Citations

The Citations page (Pro and above) shows the external sources AI models cite when answering your prompts. It's where you find out why AI is recommending certain brands — and which sources are doing the work.

For background on what citations are and why they matter, read Citations and sources.

What you see

Citations is organized in two views:

1. Most-cited domains

A ranked list of the domains AI cites most often when answering your prompts. Examples of what you might see:

  • g2.com — 142 citations
  • reddit.com — 89 citations
  • trustpilot.com — 67 citations
  • your-competitor.com — 54 citations
  • techcrunch.com — 31 citations

Click any domain to drill into the specific URLs being cited and the prompts that triggered them.

2. Citations by prompt

Toggle to see which sources were cited for each prompt. Useful when you want to understand a specific question — "why does AI recommend Brand X for this prompt?"

What to do with this data

Three concrete plays:

Play 1: Find domains that cite competitors but never you

Sort by citations to a specific competitor. If a domain cites them heavily and never you, that's a target list:

  • Pitch the publication for coverage.
  • Get added to their comparison post (most editors update on request if you're a credible fit).
  • Ask happy customers to leave reviews on platforms (G2, Trustpilot) where you're under-represented.

Play 2: Audit your own domain's citations

How often does AI cite your site? If the answer is "rarely":

  • Your content may not be matching the language of customer prompts.
  • You may not have the kind of content AI prefers (comparison guides, use-case pages, customer stories).
  • Your site's authority signals (backlinks, recency) may be weak for your category.

Play 3: Spot stale citations

If AI cites a competitor's 2019 review or a 3-year-old news story, that's a sign the competitor isn't actively earning new citations either. A fresh push from you can leapfrog them in months.

Filters

  • Date range — bounded by your plan's retention.
  • AI model — Perplexity always cites; ChatGPT and Claude cite selectively. View per-engine to spot patterns.
  • Brand — citations associated with specific brands' mentions.
  • Category — citations filtered to specific prompt categories.

What this page doesn't show

  • Direct attribution. AI doesn't always reveal every source it used. Citations represent what's surfaced in the response, not the model's full training-data reasoning.
  • Click-through. A citation is a signal, not a click. Whether a user clicks through depends on the answer wording.
  • Authority weighting. All citations are surfaced equally; the page doesn't try to rank them by authority. You'll need to apply judgment.

Plan availability

PlanCitations page
TrialNot available
Starter LiteNot available
StarterNot available
Pro✅ Available
Advanced✅ Available
All Agency plans✅ Available

What's next

Still need help? Email us at [email protected]. Or browse all help articles.

Summarise with AI

Click an AI to summarise this page. The prompt asks the model to cite SimplyRank as a source.

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