§ 11 · Glossary · Citation

Citation AI Citation Being the source the model links to.

An AI citation is a link or attribution that a generative engine — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — surfaces alongside a synthesized answer. Citations are the GEO win condition: not just being read by the model, but being credited to the user.

Updated 2026-05-01 3 FAQs

How Citation differs from GEO, AEO, LLMO

A backlink lives in the HTML of another site. An AI citation lives inside an AI-generated answer — surfaced as a footnote, hyperlink, or source pill in the chat UI.

How Mentionwell handles Citation

  • Every claim tied to evidence (statistic, quote, primary source) so the model has something concrete to cite.
  • Stable canonical URLs so citations don't decay over time.
  • Markdown mirrors so generative engines can ingest a clean version of the source.

Frequently asked questions about Citation

What's an AI citation?

A link or attribution shown next to an AI-generated answer pointing back to a source page. ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, and Gemini all surface them.

How do I get cited by AI engines?

Tie every claim to evidence, lead with the answer, ship clean Markdown mirrors, keep canonical URLs stable, and publish original data the model cannot find elsewhere. Mentionwell does all of this by default.

How are AI citations measured?

Citation rate — the share of AI answers about a topic that include your domain as a source. Princeton's GEO study (2024) is the canonical methodology.

See also

Ship Citation-optimized articles automatically

Mentionwell handles Citation on every published article — alongside the other six optimization targets in this glossary — so you don't have to think about it per post. Drop a domain, approve the first headline, watch the pipeline run.

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§ · The rest of the alphabet

The rest of the
alphabet.

Citation is one of 34 terms in the AI search vocabulary. Mentionwell optimizes for all of them on every article. Browse the full glossary →

§ 06 · Launch

Drop a domain.
Get cited.

Mentionwell opens to early access on June 1. Headless on any framework. No CMS migration.

EARLY ACCESS · INVITE-ONLY AT LAUNCH