What is Citation Share?

Citation Share is the share of cited URLs across a defined AI visibility test set that come from your own domain. Numerator: the number of your own URLs that AI engines cited as sources across the test. Denominator: the total number of cited URLs across the full test. A 5% Citation Share means that across all the AI engines and queries we tested, your domain accounted for 5% of the source URLs the engines named. Reported alongside Cited as Source rate so you can see both how often you appear and how visible you are inside each appearance.

How Citation Share is calculated

  • Define the test set: typically 16 buyer queries spanning category-defining, comparison and local intent.
  • Run each query across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft 365 Copilot for B2B.
  • Capture every URL the engines cite as a source for their answer.
  • Count your own domain's URLs as the numerator. Count all cited URLs across the test as the denominator.
  • Express as a percentage. 5%, 12%, 30% all carry very different competitive implications.

Why Citation Share matters more than mention count

Mention count tells you how often your brand name appears in answer text. Citation Share tells you how often your own pages are the source the engine pulled from. A brand can be mentioned because a competitor's listicle named them, with zero of their own URLs cited. That is reputation borrowed from someone else's content. Citation Share measures the authority you own.

The two metrics move together over time. Lifting Citation Share is what makes mention rate durable.

What good looks like by sector

  • UK service SMEs typically start between 0% and 5% Citation Share before any AEO work.
  • After a focused 90-day cadence (on-site fixes, schema, earned citations) most clients reach 10-15%.
  • Category leaders in a vertical sit around 20-30%. Above that and you are usually the default cited brand for the category.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Citation Share different from Share of Voice?

Share of Voice typically counts brand mentions in answer text. Citation Share counts source URLs cited beneath or alongside the answer. SoV measures presence in the narrative; Citation Share measures authority of source.

Does Citation Share work for any sector?

Yes, as long as the buyer prompt set is built around real category, comparison and local queries. We tune the 16-query set to your sector before measuring.

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