Four benchmarks this baseline sets up.

Click volume holds above 7,483 and position continues toward page one

AI Visibility — establish the measurement practice and protect the baseline

G2 profile activated — first reviews on record

Full /de site launch impact — Q2 is the first real DACH measurement

Toxic score diluted by quality link growth — not by disavow

OntinueDigitalPerformance.

What this report measures — and why Q1 matters.

Google Search Console

SEMrush Site Audits

GA4 Analytics

GA4 Contamination Notice — Historical data cannot be used for comparison

Headline metrics — Q1 vs Q4 2025.

Monthly click trajectory — Q4 reference to Q1 acceleration.

Notable query movements — Q4 2025 → Q1 2026.

323 commercial-intent rankings — here's a sample of what's in the data.

Site health, crawlability & backlink profile — Q1 arc.

Crawlability Crisis Resolved: 22 Blocked Pages Down to 1

Site Health Score

Crawl & Backlink Summary

How AI systems discover and cite Ontinue.

AI Mention Source Breakdown

AI Platform Referrals — GA4 + SEMrush

What ChatGPT and Gemini actually say about Ontinue.

Gartner Peer Insights ratings.

Sessions, users & channel mix — Q1 2026 clean baseline.

Key Conversion Events

AI Platform Referral Sessions

📋 Attribution Gap — Untracked Paid Ad Spend on b2bdaily.com

Four benchmarks this baseline sets up.

Click volume holds above 7,483 and position continues toward page one

AI Visibility — establish the measurement practice and protect the baseline

G2 profile activated — first reviews on record

Full /de site launch impact — Q2 is the first real DACH measurement

Toxic score diluted by quality link growth — not by disavow

Ontinue
Digital
Performance.