What are citations
A citation (also called a brand citation in the product) is counted when an AI platform includes a hyperlink to your domain in its response.
Source links vs brand citations
Section titled “Source links vs brand citations”Quratic tracks two related metrics:
| Term | What it counts | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Source link | Any hyperlink in an AI answer — your brand, competitors, news, UGC, etc. | Overview Top sources donut, Sources page |
| Brand citation | A source link that points to your registered brand domain | Citations page, Overview Brand citations card, citation rate metric |
One AI response can include many source links but only some (or none) to your domain. The Overview donut total is all source links; the split line “X source links · Y on your domain” connects that total to brand citations.
Why citations matter
Section titled “Why citations matter”Citations represent a stronger signal than a brand mention alone:
- A mention means the AI knows your brand exists
- A citation means the AI is actively recommending your content as a source for the user to visit
Perplexity, in particular, is citation-driven — almost every response includes numbered source links. A high citation rate on Perplexity means your content is being surfaced as a primary source.
How citation detection works
Section titled “How citation detection works”After recording an AI response, Quratic extracts all hyperlinks from the response and checks each link against your brand domain. A citation is counted if any link’s domain matches or is a subdomain of your registered brand domain.
Example: if your brand domain is acme.com, links to acme.com/blog/post, www.acme.com, and docs.acme.com all count as citations.
Citation rate
Section titled “Citation rate”Citation rate = (checks with at least one citation to your domain) ÷ (total checks) × 100Citation rate appears in the Overview and AI Visibility metric rows, on the Brand citations overview card, and in full detail on the Citations page.
Interpreting citation data by model
Section titled “Interpreting citation data by model”| Model | Citation behaviour |
|---|---|
| Perplexity | Consistently high citation counts; numbered source lists in almost every response |
| ChatGPT (web mode) | Citations appear when browsing is active; not every response includes links |
| Gemini | Citations appear for factual queries; less consistent than Perplexity |
| Google AI Mode / Overviews | Links to sources shown below the AI response |
| Microsoft Copilot | Citations similar to Bing search results |
| Claude | Rarely cites external sources by default |
Improving citation rate
Section titled “Improving citation rate”Factors that increase the likelihood of AI platforms citing your content:
- Well-structured, authoritative content (how-to guides, data, original research)
- Content that answers specific factual questions (AI platforms cite when users need to verify a fact)
- High domain authority and backlink profile
- Content indexed on major platforms that AI models crawl