How to check whether AI answers cite your website

Decide what you will count

A brand mention, a search result, and a source attached to an answer are different observations. Define which one you want to measure before running the test, then record enough evidence for another person to check your conclusion.

Use an answer citation only when the product attaches your page as a source for its response. Record a URL shown only in search results as a discovery result. A brand named without a source link is a mention. If the interface does not reveal enough information to distinguish these, mark the citation outcome unknown.

Keep the question and conditions stable

Choose a small set of questions real buyers ask before contacting you. Freeze the wording before the first run. For a discovery test, use a question such as “Which bike repair shops collect from Northbridge?” A question that names your shop tests brand-specific retrieval. Save these as separate groups.

1. Start a new conversation for each question and record the product, visible model or mode, language, and date with time zone.
2. Use the product’s search-enabled mode when available. Record whether the returned answer visibly used search.
3. Keep account settings, region, and personalization conditions consistent where possible. Record conditions you cannot inspect.
4. Save the first completed response before asking follow-up questions. Treat every follow-up or regeneration as a new run.

ChatGPT and Claude provide source links in their search experiences. Confirm the controls available in your own account before running the comparison. ChatGPT search · Claude web search.

Open the source behind the answer

Expand each citation attached to the relevant sentence. Open the destination and check its hostname, final URL, and the passage supporting the claim. Record whether it is your official site, a third-party page about you, or an unrelated namesake. A citation to a directory listing is third-party coverage even when it describes your business.

Check whether the cited page actually supports the answer. Keep “our page was cited” and “the answer was accurate” as two judgments. An answer can link to the correct site while misstating its price or service area.

Some interfaces mix sources and related reading. Google describes Gemini’s source panel as containing sources and related content, so inspect the association with the response before classifying a link. Preserve the visible label when it remains ambiguous. Gemini sources and related links.

Save a record someone else can verify

This fictional record shows the minimum context for one observation. The business, response, and address below are invented for this guide.

Question

Which bike repair shops collect from Northbridge?

Conditions

Example search-enabled assistant, displayed mode recorded as Search, English, new conversation, November 13, 2026 at 10 am UTC.

Answer excerpt

“Harbor Cycle offers collection in Northbridge.”

Attached source

https://harbor-cycle.example/collection

Judgments

Brand mentioned. Official hostname cited. Service-area statement supported by the saved page passage.

Keep the original answer and source context with your research notes. CiteMaybe’s private GEO journal stores an excerpt, source URLs, visible model or mode, locale, time, and your judgment for each saved question and product. Each question and product has one saved entry. Export or save it before replacing it with a later observation, and keep a separate record of every run in a repeated experiment. Export a copy before the report’s seven-day expiry.

Show the denominator with every rate

For each product and test condition, report attempted runs, completed assessable answers, citations to your hostname, mentions, and unknown or failed runs. A completed answer whose full source display is inspectable counts as no observed citation when it omits your site or has no source links at all. A timeout or inaccessible source panel belongs in the failure or unknown count.

For example, suppose ten attempts produce eight assessable answers, two of which cite your hostname. Report “2 of 8 assessable answers cited our site, with 2 attempts unavailable.” That is a 25% observed citation rate for this small sample. If there are no assessable answers, report the rate as unavailable.

Keep products, languages, and branded versus discovery questions in separate groups. Their counts answer different questions. A small hand-run sample describes those observations and conditions.

Compare before and after with the same protocol

Record the page edit and publication time, then repeat the frozen questions under the same conditions. Use a predetermined number of runs in both periods and retain every outcome. Check whether the cited source contains the updated passage before interpreting a change.

Model updates, search-index refreshes, changed competitors, personalization, and ordinary answer variation can affect the comparison. Report those uncertainties beside the result. A changed citation count after an edit establishes an observed difference. Attributing that difference to the edit requires stronger evidence.

Use search performance as a complementary measure. Google includes AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic in Search Console’s overall Web performance data, which cannot by itself isolate those experiences. Google AI features and measurement.

Questions about citation checks

Does an API result reproduce the consumer app?

An API call has its own model, tools, instructions, and settings. Record it as an API observation. Compare results from the consumer product under its own named conditions.

Can I include DeepSeek, Doubao, or Qwen?

Yes. Use the same protocol wherever the product exposes enough source information. CiteMaybe’s journal supports twelve products and can import completed DeepSeek, Doubao, and Qwen API responses for your review. Imported entries retain owner-recorded status.

What should I do after a missing citation?

First check whether the intended page is accessible and contains a clear, supported answer to the buyer’s question. Start a free single-page audit, then keep the external answer observations in its GEO journal. Audit a public page · Check crawler access.