A mention is when an AI answer engine references your brand by name in the body of its answer, without including your domain in the citation list.
Example: an answer about project management tools might say "For solo founders, alternatives to Linear include Notion, Asana, and Things." That's a mention of Notion (and Asana and Things) — none of them get clicked, but the brand was named in the recommendation.
Why mentions matter less than citations
A citation is clickable. A mention is not. For traffic, citations are the only thing that converts.
But mentions still matter for two reasons:
- Brand recall — users may search for your brand directly later
- Future-proofing — AI engines are increasingly linking inline; today's mention may become tomorrow's citation as model behavior evolves
How BCited tracks them
We string-match your domain against the answer text, both in the citation list and in the prose. A mention without a citation gets recorded but counted at lower weight in the composite Visibility Score.