AI search glossary
AI citations: when ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google link your page
An AI citation is a link or source reference that an AI search engine attaches to its answer to show which web page supplied a piece of information, such as the numbered sources in Perplexity or the supporting links in Google AI Overviews.
Also called: LLM citations, AI source links, citation tracking
Why it matters for AI search
A citation is the part of an AI answer that can send a visitor and that tells the reader where a claim came from. Being cited for your own facts (price, features, policies) also lowers the chance that the engine repeats an outdated or wrong version from a third-party page. Citations vary from run to run, so they are measured as a rate across many prompts, not checked once.
How AI engines choose citations
Most AI search answers are built with retrieval-augmented generation: the engine searches, reads a handful of pages, writes an answer and links some of them. What gets cited depends on which pages the engine can reach and which passages answer the sub-questions it searched for.
The access rules are documented. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, with no extra requirements. OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in ChatGPT search, and that sites opted out of it are not shown in search answers. Perplexity says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in its results. Block the search crawler and you remove the chance of a citation on that engine.
Example
Ask Perplexity "what is the return window at an online furniture store" and the answer may cite the store's own returns page, a deal blog and a Reddit thread. If the store's page is blocked or the policy sits inside a PDF, the engine still answers, but cites someone else's version, which may be out of date.
How to measure citations properly
AI answers are not stable. The same prompt on the same engine can cite different sources on two runs a minute apart. A single screenshot is an anecdote. A useful measurement:
- uses a fixed set of real buyer prompts, not one;
- runs each prompt several times on each engine;
- reports the share of runs in which your domain is cited, with a likely range, per engine;
- repeats on a schedule so changes show up as a trend.
GetPicked reports pick rates this way, per engine and with a range rather than a rank. The methodology page explains the sampling. Related measures are brand mentions, AI share of voice and AI rank tracking.
What to do about it
Check crawler access for OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Googlebot. Put key facts (price, specs, policies, who it is for) on crawlable pages in text. Answer specific questions under clear headings, the same format that wins featured snippets. When an engine cites a third-party page about you, read it: if it is accurate, it is helping; if it is outdated, ask for a correction and make your own page the clearer source.
Questions
- What is the difference between an AI citation and a mention?
- A mention is your brand named in the answer text. A citation is a link to a page used as a source. You can be mentioned without being cited (the engine names you from other pages) and cited without being recommended (your page supplied a fact about a competitor).
- Why do my citations change every time I ask?
- AI engines generate a fresh answer for each request and may run different searches, so the sources shift between runs, days and engines. That is why one check proves little. Track the share of runs in which you are cited, across a fixed set of prompts.
- How do I get cited by ChatGPT search?
- Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt. OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers. Then publish pages that state the facts buyers ask about in plain text. OpenAI does not guarantee placement.
- What is citation tracking?
- Running a set of prompts on AI engines on a schedule and recording which domains each answer cites. Done properly it uses several runs per prompt and reports a citation rate with a range, per engine.