Citation

A citation is a source link an AI assistant attaches to an answer, pointing to a specific page it drew on. In ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Claude, and Gemini, citations appear as numbered footnotes, inline links, or a source panel beside the response. Citations are counted per URL, so one domain can earn several citations in a single answer.

Why it matters for AI

A citation is the only path from an AI answer back to your site, which makes it the closest equivalent to a click in traditional search. It also signals that the model retrieved your page live rather than relying on training data — evidence your content is reachable, parseable, and judged relevant to the question.

Citations vs. mentions

Every citation implies a mention, but most mentions carry no citation. A brand can be named repeatedly across answers and still receive zero referral traffic, because the model spoke about it without linking to it.

Practical takeaway

• Cited pages are a content signal — the specific URLs models pick reveal which formats and depth they favour.
• Third-party citations count — review sites, listicles, and forums are cited far more often than brand-owned pages.
• Check retrievability — pages blocked to AI crawlers or rendered client-side rarely get cited at all.