Citation Share
Also known as: Source Share, Citation Rate
Citation share is your portion of the source links an AI engine cites across a prompt set, measured against competitors. It counts how often your pages are used as the sources behind an answer, which is distinct from being named in the text. A brand can be mentioned without being cited, and cited without being named.
Citation share measures how much of the sourcing behind AI answers belongs to you. When an engine like Perplexity or ChatGPT lists the links it drew from, citation share is your slice of those links across a whole prompt set, compared to your rivals. It is a different question from share of voice, which counts name-drops in the answer text.
Mentioned is not cited
These two signals come apart more often than people expect. Your brand can be named from the model’s training memory without a single link to your site, and your page can be cited as a source without your brand appearing in the visible answer. Citation share isolates the sourcing question: is the engine actually pulling from your content? For the full distinction, see brand mentions versus citations.
Why it is worth tracking
Citations are the sturdier signal of the two. A citation means the engine is grounding its answer in your material, which tends to hold up across model updates and drives measurable AI referral traffic. To grow your share, earn links from trusted pages and publish content clear enough to quote. Start with how to get cited by AI.
Frequently asked questions
How is citation share different from being mentioned?
A mention is your brand name appearing in the answer text. A citation is your page being linked as a source that informed the answer. Citation share measures the second: your slice of the cited links, not your slice of the name-drops.
How do you calculate citation share?
Across a fixed prompt set, count how many cited source links point to your domain versus the total cited links, or versus a named competitor set. The result is a percentage that shows how much of the sourcing you own.
Why does citation share matter if I am already mentioned?
Citations are the durable signal. Being cited means the engine treats your content as evidence, which tends to sustain mentions over time and drives real referral clicks. Mentions without citations are easier to lose when the model updates.
See where you stand in AI answers
Rankry tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok mention and recommend your brand, then tells you what to fix.
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