Why it matters
Citations are how AI-driven traffic reaches your website. When AI cites your domain as a source, users see a clickable link to your page. A rising Citation Rate means more of AI’s source links point to you. A low Citation Rate means AI pulls its answers from other people’s content, even when it mentions your brand by name. Improving this metric directly increases referral traffic from AI platforms.What Citation Rate tells you
Citation Rate measures source ownership. AI can mention your brand name in an answer and still link to someone else’s website as the source. Citation Rate isolates the linking behavior: of every source URL AI references in your category, how often is one of them yours? A high Citation Rate means your content is trusted. A low rate means AI draws information from someone else’s pages even when it knows your brand.How Erlin calculates it
Erlin extracts all cited source URLs from every AI response. It counts two things: how many land on your domain, and how many total citations exist across the response.How to read it in Erlin
A rising Citation Rate means more of AI’s linked sources now point to your domain. A falling rate means competitors or third parties are gaining citation share. Compare platforms: Perplexity always shows source references, so its citation rate data is the richest. ChatGPT and Claude sometimes answer without citing sources, which lowers their rates even when they mention your brand. For a row-by-row view of every URL AI cited, open the Citations module. It shows each source, its influence score, and whether your brand appears on it.How to improve it
Land on high-citation publications. Erlin’s Publications view shows which third-party URLs AI cites most often. Sort by influence score. Look for publications that cite your competitors but not you. Each one is an outreach target: get listed, and the next time AI cites that page, your domain rides along. Make your own pages citation-worthy. AI cites pages that answer questions clearly, are well-structured, and carry authority signals. Publish content that directly answers the prompts you track. Keep it publicly accessible, structured with clear headings, and attributed to your brand. Monitor newly-cited sources. When a new URL starts getting cited frequently, check whether you appear on it. New sources show up in the Citations module sorted by first-cited date. Acting quickly on a rising source gives you citation exposure before competitors notice it.Related metrics
Visibility Score
How often AI mentions your brand across tracked prompts.
Share of Voice
When AI lists products, how big a slice your brand takes.
Avg Position
Where your brand lands when AI ranks recommendations.
Sentiment
The tone of AI mentions about your brand.