Citations (AI)
Citations — In the AI-answer context, a citation is a source link an assistant shows to back up its response — being cited both sends referral traffic and signals to the model that you're a reference worth reusing.
Citations are the AI era's backlinks. When Perplexity or an AI Overview lists sources, the cited pages get visibility and clicks, and the model learns to lean on them again. Earning citations is therefore both a traffic play and an authority play.
You earn them by being present and clearly relevant on the pages assistants pull from for your topic — comparison articles, review platforms, well-structured resource pages, and your own answer-shaped content. The more citable you are, the more you compound.
Key points
- →Source links shown beneath or within an AI answer.
- →Drive referral clicks and reinforce model trust.
- →Earned through presence on citable, relevant pages.
Related terms
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