Glossary · Concepts
AI Citation
Also called: LLM citation, AI answer citation
An AI Citation is a reference to a source — a named brand, a linked URL, or both — that an AI engine includes in a generated answer to show where a claim came from, and the unit of success that AEO and GEO optimise for.
A citation can be a linked source in Perplexity's visible source block, an inline link in a Google AI Overview, or a brand named in prose by ChatGPT without a URL. All three count as visibility; the value differs by how prominently the source is shown and whether it earns a click.
Citations are not backlinks. They rotate as engines refresh their retrieval and as competitors publish fresher pages — the median citation in our tracking lasts about 18 days. Sustaining them needs a refresh cadence, not a one-time push.
An AI Citation is not a backlink: a backlink is a permanent link on another site, a citation is a transient mention inside a generated answer that expires as retrieval refreshes.
Perplexity answers "what is a MiCA licence" and lists five sources in its source block; the brand cited in position two earns both the visibility and a share of the click-through, while the three uncited pages that also rank on Google get nothing from that answer.