What is AI Citation?
- AI Citation
- An AI citation is a reference an answer engine makes to a specific source when composing a response, usually rendered as a footnote or link beside the claim it supports. Earning citations is the central objective of generative engine optimisation, because a cited brand is both named and credited in the place a buyer is making a decision.
01 In practice
Citations behave differently from links. A backlink is permanent until removed and accrues authority over time; a citation is decided per answer, can appear for one phrasing of a question and not another, and may send no traffic at all when the reader acts on the recommendation without clicking.
What makes a page citable is mostly mechanical: it can be fetched by the agent doing the retrieving, parsed without executing JavaScript, and contains a passage that stands on its own when lifted. Authority decides between candidates, but only among pages that clear those preconditions.
02 Related terms
The terms next to this one.
The work behind it
Get quoted where the models are reading.
Placements written to be quoted, on the publications models already draw answers from.