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Source analysis guide

How to find cited pages that mention your competitors

An AI citation gap is a page linked in an AI answer that mentions a competitor and leaves out your business. Find the exact URL in a saved answer, then check the page itself for both names. MentionedOn’s Source Opportunities brings those answers, links and dated page inspections into one workspace.

A real example from MentionedOn’s own audit

On , we asked ChatGPT through a DataForSEO browser capture: “What are the best AI visibility monitoring tools for small businesses?” The answer named Otterly.AI and Peec AI and included links to two independent comparisons.

We inspected the main text of both pages that day. Both named Otterly.AI, Peec AI and Profound. Neither inspection found the MentionedOn name or domain. We saved both URLs as candidates for a publisher brief about tracking local buying questions, with our public evidence and plan limits. The finding applies to that answer and the page text we retrieved on that date.

How to check a citation gap yourself

  1. Start with the buying question. Save the question, assistant, location, date and full answer. A local business might start with “Who offers emergency drain cleaning in Sacramento?”
  2. Open the exact URL. Read the linked page and verify the competitor and your own business separately. Keep an inaccessible or partially retrieved page marked as unknown.
  3. Choose a change the source can support. An independent comparison might benefit from a missing use case or a link to evidence. On a page you own, answer the buying question and support it with facts a reader can verify.
  4. Recheck the same question. Keep the assistant, location and capture settings consistent where possible. Track business mentions and cited URLs separately because they can change independently.

What to ask a citation tracking tool to show

Ask for a saved answer, the exact source URL and what the page inspection found. A competitor’s name in an answer does not establish that a linked page mentions it. A link appearing in a saved answer also does not prove that page caused a recommendation.

In MentionedOn, start with the sources that recur across buying questions. Inspect each page, save your supporting facts and prepare an inclusion brief or a change to your own site. Optional research refreshes follow the limits and availability of your monitoring plan.

See research limitsRead the citation source reportCompare local monitoring workflows