---
title: Citations and sources
description: Understand how Visibility reports source citations, cited domains, citation share, and brand mentions.
---

The **Citations** tab helps you see which brands and domains appear as sources in answers to your monitored prompts. Use it when you want to investigate whether models rely on your website, competitor websites, or other domains. A citation is evidence that the answer included a source link; it does not prove that the answer named or recommended the brand.

For brand presence in answer text, see [Visibility Overview](/help/visibility/). For the underlying answer text, source links, and whether a brand was named or only cited, see [Review individual answers](/help/visibility/answers/).

## Citation share by brand

The first card, **Citations**, compares the project brand and competitors. Its percentage is the share of answers that included sources in which the brand’s domain was cited. The count in parentheses is the number of those answers where the domain citation was detected. This is not a count of every individual link: if one answer cites your domain more than once, it still contributes one answer to the count. A citation is counted separately from a brand mention: an answer may cite your site but not name your company, or name your company without citing your site.

The card also shows Visibility, Reach, and average position for context. These columns retain their usual meanings: Visibility is the share of answers naming a brand; Reach weights visibility by each model's market share; position is the average place in answers that name the brand, with 1 highest. The citation chart’s timeline shows the share of citations by day where daily history is available. Missing days are gaps in measured data, not zero citations.

Use the model and period controls at the top of the page to change the answers behind the comparison. The compact date control beside the source table changes the source table’s reporting period independently. When comparing the chart and source table, align those periods first. If the available history is too short to draw daily citation trends, the card explains that and provides the period total in the table.

### Select which competitors to compare

**You vs. selected** displays your brand and the competitors you have chosen to track. **You vs. leaders** displays your brand with the most visible brands for the current answer selection. The selection is shared with the competitor comparison on Overview, so changing modes or pinning/hiding brands in either location updates the other. Pinning a competitor uses one of the tracked slots (up to ten competitors, excluding your own brand); it affects the comparison display, not the underlying answer collection. If you are in leaders mode when pinning, the view switches back to selected so the new choice appears.

The table can show up to ten rows before **Show all** opens the fuller list. Export saves the prepared competitor rows for this view; it does not alter tracked selections or historical data.

## Cited sources

The source table lists domains that models used in answers for the project prompts. The selected model determines the per-model occurrence percentage. The range control offers 7 days, 14 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or all available history. This date range is separate from the main answer-period selector; the selected model still applies. Align both controls before comparing this domain list with the chart above. Neither control changes the monitored prompts.

The table’s **Citation share** uses the pool of source citations as its denominator: it shows how much of that pool belongs to a domain. The brand comparison above answers a different question: in how many answers containing sources was a brand domain cited? One answer can contain multiple cited domains, so these percentages need not match. The table counts a domain once per answer when showing occurrence, even if the same answer contains multiple links from that domain.

The table can show domain metrics such as **DR** and estimated monthly visits, plus sponsored publication offer details where available. They describe the domain or publication itself; they are not the domain’s share of citations, and they do not tell you that a publication caused a particular answer. If a metric is unavailable for a domain, its absence is not a zero. Your project domain and the other domains added under **Domains** in **Project settings** are recognized as yours. If a competitor's citations seem to be missing, add its domain to its group in **Manage competitors**.

Use the domain list to choose what to inspect, not as a quality ranking by itself. A competitor source appearing often may be a clue to review the page or evidence models are using. A source on your domain appearing often means the page was cited; it does not establish that the answer accurately described your product, named your brand, or sent a visitor to your site. Open answer rows in [Answers](/help/visibility/answers/) to read the context. Website visits are reported separately in [Traffic](/help/ai-traffic/).

## How to interpret differences

- **More source answers cite your domain while Visibility stays flat:** your site is being used as a source more often in the checked answers, but the answer still may not name your brand. Read sample answers to see the context.
- **Visibility rises while citations stay flat:** more checked answers name the brand, but the source citation measure did not rise with it. Inspect whether mentions are supported by sources, and which domains are cited.
- **Your domain is missing:** check the selected model and source-table period, and confirm the project’s domain/alternative-domain configuration. The table reports observed citation domains; it does not say whether all potentially relevant URLs were accessible to a model.
- **A citation value is blank or a dash:** there is no value for that selection. Do not treat it as zero unless the interface displays an explicit 0% or 0 count.

## Sources are not verified recommendations

Source URLs come from model answer data. The Answers detail includes a note that sources are unverified for models where this applies. A source link shows what was returned with the answer; it does not prove that the page is live, authoritative, accurate, or endorsed by the model. Open the source and the answer context before deciding that it supports a claim or represents a content opportunity.