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Glossary

Citation

Also known as: citation

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Outseen
Updated

A citation is a reference in an AI answer to the web page a claim is based on, usually as a clickable link next to the text or in a list of sources. Citations appear mainly when an AI assistant searches the web live.

A citation links part of an AI answer to the page the information comes from. In ChatGPT, answers that use web search can contain citations you can click, and the Sources button shows the sources used, according to OpenAI’s help page on search. For your website, a citation is the place where an AI answer can send visitors to your page.

Example

Anthropic writes in the documentation for its web search tool that citations are always enabled for web search. Each citation includes, among other things, the URL, the title of the source and a short quote. Simplified, it looks like this:

{
  "url": "https://www.example.com/heat-pump-1930s-house",
  "title": "Heat pumps in a 1930s house",
  "cited_text": "A hybrid heat pump works alongside the existing gas boiler..."
}

Common mistake

Assuming the source actually supports the claim. OpenAI writes that search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or wrong. If you are cited as a source, check whether the answer represents your page correctly.

How do you check it?

In your measurements, record which URL appears as the source. You can track traffic that arrives through such a link in your web analytics; see Tracking traffic from ChatGPT and other AI assistants in Google Analytics 4. The difference from a mention without a link is explained under AI mention.

Sources

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