What is a Citation
Why citations matter
Citations show:
- Where AI gets its information: Which websites and domains AI trusts
- Your share of voice: How often you're cited compared to competitors
- Source taxonomy: Whether AI cites corporate sites, editorial articles, reviews, UGC, product pages, and other formats
When AI mentions your brand, it often does so because it found you in a citation. Improving your presence in the right sources directly improves your visibility.
How Ranketta classifies citations
Each citation gets two labels:
- Domain type — who publishes the site (corporate, editorial, UGC, review, news, e-commerce, …)
- Page type — what kind of page was cited (blog post, product page, guide, listicle, …)
Together they replace older “competitor / reference / editorial” buckets with a taxonomy aligned to how AI actually picks sources. Learn more in Understand Citations →
Key metrics
- Usage rate: How often a domain or URL appears across completions in the period you select
- Share of voice: Your share of the answer space when AI responds. See Share of Voice →
- Mentioned: Whether your brand was explicitly mentioned when that source was used. Being cited is good; being mentioned is better.
What Ranketta tracks
For each citation we track domain, URL, domain type, page type, usage rate, mention status, and trends over time. Understanding citations helps you see which sources AI trusts and where to focus your efforts.
What is a Prompt
A prompt is a question or query that people ask AI models, the kind of thing your customers type into ChatGPT, Perplexity, or other AI tools when they're looking for recommendations.
What is Query-fanout
Query-fanout shows you what AI actually searches for when answering your prompt, the variations different platforms use.