A citation happens when an AI answer engine (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) explicitly lists your URL as a source in its answer. In a typical Perplexity response you'll see "Sources" with numbered links — each link is a citation.
Citation vs mention
- Citation — your domain is listed as a source, often hyperlinked. The user can click through.
- Mention — the model references your brand in the answer text but doesn't link to you.
Citations are dramatically more valuable than mentions because they drive traffic. Mentions still matter for brand awareness, but a mention without a citation rarely converts.
How models decide what to cite
Each AI engine uses a slightly different blend of signals. The patterns we see consistently:
- Authoritative source — Wikipedia, large publishers, official documentation
- Direct answer match — a page that literally contains the question and a short answer
- Topical clarity — content that is unambiguously about the queried topic
- Recency — fresher pages get cited more for time-sensitive queries
- Structured data — JSON-LD, clean H-tag hierarchy, FAQ schema
BCited tracks citations on your tracked prompts and tells you which engines cite which domains.