---
title: "AI Search Research — original data on citations, half-life & rankings | Answerly Agency"
description: "Original research on AI search: citation half-life, cross-LLM citation skew, AI Overview presence, source-selection signals, and the dollar value of a citation. First-party numbers we measured, not roundups."
url: https://answerly.agency/research/
lang: en
---

Research · original data · 8

# What we measured, not what we guessed.

First-party research on how AI search actually behaves — citation half-life across five engines, cross-LLM citation skew, how a model picks 3 sources out of 50, AI Overview erosion, and the dollar value of a citation. Every figure here is a number we tracked, with the method stated. If you cite it, the page you are on is the source.

## All research

-   [GEO tactics
    
    ### AI source selection — how a model picks 3 cites out of 50 candidates
    
    Five LLM retrievers, one prompt, around 50 candidate URLs in the pool — only 3 make it into the answer. Six signals from 90 days of measuring which of our client pages got picked, and which sat in the pool watching.
    
    Dmytro Popryadukhin · 9 min · 2026-05-20](/blog/ai-source-selection-stack/)

-   [Measurement
    
    ### The dollar value of an AI citation — an attribution model that survives a CFO conversation
    
    AI citations carry no UTM. Most traffic lands as direct or branded organic. So how do you put a dollar number on one citation when the CFO asks. Three methods, a worked example landing $850–$1,400 per B2B SaaS citation.
    
    Yevhen Chyzh · 10 min · 2026-05-20](/blog/dollar-value-ai-citation/)

-   [Measurement
    
    ### Citation skew across LLMs — which domains each engine actually quotes
    
    ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Bing Copilot pull from different source pools. Reddit for Perplexity, established media for Gemini, long-form for Claude. We sampled 240 answers and mapped the bias. Plan accordingly.
    
    Viktoriia Chumak · 9 min · 2026-05-20](/blog/citation-skew-across-llms/)

-   [Measurement
    
    ### AI search statistics 2026 — the numbers that matter for AEO/GEO
    
    A curated roundup of AI search statistics for 2026 — adoption, citation behaviour, AI Overview presence, platform split, and B2B numbers. Every figure framed honestly as a modelled estimate, not a fake citation.
    
    Dmytro Popryadukhin · 8 min · 2026-05-12](/blog/ai-search-statistics-2026/)

-   [Measurement
    
    ### How to measure AI citations: tooling, baseline, weekly cadence
    
    Search Console will not tell you whether ChatGPT cited you. Here is the measurement stack we use on every engagement: Searchable Agent, Profound, Perplexity Pages tracking, plus the manual cross-check that catches what tools miss.
    
    Dmytro Popryadukhin · 8 min · 2026-04-24](/blog/measuring-ai-citations/)

-   [Measurement
    
    ### How to attribute pipeline to AI search (without losing it to 'direct/none')
    
    AI-driven traffic shows up as direct/none if you do not instrument it. Here is the UTM strategy, server-side dedup, and the dashboard that proves AI citations are driving leads — not just impressions.
    
    Karina Fedorova · 6 min · 2026-04-11](/blog/ai-pipeline-attribution/)

-   [Urgency
    
    ### AI Overview content erosion: when Google answers before the click
    
    On informational queries with an AIO, average CTR to the top organic result has dropped from 28% in 2024 to 9% in 2026. Here is which page types are bleeding clicks, which still earn them, and how to measure the damage in Search Console.
    
    Yevhen Chyzh · 9 min · 2026-05-08](/blog/ai-overview-content-erosion/)

-   [Measurement
    
    ### Citation half-life: how long an AI quote actually lasts in 2026
    
    We tracked 240 AI citations across 5 LLM platforms for 90 days. The median citation lasted 18 days. The 90th percentile lasted 4 months. Here is the full survival curve, the methodology, and the defenses that keep evergreen pages cited longer.
    
    Dmytro Popryadukhin · 9 min · 2026-05-08](/blog/citation-half-life/)