PTODA stands for the Periodic Table of Digital Authority™, a framework and research programme for understanding how digital authority is observed, measured and cited in AI search systems.
Two things share the name, and they do different jobs. The Periodic Table of Digital Authority™ is the framework: a structured model that classifies the observable signals of digital authority, the things a machine can check about an organisation to decide whether to find, read, trust and cite it. PTODA is the abbreviation of that name, and also the name of the research programme that applies and extends the framework through published standards, benchmark panels and studies.
This site explains the framework. The research programme lives at ptoda.org.
AI search systems do not browse the web the way people do. They retrieve, read and cite a limited set of sources, and whether an organisation is among them depends on observable signals most businesses have never measured. PTODA names those signals and organises them, so that digital authority can be discussed, measured and researched rather than guessed at.
PTODA is not a score, not a product, and not an SEO checklist. It is the underlying framework. Commercial measurement built on the framework is provided separately and under licence; it does not govern the framework or the research.