The 90-day citation cadence

The 90-day citation cadence is a repeatable, two-hours-a-week routine that earns mentions and citations from the AI engines buyers now use. Twelve weeks of LinkedIn posts, Reddit answers, on-site fixes and trade-press or podcast outreach, with a monthly prompt-set re-scan to measure lift. It targets roughly 12 earned citations across four channels over 90 days and is the same routine we run for ourselves and for clients on Foundation and Growth retainers.

Why a weekly cadence beats a content sprint

Answer engines weight earned mentions across trusted sources far higher than your own pages. A one-off content sprint produces a spike that fades. Two hours a week, repeated for twelve weeks, produces compounding mentions that the AI crawlers actually pick up and reuse. The audit tells you where you are invisible. This routine is what closes the gap.

Target shape over 90 days: around 12 earned citations across four channels (LinkedIn, Reddit, trade press, podcasts), every weekday accounted for, and a monthly re-scan that proves the lift.

Weekly cadence (repeat for 12 weeks)

  • Monday — LinkedIn post: One short post answering a real buyer question from your prompt set. Use your own data, name a number, keep it under 200 words. Tag two relevant people. Repurpose for your blog the next day.
  • Tuesday — Reddit answer: Find one live thread in a relevant sub (r/insurance, r/smallbusinessuk, r/CustomerService). Answer the question properly, no pitch, link only when the OP asks. AI engines crawl Reddit heavily.
  • Wednesday — Reddit answer #2: Repeat. Different sub, different question. Two genuine Reddit answers a week is the sweet spot before the account looks promotional.
  • Thursday — Outreach (rotate): Week A pitch one trade publication a 600-word column. Week B pitch one podcast appearance. Week C comment on a journalist's HARO or ResponseSource request. Week D refresh your Crunchbase, Companies House and LinkedIn entity data.
  • Friday — On-site fix: One concrete page change driven by the audit. Add a direct-answer paragraph, extend an FAQ block, refresh a Last updated date, or improve internal links. Small, shipped, every week.
  • First Monday of the month — Re-scan prompt set: Rerun your 16-query prompt set across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft 365 Copilot for B2B sectors. Log Citation Share, mention rate and competitor share. This is what Monitor and Tweak does for you if you would rather not.

Month-by-month milestones

  • Month 1 (weeks 1–4) — Foundations and first citations: 4 LinkedIn posts published. 8 Reddit answers logged. 1 trade-press column pitched. 4 on-site fixes shipped. Baseline prompt-set re-scan filed.
  • Month 2 (weeks 5–8) — First earned mentions land: First trade-press column or podcast usually goes live this month. 8 LinkedIn posts, 8 Reddit answers, 4 on-site fixes. Second prompt-set re-scan should show first new brand mentions.
  • Month 3 (weeks 9–12) — Compound and measure: Second trade-press piece or podcast appearance. 12 cumulative LinkedIn posts. ~24 Reddit answers. Third prompt-set re-scan. Most clients see mention rate move from 0–10% to 25–40% by this point.

If two hours a week is two hours you don't have

You have two options. Run the cadence yourself with the routine above. Or have us run it for you on Foundation or Growth, with the work landing in your portal week by week. Either way you stay the named voice. Foundation (from £600/mo) covers the on-site fixes, fortnightly reviews and a shared action plan. Growth (from £1,250/mo) runs the full cadence for you, including content production, citation building and third-party authority placements. Both tiers sit on top of a completed AI Visibility Audit.

How this works in practice

A UK specialist broker we work with started at 7 of 16 priority queries cited and a 6% Citation Share. Twelve weeks of this exact cadence (12 LinkedIn posts, ~24 Reddit answers, two trade-press columns, weekly on-site fixes, three prompt-set re-scans) lifted them to 11 of 16 queries cited and a 14% Citation Share. Same business, same expertise. The routine made the existing authority legible to the engines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is two hours a week really enough?

Yes, if you run it every week for twelve weeks. The compounding effect comes from consistency, not volume. A four-hour week skipped is worth less than two hours every week.

Do I need to do all four channels?

LinkedIn and Reddit are the non-negotiables. They are crawled most heavily by the major AI engines and they accept short, useful contributions. Trade press and podcasts are higher effort, lower frequency, higher trust. Drop them only if your sector has no relevant outlets, which is rare.

What if my sector is regulated and I cannot post freely?

Adapt the channel mix. Regulated sectors usually have stronger trade press and association presence. Lean into those, replace Reddit with sector-specific forums (Adjusters Forum, LegalFutures comments), and run the LinkedIn cadence in a personal-voice operator format rather than as the brand.

How do I measure whether it is working?

Re-scan your 16-query prompt set on the first Monday of every month. Log mention rate, Citation Share and competitor share. Lift typically appears in months 2 and 3. If month 3 shows no movement, the prompt set or the on-site foundations are the problem, not the cadence.

Can you run this for me?

Yes. Foundation and Growth retainers cover the cadence end to end, with the work landing in your AI Visibility Portal week by week. The audit comes first so we have a baseline to measure against.

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