An AI citation is when an AI assistant references or links to a specific webpage as a source for part of its answer. Citations show which pages an answer is grounded in, often drive referral traffic, and indicate which sources the AI trusts for a given topic.
A citation is different from a brand mention: a citation points to a source URL, while a mention names a brand in the text. Tracking cited URLs reveals which of your pages perform and which third-party sources to target.