# Citations

Compare cited sources by domain, host, or page and inspect the answers that used them.

Canonical: https://docs.equalai.io/analytics/citations
Markdown: https://docs.equalai.io/analytics/citations.md

Open **Citations** to investigate the sources recorded in tracked AI answers. A citation occurrence is not a website visit, backlink, or unique person.

## Narrow the source list

1. Set the date range and **All filters**.
2. Choose **All sources**, **You**, **Competitor**, **Social**, **UGC**, or **Third-party**.
3. Select grouping **By domain**, **By host**, or **By page**.
4. Sort by **Citation share** or another available column, then open a source to inspect its supporting pages and prompts.

Domain grouping combines a site's hosts; host grouping keeps hostnames separate; page grouping focuses on individual URLs. Classification into social, user-generated content, or page types is a useful organizing aid, not a guarantee about editorial quality or ownership.

![EarlySEO Citations with report filters, analysis breakdown choices, and domain, host, or page grouping marked](https://docs.equalai.io/images/guides/citations.webp)

*EarlySEO example snapshot. **1.** Search, date and filters. **2.** Compare source, platform, page type or model. **3.** Group by domain, host or page. The displayed sources and counts reflect this example scope, not website visits.*

## Read the table and charts

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Citation share | This source group's citation occurrences divided by all citation occurrences in the filtered source set |
| Citations | Recorded citation occurrences, including repeated use across answers |
| Prompts | Distinct tracked prompts represented by the group's citations |
| Avg. pos. | Average valid recorded citation position, not organic search rank |
| Page mix | Distribution of classified page types |
| Last seen | Latest recorded occurrence for the displayed source evidence |

Citation share is different from a response-based citation rate. For example, a source with 10 of 50 citation occurrences has a 20% citation share even if those occurrences came from fewer than 50 responses. This is an illustrative example, not customer data.

In **Citation analysis**, split trends by **Source type**, **Platform**, **Page type**, or **Model**. **Hide charts** leaves more room for the source table. Platform and page-type panels retain alternative choices when their own facet is selected, so their distributions need not match a narrowly filtered table exactly.

When a comparison period is active, a source can appear because it was cited previously but not in the primary period. Inspect its period labels before treating it as a current citation.

## Inspect a source

Open its detail view and follow the available page, prompt, and response evidence. Compare your domain with specific competitors rather than assuming every third-party source is a competitor. Use **Export CSV** when you need the source table outside EqualAI.

## Troubleshooting

- **A domain appears more than once:** check whether grouping is by host or page.
- **Share changed without a count increase:** the total number of citations in the denominator may have changed.
- **No citations appear:** check filters and whether the selected answers actually contain source data.
- **A page-type label looks wrong:** verify the underlying URL and content; classification is not a manual editorial review.

## Related guides

[Metrics reference](https://docs.equalai.io/analytics/metrics) · [Responses](https://docs.equalai.io/analytics/responses) · [URL Report](https://docs.equalai.io/analytics/url-report)