Sources and citations

Sources helps you move from “our visibility changed” to the pages used in the measured answers. It has Domains and URLs views with search, sorting and export.

Start broad, then inspect a page

1. Select the audit, engine and cohort you want to investigate.
2. Review recurring domains across that selection.
3. Open a domain to inspect its specific URLs and connected prompts.
4. Open an original answer to see the citation in context.

A frequently used domain can be worth investigating. Frequency alone does not tell you whether a particular page mentions your brand or whether you can influence it.

Retrieval and citation are different

A page can be retrieved without being cited. CiteLadder’s citation rate uses the responses in which that source was retrieved as its denominator.

Do not divide a source’s citations by all responses in the selection and label the result as the same citation rate.

Read brand lists carefully

A brand listed beside a cited URL co-occurred in answers that cited the URL. That does not prove the publisher’s page mentions the brand, recommends it or supplied the claim.

For example, an answer can cite a general industry report and independently mention a software vendor. Inspecting the report is a separate step.

Work on earned-source opportunities

An external publisher page may support an earned Action when inspected evidence shows an actionable gap or discrepancy. Read the saved inspection and its date before planning outreach.

Use the Agent to prepare a reviewable brief. Your team decides whether and how to contact a publisher; CiteLadder does not send outreach or secure placement automatically.

Verify the right thing

An owned-site edit and an earned placement need different evidence. A new listing on a publisher page can be observed separately from any later AI visibility change.

Use Actions and measurement to understand how implementation and later checks are connected.