AI Citation Tracking
See the sources behind every AI answer.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews recommend the brands they can verify in a short list of trusted sources. reconnAI shows marketers that list, for their own brand or every client they manage, every day.
Schedule a demoCitations Analysis · Northgate Bank
Track which websites are most frequently cited in AI responses
Citation Share
12.0% +1.8%
Citation Rank #4
| Rank | Domain | Category | Share | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bbusiness-compare.example | Earned | 14.6%+0.9 | |
| 2 | Ffenwickbank.example | Competition | 13.1%+2.2 | |
| 3 | Rreddit.com | Earned | 12.4%−0.6 | |
| 4 | Nnorthgatebank.example | Owned | 12.0%+1.8 |
The basics
Mentions win the shortlist. Citations decide it.
An AI citation is a web page an AI engine links to as the source for its answer. Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the work of earning both mentions and citations, and citations come first, because they decide which brands the engine can verify.
A mention
Your brand is named in the answer. This is how you reach the shortlist when someone asks an AI for a recommendation.
A citation
A page is used as evidence. This is how a review site, a Reddit thread or your own product page shapes what the AI believes about you.
For a small business in the UK, I’d start with MentionStarling, Mettle and Monzo Business. The best choice depends on whether you want a free account, easy bookkeeping or more advanced tools.
My top 3 UK digital business accounts
1. Starling Bank Best overall
£0 monthly fee
Free UK transfers, built-in bookkeeping and integrations with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent. Eligible deposits are FSCS protected. Starling +1
2. Mettle
£0 monthly fee
Suits freelancers and sole traders, with invoicing, automatic tax savings and FreeAgent included. Mettle +1
3. Monzo Business
Free Lite plan; Pro £9/month
A slick app for day-to-day cash flow. Pro adds invoicing, tax pots and accounting integrations. Monzo +1
How it works
How AI engines choose their sources
- 01
Breaks the question up
One question becomes several searches: the category, prices, features, comparisons, reviews and alternatives.
- 02
Reads a few sources it trusts
Not the whole web. A short list it already rates: comparison and review sites, trade media, forums, partner pages and brands’ own websites.
- 03
Names who it can verify
Three to five brands, a reason for each and usually a caveat, each one traceable to the sources it read at step two.
A brand gets recommended when it appears, consistently and verifiably, in the sources read at step two. Every answer shows that working. reconnAI collects it.
Where the answers come from
Most of what AI reads about your brand, you don’t own.
88%
of citations go to sites the brand does not own. GEO is as much PR and partnerships as it is on-page content.
Each engine reads a different web
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews each lean on a different mix of brand sites, media, review sites and forums. One plan will not fit every engine.
What reconnAI tracks
Every domain, page and sentence the AI leans on.
Tracked daily across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews, by region, topic and prompt.
Citation Share and Rank
Your domain’s share of every citation in your category, your rank among all cited domains, and the change against the previous period or year.
Top Citation Domains
The most-cited websites, each labelled Owned, Competition or Earned, with share, change and a trend line.
Top Citation Pages
The exact pages cited and the brands each one mentions. Filter to the pages that include you, or the ones that answer instead of you.
Quoted text
The exact sentence an AI pulled from a page, one click away, so you know which line on the page is doing the work.
Drill into any source
Citation rate, trend, split by platform, the prompts it is cited on and sample AI answers, for any domain or page.
Reddit and forums
Which threads AI cites, which subreddits matter, whether each thread mentions you and whether it is still open for a reply.
Three workstreams, one dataset.
In-house teams use it to brief content and PR. Agencies use the same view to show each client where effort should go.
Fix the pages AI already reads
If AI quotes an old PDF or a thin product page, that is the story it tells. Turn the pages it already cites into clear, answer-ready content.
Pitch the sources that decide the shortlist
Rank review sites, journalists, directories and partners by how often AI cites them, not by domain authority. Start with the ones that name rivals but not you.
Trace every caveat to its source
If AI warns that “customer support can be slow”, see whether that comes from a review profile, an old press piece or a Reddit thread, and answer it there.
Why tracking beats spot checks
One search by hand is a snapshot. Not a strategy.
AI answers change by day, engine, account and wording. Ask the same question every day and a few sources keep coming back while most appear once and vanish. Tracking shows you which is which.
Different shortlists, same question
The brands named for the same question shift from one day to the next, and from ChatGPT to Gemini.
A small core of sources
Hundreds of sites get cited over a month. Only a small group are cited every day, and they are the ones worth your time.
Proof your work moved it
Annotate a new page or a PR win on the trend line and watch whether your citation share follows.
Questions about AI citations
What is an AI citation?
A web page that an AI engine links to as the source for its answer. It shows which content the engine used to decide what to say and which brands to name.
Which AI platforms does reconnAI track citations on?
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews, across UK, US, Australian, Canadian, South African and New Zealand regions.
How is citation tracking different from backlink tracking?
Backlinks show who links to you. Citations show which pages an AI engine actually used to build its answer, and those often have little to do with link authority.
Can I see pages that cite competitors but not me?
Yes. Top Citation Pages lists the tracked brands mentioned on each cited page, so you can filter to pages where rivals appear and you do not.
How often is the data updated?
Your tracked questions run every day, and citation data is rolled up overnight.