Skip to main content
A citation is a source link included with an AI answer. Citation Score shows the share of your citation-eligible answers that include at least one Cited Source on your own domain. A citation is different from a mention. An AI answer can name your brand without linking to your website. It can also cite your content without making your brand the main subject.

​
What counts as a citation

Citation Score counts only Cited Sources: real source links the AI engine itself returned. It excludes two things:
  • Emitted URLs. A link the judge model found written in the answer’s own text. This is a guess, not a source the engine returned.
  • Engine Chrome. The engine’s own interface links, for example a shopping carousel or a search viewer link. These name no publisher.

​
The citation-capable denominator

Not every answer can carry a citation. An AI engine without web search enabled cannot return a Cited Source. Mentioned counts an answer in the Citation Score denominator only when the engine that produced it is able to return a Cited Source. An answer from an engine with no citation capability does not lower Citation Score. It is left out of the calculation. Citation Score is the share of citation-capable answers that include at least one Cited Source on your own domain. It is not a share of individual links. One answer with many links to your domain counts the same as one answer with a single link. Mentioned also shows a separate link share figure: the share of individual Cited Sources that point to your domain. Link share is a supporting detail. It is not the headline score.

​
Metric availability

Citation Score shows No data when there is no citation-capable answer at all. No data has no number and no green, amber, or red status. This is different from a measured zero: a measured zero means citation-capable answers exist and none includes a Cited Source on your domain. If citation-capable answers exist and none includes a Cited Source on your domain, Citation Score is an available measured zero. A measured zero is not the same as No data.

​
How to read it

  • Top Cited Sources shows which domains or pages appear most often in recorded citations.
  • Answer coverage shows how widely a Cited Source appears across measured answers.
  • Publisher Type describes the kind of publisher.
  • URL Type describes the kind of page.
  • Relationship shows whether the source is your domain, a competitor domain, or neither.
These Citation Facets are independent. Use them together to understand the source.

​
Why it matters for AEO

Citations show whether AI answers use your content as supporting material. They can support authority and provide a path to your website.
Citation Score reflects the prompts, AI engines, competitors, and date range selected in your project. It does not measure the whole internet. Not every AI engine or answer provides citations. A citation does not guarantee a click, endorsement, or conversion.