AI citation
Definition
An AI citation is a reference to a source inside an AI-generated answer, usually a named link to the page the assistant drew on. A brand can also be mentioned without a link, and an answer can use a page without crediting it.
Three different things get called citations. A linked citation sends a reader to your page. A mention names your business in the text with no link. And an answer written from a model's memory may name no source at all, so a page can shape what is said without ever being listed. A report that counts all three as one number hides which one a business is actually getting.
Citations aren't stable. The same question can return a different answer on the next attempt, so one screenshot proves little. A sound check uses a fixed list of buyer questions, run in English and in Arabic and repeated on a schedule, and records whether the business appears, whether it is linked, and whether what is said about it is correct. Analytics only sees visits that follow a click, so it gives a floor and not a count.
Nobody outside the assistants can promise a citation. What is documented is narrow: in the GEO research, edits that added sources, quotations and figures raised a source's visibility inside generated answers on a benchmark. The cheaper protection is accuracy. Assistants draw on what is published about a business, so a wrong address or an old price on your site or in a directory can turn up in the answer.
Definitions are free.So is the cost review.
A short call, then a written review inside 72 hours: what your marketing costs, what it produces, and what is worth fixing first.