Selling Guide Methodology and Evidence Labels

What the selling guides measure

Each guide begins with a dated Reach Dog category profile. A category cluster count is the number of distinct product clusters carrying the stored category term. What, Where, When, Who, and Why rows are overlapping associations around those clusters.

Cluster counts are not monthly search volume, sales, revenue, market size, conversion rate, or profitability. The guide does not add overlapping dimension counts together.

Four evidence labels

Observed category association means the relationship appears in the dated Reach Dog category profile. It describes the category evidence, not every product inside the category.

Modeled buyer wording means Reach Dog turned a category association or product constraint into a natural shopping question for merchant review. Unless a question is explicitly accompanied by search-volume evidence, it is not presented as a measured query.

Merchant-supplied product fact means the fact comes from the merchant’s product record, manufacturer documentation, certification, testing, or another source the merchant can verify.

Unsupported means the available category and product evidence does not justify the statement. Unsupported ideas should be removed or held for verification.

How the five dimensions are used

The five buyer dimensions organize the questions a listing may need to answer:

What: the requested use, activity, or product function
Where: the setting, room, surface, or occasion
When: timing, season, duration, or moment of use
Who: the buyer, user, recipient, or household context
Why: the supported benefit or result being compared

The dimensions organize evidence. They do not turn an association into a fact about an individual product.

Why the questions require product verification

A category profile can show that office chairs are associated with ergonomic support. It cannot establish that a particular chair has adjustable lumbar support. A mattress category can be associated with back support without proving that an individual mattress relieves pain.

For that reason, every selling-guide question names the product facts a merchant must verify before using the recommended content. Missing facts remain missing; an AI assistant should not supply them from general category knowledge.

Research dates and updates

Reach Dog began this research program in January 2024. Each guide carries its category snapshot date, content-review date, and content fingerprint. A page date should change only when its evidence or public guidance changes materially.

Search volume, CPC, and rolling keyword history appear only when the public evidence package contains those fields and dates. Their absence is not replaced with an estimate.

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