Definition and tiers
Across the prompt set, record every URL each engine cites. Classify each citation into tiers:
| Tier | Source type | Weight | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| T0 — Owned | Your domain, cited directly | 1.0 | yourbrand.com/guide, your docs |
| T1 — Authoritative earned | Reference and institutional sources | 0.8 | Wikipedia, government, standards bodies, major trade press |
| T2 — Commercial earned | Directories, review platforms, industry media | 0.5 | G2, Capterra, Yelp, vertical directories |
| T3 — Community | Forums and social discussion | 0.3 | Reddit, Quora, niche forums |
| TX — Competitor/unrelated | Citations that route value to others | 0 | Competitor pages, content farms |
Citation Rate = Σ(tier weights of your citations) / Σ(tier weights of all citations in the answer set) × 100. A brand can have high Visibility with poor Citation Rate — named by the engine while the evidence links route to a review site or a competitor's comparison page.
Why citations compound
Citations are not just credit — they are training signal. Pages that get cited get crawled more, quoted more, and reinforced in future answers. Engine-specific citation behavior differs: Perplexity shows inline numbered sources on virtually every answer (the most transparent citation market); Google shows link cards beside the Overview; ChatGPT shows a sources panel on search-enabled answers; Claude cites sparingly and prefers primary documents.
How to raise Citation Rate
- Inventory first. Run the prompt set, harvest every cited URL, tier them. Most brands discover their category's answers are built on 5–10 domains they have no presence on.
- Fix owned sources to be citable. Direct-answer blocks, visible dates, named authors, clean URLs — engines prefer pages that are safe to send users to.
- Claim the T2 layer systematically. Directory and review-platform profiles are the fastest tier to correct: complete, consistent, current.
- Earn T1 slowly and honestly. Wikidata entries, standards participation, trade-press coverage with real data. No shortcuts survive editor review.
- Feed T3 authentically. Answer real questions on Reddit and niche forums under real names. Astroturfing is detectable and corrosive.