Visus Dictionary

AI citation

An AI citation is when an AI answer includes your URL (or clearly attributes your site) as a source for a claim.

Why it matters

Citations send measurable traffic and signal that the model treated your page as evidence.

How Visus measures it

Visus records cited URLs per query in monthly checks and reports domain citation rate.

Example

Perplexity answers “what is answer engine optimization?” and lists your article among its numbered sources with a link—that is an AI citation, and it can send real referral traffic.

Common misconception

A citation is not the same as a recommendation. An assistant can cite your page as a source for a fact while recommending a competitor as the product to use—useful, but a different outcome.

Related terms

• Domain citation rate
• Mention rate
• Citation tracking

FAQ

• How do I earn more AI citations?

  Publish clearly-sourced, quoteable facts on crawlable pages, and get corroborated by independent sources. Assistants cite pages they can retrieve, extract from, and trust.

• Do AI citations drive traffic?

  They can. Cited links in tools like Perplexity and Google AI answers are clickable, so a citation for a high-intent question can send qualified visitors even in an otherwise zero-click journey.

Cite this definition

Visus AI Visibility Dictionary. “AI citation.” https://getvisus.com/ai-visibility-dictionary/ai-citation