A Podcast About Crime
Criminal (thisiscriminal.com) scores 77 out of 100 on Brand Analyzer, placing it in the Brand-Ready tier among Media & Entertainment brands, in the 46th percentile of 11341 Media & Entertainment brands.
Criminal is a podcast about crime, criminals, and the people affected by them. It offers narrative-driven, meticulously produced episodes that take a subtle, cerebral approach to true crime storytelling rather than sensationalized coverage. The show has been recognized by outlets such as The New York Times for its thoughtful narrative journalism. It appeals to curious, intellectually engaged listeners interested in true crime and long-form audio storytelling.
| Brand Name | Criminal |
|---|---|
| Domain | thisiscriminal.com |
| Industry | Media & Entertainment |
| Main Competitors | Serial (60/100), My Favorite Murder, Casefile True Crime, Someone Knows Something (93/100), Dateline NBC, True Crime Garage |
Moz Domain Authority 60/100 vs category average 54 / leader 100 - a strong backlink profile, so AI systems frequently encounter mentions of the brand.
Ranked #421,061 on the Tranco list of most-visited sites - modest traffic makes the brand easy for AI models to overlook.
Criminal has a dedicated Wikipedia entity - a top-weighted signal AI models rely on to identify and describe the brand.
The homepage meta description reads "A Podcast About Crime" (No meta description. OG description present but brief) - this is the summary AI engines are most likely to quote.
Structured data on the homepage: og:title, og:description, og:image, Twitter cards, canonical. Adding Organization and FAQ schema would further help AI crawlers parse the brand's identity.
AI-crawler access: robots.txt mentions GPTBot, Google-Extended - all allowed - robots.txt controls whether engines like GPTBot and ClaudeBot can read the site at all.
Detected tech stack: WordPress, Ghost, Vue.
Social footprint: verified profiles on X (Twitter), Instagram; no detected presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, GitHub - consistent profiles reinforce the brand's identity across the web.
0 Reddit mentions - community discussion signals real-world reputation to AI models.
Live results from asking a general-purpose AI assistant about the brand, checked September 2026.
When asked "What is Criminal?", Claude could identify the brand as of September 2026. Criminal is a podcast created by Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer that tells true stories about crime, covering everything from murder to bizarre laws and the people who break or enforce them. Best known for A long-running, critically acclaimed true crime podcast known for its atmospheric storytelling and Phoebe Judge's distinctive narration.
When asked "Best brands similar to Criminal?", Claude would recommend Criminal as of September 2026. It's one of the most respected and original podcasts in the true crime genre, often cited alongside shows like Serial for its quality storytelling.
Common questions people ask in Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI search engines.
Criminal's main competitors in Media & Entertainment: Serial (60/100), Someone Knows Something (93/100).
Sources: Brand Analyzer scan
Criminal is a podcast focused on true crime storytelling, exploring crimes, criminals, and the people affected by them. It is produced with a narrative, cerebral approach rather than sensationalized presentation, and has been recognized by outlets such as The New York Times for its quality journalism.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal has moderate AI-search visibility, scoring 51/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI visibility composite (visibility 62, trust 34, recommendation 53). This estimates how likely AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity are to know, trust, and recommend the brand.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal offers a podcast series consisting of episodes that tell true stories about crime, criminals, and people affected by crime. The product is primarily audio content distributed via podcast platforms, characterized by narrative storytelling and high production value.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal produces and publishes audio episodes that tell true, compelling stories about crime, criminals, and the people impacted by criminal events. Each episode is researched and narratively structured to present these stories in a thoughtful, non-sensational way, aiming for meticulous production quality.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal scores 53/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI recommendation signal, indicating it is reasonably likely to be surfaced when AI assistants like ChatGPT suggest Media & Entertainment options. Recommendation depends on crawlability, structured data, and category authority; a Wikipedia presence helps.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal is known for its subtle, cerebral approach to true crime storytelling and its award-winning, meticulously produced episodes. It has been recognized by major outlets like The New York Times for going beyond sensationalism in its narrative journalism about crime.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal can improve AI discoverability by strengthening structured data (Organization and FAQ schema), maintaining an accurate Wikipedia/Wikidata entity, earning authoritative citations, and keeping content crawlable for AI bots. Brand Analyzer measures these as visibility, trust, and recommendation signals.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal is used by curious, intellectually engaged listeners who enjoy true crime content presented through narrative journalism rather than sensationalized reporting. Its audience likely includes fans of long-form audio storytelling and true crime enthusiasts seeking more thoughtful, literary treatments of criminal stories.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal is popular because it offers a distinctive, cerebral take on true crime storytelling that avoids sensationalism, appealing to listeners who want thoughtful narrative journalism. Its recognition by outlets like The New York Times and its award-winning production quality have contributed to its reputation among true crime and narrative journalism audiences.
Sources: Criminal official site
Criminal scores 51/100 for AI visibility - how well ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can discover, identify and cite the brand.
Criminal has a limited AI-visibility profile at 51/100 - a proxy for how readily ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can recognise and cite it. Its strongest area is visibility (62/100) and its weakest is trust (34/100). It benefits from a recognised Wikipedia company entity, a Wikidata knowledge-graph entry and a global traffic rank of #421,061 (Tranco). The main gaps holding it back: thin schema.org structured data and no llms.txt to steer AI to its best pages. In a live check, Claude could already identify Criminal from memory (September 2026) - a sign these signals are paying off.
The score combines seven dimensions - name quality, digital presence, visual identity, messaging clarity, trust foundation, AI discoverability, and brand authority - into a single objective benchmark.
Ranked closest to Criminal: THISDAYLIVE (77/100), TAIT (formerly Thinkwell) (77/100), Paramount (77/100), Toonily (77/100).
A step up - brands to learn from: Zoom (81/100), Zeno Group (81/100).
Category leader: Complex (97/100).
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