Export your data as CSV
BotSay has two CSV downloads: Export on Evidence, What they cited, and Export CSV on Where to get in under Work. Members and admins can use both, and each file holds more than the screen shows.
Where is the Export button on Evidence? #
Open Evidence, then the tab What they cited. Export is at the right of the row above the table. That row also holds the filters All, Yours, Rivals and Places you could be, an engine control and a Sites or Pages control.
The file is named SummaryCitations.csv. It does not follow your filters: engine, filter and Sites or Pages do not change what you download. What the Evidence page shows describes the screen.
What does the Evidence file hold? #
The Evidence file holds one row for each week, engine, theme and site, plus one row for each page on that site. It covers every week BotSay holds, not only the week on screen.
Columns, in order: PK_ID, Week_Start, Engine_Key, Theme, Brand_ID, Domain, URL_Hash, URL, Citations, Retrieved_Count, Citation_Share, Citation_Rate, Retrieved_Pct, Retrieval_Rate, Created_At.
Citations counts how often links to the site or page were cited. Retrieved_Count counts how often the engines retrieved it while answering. Engine_Key holds a short code for the engine rather than its display name. Weeks measured before BotSay recorded themes show a blank Theme, which means not recorded.
Why do the Evidence totals add up too high? #
A site appears twice in the file, so adding up Citations over every row counts each citation twice. Once it is a site total, with URL and URL_Hash blank, and once for each of its pages, with URL filled in.
To total by site, keep only rows where URL is blank. To total by page, keep only rows where URL is filled.
Where is Export CSV on Where to get in? #
Export CSV sits beside the filters above the list on Where to get in, and the file is named gap.csv. It carries the engine and site-type filters you have chosen.
Where to get in lists the pages that shaped an answer which named a rival, whether or not it named you. Open it from Work: items of the kind Take part or Ask to be listed have a link, Which videos and threads or Which pages. See Find pages to get your brand onto.
What does the Where to get in file hold? #
The file holds one row for each page on the list, in these columns: URL, Domain, Domain_Type, URL_Type, Engines_Citing, Themes, Citation_Count, Competitor_Brands_Present, Own_Brand_On_Page, First_Seen, Last_Seen and Status. A further column, between Engines_Citing and Themes, lists the questions that brought the page up.
Cells with several values, such as engines or themes, are sorted and joined with "; ".
The file uses stored values, not screen labels. Domain_Type is a code such as ugc, and Engines_Citing holds engine keys. Own_Brand_On_Page is Y or N for a page BotSay has checked and blank for one it has not checked yet. Status reads new unless a status was recorded earlier, because nothing on the screen changes it.
How many rows does the screen show, and how many does the file hold? #
Each file holds more rows than its screen. The Where to get in screen shows the 50 pages read or linked most often, and the file holds every page on the list. Below the list the screen says, for example, "Showing the 50 pages read or linked most often. 12 more pages are in the CSV export."
The Evidence screen shows 25 rows at a time, with Previous 25 and Next 25. Its file is not a copy of the screen: it holds every week and both kinds of row.
How do the files open in a spreadsheet? #
Both files are comma-separated UTF-8 text with a header row. A text cell that starts with an equals sign, a plus sign, a minus sign or an at sign has an apostrophe added in front, so a spreadsheet reads it as text and does not treat it as a formula.
An empty cell means not recorded, which is not the same as zero.
Why did my download stop? #
BotSay limits downloads for each person: 15 in a row, then one more each minute, shared across both buttons. At the limit the browser shows a short "rate limited" message instead of a file. Wait a minute and try again.
Can I download my questions, answers or brands? #
Not from a button. The two downloads here are the only CSV downloads in the app. What data BotSay stores points to the Privacy policy and Terms of service for what happens to your data when an account ends, including how to ask for a copy.