Citations
The sources AI answers draw on, the pages on your site they cite, and the communities behind cited threads and videos.
Citations & Sources is where you trace AI answers back to the sources they draw on. It has three tabs: Sources, Your pages, and Communities. Together they answer "which sites shape how AI talks about my category", "which of my pages get cited", and "which threads, videos, and posts AI reaches for".
What the numbers count
Every count on this page is a total over the date range you pick in the top bar (last 7, 30, or 90 days; 30 by default): every AI answer collected in that period counts. That is different from the Overview's Brand Coverage, which reflects your current results (the latest answer for each prompt, platform, and country). The two numbers can legitimately differ, which is why the tile here is labelled Coverage in range. See Measurement Scope.
A source counts as Cited with you when at least one answer in the range cited it and also mentioned your brand, and Cited without you when none did. There is no percentage threshold in between.
Sources tab
The Sources tab covers every domain the AI answers used in the range.
- Source landscape tiles: Coverage in range, sources cited alongside you, sources cited without you, and the average number of sources per answer.
- Per-platform strip showing where citations concentrate by AI platform.
- Brand Coverage by source: a trend of the share of AI answers that cite each of the leading sources, with your own site as one of the lines.
- Rising and falling: the sources whose share of answers that also mention you grew or fell most compared with the previous period of the same length, including sources that disappeared.
- Sources table, filterable by source category, by status (Cited with you, Cited without you), and by search. Only co-citing narrows the list to sources cited alongside you in at least one answer. Each row shows the source type, how often it is used, the average citations per answer, a trend line across the range, the change against the previous period, whether it was cited with you (and in how many answers), and the platform that uses it most. A Deciding tag marks a source that tends to sit high in the sources of answers that recommend you; it is an inferred influence read, not a measured cause.
Open a row to see how many times the source was cited and how many of those answers included you, the platforms citing it, its top pages, and a link to the AI answers that cite it. From the same panel you can add the domain as a competitor, unless it is a community or aggregator site.
Source categories
| Category | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Your brand | Your own site |
| Competitor | A tracked competitor's site |
| Editorial | Recognised news and media publishers |
| Community | Review sites, forums, Reddit, social posts and profiles, YouTube, directories, and marketplaces |
| Reference | Documentation |
| Institutional | Government, education, and similar institutions |
| Company website | Another business's own website |
| Other source | Pages that fit none of the above, such as comparison pages, best-of lists, blog posts, and partner pages |
When a source is an Other source and its page format is known, the row names the format instead: Comparison page, Best-of list, Blog post, or Partner page.
Your pages tab
Your pages lists the pages on your own site that AI answers have cited, plus pages that carry an opportunity score. Citation counts cover the selected range.
- Tiles for total AI mentions of your pages, the number of cited pages, high-opportunity pages that were not cited in the range, and the average mentions per cited page.
- A page coverage trend.
- A table of pages, filterable by page type, with citations in the range, citation rate, a trend line, co-mentioned brands, and an opportunity score. Show opportunities first sorts pages with the most room to gain to the top.
Open a page to see its current and lifetime citations, the platforms and prompts citing it, the domains cited alongside it, recent answer snippets, and its opportunity. From there you can open the page in the Content Checker, and, when the page has a strong opportunity, add it to your plan.
Communities tab
Communities lists the individual Reddit threads, YouTube videos, X and LinkedIn posts, and review and social pages that AI answers cited. Filter by Reddit, YouTube, X & LinkedIn, or Reviews & social. Each row shows how many answers cited it, which AI platforms did, and how many of those answers also mentioned your brand. Reddit rows show the subreddit, and YouTube rows show the channel name once it has been looked up.
For Reddit threads and X or LinkedIn posts, Add to engagement queue sends the conversation to your Community Engagement queue for review. This needs the Editor role or above and an active engagement queue.
What each plan sees
On Free, the Sources table shows the top 8 sources, rising and falling sources are locked, the country filter is hidden, and the co-mentioned and opportunity columns on Your pages are locked. Every plan that runs checks sees the full page.
API access
The Data API returns a domain's citation sources over the last 7 days. See the Analytics API reference.
What to do with this
The Read analytics guide covers prioritisation. In short: strengthen the pages that already get cited, look at high-usage sources that cite you rarely or never, and read the threads and videos AI keeps reaching for, since pages you do not control also shape how your brand is described.