Citation tracking

See which pages AI answers cite, and whether any are yours

When ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or a Google AI Overview shows sources for an answer, AEOmeter saves them next to the answer text. You see which sites shape answers in your category, how often your own site is one of them, and which competitor pages keep showing up.

Track your first brand How citations are counted

Answer · Perplexity

Oct 15Example data

What's the best product analytics tool for a seed-stage SaaS?

Acme Analytics mentioned 1×Mixpanel 2×PostHog 1×

Mixpanel is the default many teams start with¹. Acme Analytics suits small teams that want answers without a data engineer³, and PostHog is popular with teams that want open source⁴. See the Acme pricing page for event limits.

Cited sources

1Best Product Analytics Software 2026g2.comOther
2r/SaaS · What analytics do you use?reddit.comCommunity
3Acme Analytics vs Mixpanelacme.ioYour site
4PostHog vs Mixpanelposthog.comPostHog

Linked in the answer

Acme pricingacme.io/pricing

Two kinds of links

Citations and inline links are kept apart

A citation is a source the engine attributes to its answer: a source pill in ChatGPT, a numbered source in Perplexity, a source card under an AI Overview. An inline link is a URL that appears inside the answer text. AEOmeter stores the two separately. The answer view lists citations first and "Linked in the answer" below them.

Keeping them apart matters because a passing link to your pricing page is weaker evidence than being one of the sources an answer is built on.

The metric

Owned citation rate

Shown as Cited in the app. It is the share of successfully captured answers that cite at least one link on your domain or its subdomains. Add your domains in brand settings and both acme.io and docs.acme.io count.

Failed checks and searches where Google showed no AI Overview are left out of the denominator. With zero answers in a period you see a dash instead of 0%.

Cited

Example data

19%

8 of 43 answers cite acme.io or a subdomain

acme.io · docs.acme.io

ChatGPT3 of 12

Claude0 of 9

Perplexity5 of 11

AI Overviews0 of 11

Failed checks and searches without an AI Overview are not in the denominator.

Sources view

Every cited site and page, grouped

The Sources view lists everything AI answers cited in the period, grouped by site or by page. Each source is labelled as your site, a competitor site, community or other, with the engines that cited it and how many answers did. Click a source to read the exact answers that cited it.

This is where you find the review directories, Reddit threads and comparison articles that keep appearing for your prompts. Those are the pages worth earning a mention on.

Sources

Example data

23 sites cited in the last 30 days

SitesPages

Source	Type	Engines	Pages	Answers
g2.com	Other	GPT · Pplx · AIO	6	14
reddit.com	Community	GPT · Pplx	9	11
posthog.com	Competitor site	GPT · Claude · Pplx	4	9
acme.io	Your site	GPT · Pplx	3	8
mixpanel.com	Competitor site	Pplx · AIO	3	6

Honest gaps

When a source list may be incomplete

Engines hide some sources behind grouped buttons and expanding panels, and they change their pages often. When AEOmeter cannot be sure it read every source, the answer says "Some sources may be missing" instead of presenting a partial list as complete. The engine adapters are experimental for this reason.

A citation records what the engine attributed. It does not prove that the page caused the answer.

Answer · ChatGPT

Example data

For a seed-stage team, Mixpanel and Acme Analytics both cover funnels and retention…

g2.comacme.ioreddit.com +3

Some sources may be missing.

Three sources sat behind a grouped pill that could not be expanded. The two that were read are kept as citations.

FAQ

Questions

Which engines show citations?

Perplexity shows sources on almost every answer. Google AI Overviews show source cards. ChatGPT shows sources when it searches the web for an answer. Claude adds citations when it uses web search, and many Claude answers have none. See engines for how each one is read.

Is a citation the same as a mention?

No. A mention is your brand name in the answer text. A citation is a source link to your domain. You can be mentioned without being cited, and an answer can cite your blog without naming your product.

Do subdomains count as my site?

Yes. Links on your owned domains and their subdomains count toward your owned citation rate.

Does a cited page cause the answer?

AEOmeter cannot tell you that. It records which sources the engine showed. Treat a frequently cited page as a strong hint about what the engine reads, nothing more.

How do I get cited more often?

AEOmeter measures citations. It does not write or publish content. Our answer engine optimization guide covers what tends to help.

Keep reading

See which sources AI cites for your prompts.

Add your brand and your domains. Every answer AEOmeter captures shows its cited sources and its inline links separately.

Track your first brandNeeds Chrome and your own AI accounts.