The Periodic Table of Digital Authority™ exists to measure something the old tools were never built to see: whether AI systems can understand, trust, cite, and surface a brand. It does that through a documented methodology, a set of research instruments, and an ongoing programme of benchmark studies.
The Periodic Table of Digital Authority is the methodology owner and publisher. It produces three things, all openly documented:
The framework — sixty-three authority signals organised into four measurement cards (Understand, Trust, Cite, Surface).
The research instruments — versioned, reproducible measurement tools (C01 AI Crawler Access, C02 Digital Authority Benchmark, C03 AI Citation Benchmark) sharing one sampling standard.
The benchmark studies — the Global Digital Authority Benchmark Series: original, market-by-market research published with full methodology.
Everything PTODA publishes is research-first: versioned, traceable to the instrument that produced it, and citable with attribution. Studies report aggregate, anonymised findings only.
It is worth being precise about the two names, because they do different jobs.
Publishes the methodology, the research instruments, and the benchmark studies. It is the research and methodology layer: the framework, the standards, and the published findings. This website is its home.
AUTHORITY44 is the commercial implementation of related measurement frameworks. Where PTODA publishes the methodology and the research, AUTHORITY44 is the scoring platform that applies related measurement in a commercial setting.
The framework, the instruments, and the research are the work of Douglas Lord (Doug Lord), founder of Digital Dominator and AUTHORITY44. The Periodic Table of Digital Authority™ is a coined framework and term; the operating entity is Digital Dominator Pty Ltd (ABN 28 616 931 116).
Explore the work: the benchmark series, the published research, or the methodology and instruments.
The Periodic Table of Digital Authority™ (TM 2644497) and AUTHORITY44™ (TM 2643932) are trade marks pending. © Digital Dominator Pty Ltd ABN 28 616 931 116. Research may be cited with attribution; studies may not be reproduced in full or presented as the work of others. Use is subject to the Terms of Use.