Cited sources versus consulted sources

A cited source is visibly attached to the provider's answer through a documented citation field. A consulted or returned source was supplied by the provider's search tooling but may not appear as a visible citation in the final answer.

  • Use cited sources to understand visible attribution.
  • Use consulted sources to understand the broader retrieval set.
  • Do not treat every returned source as proof that its content influenced the wording of the answer.

Brand mentions, target URLs, and citation share

A brand mention shows that the answer named the target brand. It is separate from a citation to the target domain or assigned URL. Citation share is the percentage of cited sources in that probe that belong to the target domain.

  • A mention without a citation is descriptive evidence, not owned-source attribution.
  • A domain citation does not necessarily point to the preferred landing page.
  • Citation share describes one answer's source set; it is not market share, ranking share, or traffic share.

Citation position and competitors

First citation position records where the first target-domain citation appears among parsed citations. Competitor domains identify configured competitors that appeared in the cited set.

  • Earlier position may be useful context, but it is not a universal prominence score.
  • Competitor appearances can reveal alternative source types or topics worth reviewing.
  • Do not copy a competitor page blindly; compare relevance, evidence, freshness, and intent coverage.

Provider differences and historical comparisons

OpenAI and Perplexity can return different answers because they use different models, search systems, citation formats, routing, and timing. Historical comparisons show observed changes between matching probes, not the cause of those changes.

  • Compare the same query, location, provider, and target definition.
  • Repeat important probes before treating a one-off change as a pattern.
  • Record content changes and dates, but do not claim causation from a before-and-after chart alone.

Why API probes differ from consumer products

Crystal Ball uses provider APIs with a controlled prompt and search configuration. A logged-in consumer product may use another model, personalization, geography, memory, product experiments, or a different search index.

  • An API result is reproducible monitoring evidence for that configuration.
  • It is not a transcript of what every ChatGPT or Perplexity user will see.
  • Keep the provider, model, prompt version, location, timestamp, and caveat with every interpretation.

Official references

  • Bing AI Performance: Bing distinguishes citation activity from rankings, traffic, importance, and causal measurement.

FAQ

Is citation share an AI visibility score?

No. It is the target domain's share of parsed citations in one probe. It should be compared across repeated, matching probes rather than presented as a universal score.

Why did the brand appear without a citation?

A provider may mention an entity while citing another source, use general model knowledge, or return a source set that does not attach the target domain to that sentence.

Can a historical comparison prove that a page edit caused a citation change?

No. It shows correlation over time. User demand, search indexes, competitor changes, model updates, and provider routing can also change the result.

Keep the Next Step Small

Use the related guides to confirm what the page needs. Ask for support only when the change reaches code, templates, or server settings you do not want to guess at.

Contact Your SEO Wizard