AI Citation Tracking

What Are AI Citations?

AI citations occur when AI search engines reference your website in their generated answers. These citations drive high-intent traffic — visitors who click through from AI answers convert 4.4x better than organic search visitors.

Supported AI Engines

ReachSurge verifies citations across 6 AI engines via direct API calls:

1. ChatGPT — OpenAI Responses API with the web_search tool
2. Perplexity — Sonar API
3. Claude — Anthropic web_search tool
4. Google Gemini — grounded retrieval API
5. Google AI Search — grounded retrieval (the AI summaries at the top of Google Search; same underlying Google API as Gemini)
6. Grok — xAI Responses API with the web_search tool

Microsoft Copilot — traffic signals only. Microsoft doesn't offer a public citation verification API, so Copilot is not included in direct citation checks and is excluded from the 90-day citation guarantee. When Copilot sends traffic to your site we still attribute it correctly in analytics.

How Citation Tracking Works

ReachSurge runs scheduled citation checks across all 6 verified AI engines for your tracked keywords — weekly on Starter and Growth plans, twice weekly on Enterprise. Your dashboard updates in real-time as new citation data arrives. The system:

1. Sends your keywords as queries to AI engines
2. Parses the responses for mentions of your domain
3. Records citation position, sentiment, and whether a link was included
4. Tracks trends over time and alerts you to new citations

Understanding Your Citation Data

• Citation Count — Total times your site was mentioned across all engines
• Sentiment — Whether the mention was positive, neutral, or negative
• Position — Where your citation appeared in the AI response
• Linked — Whether the AI provided a clickable link to your site
• Engine Breakdown — Which AI engines cite you most

AI Shopping Citations

For e-commerce sites, ReachSurge also tracks product citations in AI shopping features (Perplexity Shopping, ChatGPT product recommendations). Access this via the "Shopping" tab on your Citations dashboard.

Improving Your Citation Rate

1. Add structured data (JSON-LD schema) — Article, FAQPage, Organization
2. Write clear, factual content with statistics every 150-200 words
3. Start each section with a direct answer in the first 40-60 words
4. Ensure your robots.txt allows AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot)
5. Build entity authority through consistent, expert content
6. Use the GEO Audit tool to identify specific improvements

Plan Limits

• Free: 10 citation checks/month (1 engine)
• Starter: 500 citation checks/month (all engines)
• Growth: 2,000 citation checks/month (all engines)
• Enterprise: 10,000 citation checks/month (all engines)

FAQ

How often are citations checked? On a tier-based schedule: weekly on Starter and Growth, twice weekly on Enterprise. Each customer is assigned a fixed weekday so checks land predictably. Critical anomalies trigger real-time alerts regardless of the schedule.

Can I see which keywords triggered citations? Yes, the Citations dashboard shows the exact query, engine, sentiment, and position for each citation.

What are shopping citations? Product mentions in AI-powered shopping experiences. Available for e-commerce sites tracking specific products.