AI engines build their answers from websites they cite as sources. The Citations section in SE Visible shows which websites and pages those are, how often AI engines cite them, how that changes over time, and which of them mention your competitors but not you.
You can use it to build a list of websites to reach out to, and to see what kind of content and which kinds of websites get cited in your market.
Table of contents
What Citations shows
You can find Citations in the left menu. It has two pages: Domains and URLs. Each page lists the sources cited in the AI answers collected for your prompts, with widgets above the table. Here you can answer questions like:
- Which websites shape AI answers in my market? — sort the table by Coverage or AI answers, or check the Top movers.
- What is changing? — check the New, Trending and Losing movers.
- What kind of content gets cited? — check the page type and domain type widgets.
- Where am I missing? — find cited pages that mention competitors but not your brand.
Each row is labelled You if it's your own website, or Competitor if it belongs to a competitor you track. Next to most numbers you'll see the change against the comparison period you set in the date filter.
Domains and URLs
- Domains — whole websites. Useful when you want to build a relationship with a publisher. Here you can switch between two views: Domains combines all subdomains of a website into one row, and Subdomains shows each subdomain as its own row, so you can compare, for example, blog.example.com and example.com.
- URLs — single pages. Useful when you want to get your brand added to one specific page.
Both pages have their own address, so you can bookmark them or share a link with your team. The two pages have different columns, widgets and filters, described below.
Movers widgets
The Domain movers widget (on the Domains page) and the URL movers widget (on the URLs page) show which sources are gaining or losing citations. The chart shows how the leading sources changed over the selected period. Hover over a point to see the top sources behind it. The list under the chart shows each source with its number of AI answers and the change against the comparison period.
You can switch the list with the tabs above the widgets:
- Top — the most-cited sources in the current period.
- New — sources that weren't cited in the comparison period and are cited now.
- Trending — sources whose citations grew the most.
- Losing — sources whose citations dropped the most.
Use D, W and M in the widget corner to group the chart by day, week or month. Click the download icon to download the widget data as a CSV file.
Type widgets
The type widgets show how citations are split between kinds of sources, and how that mix changes over time:
- Domain type — on the Domains page. Shows the split by domain type, such as Corporate, Editorial or UGC.
- Types — on the URLs page. Shows the split by page type, such as Article, Listicle or Homepage. Click Show more types to see the full list.
The chart shows each type's share of all citations, so a type can lose share even when its number of citations grows. The list shows the number of AI answers for each type and the change against the comparison period.
You can click a type in the widget to filter the table below by that type. Click it again to remove the filter. The widgets themselves keep showing the full picture.
Columns in the Domains view
Each row shows the website and its Domain type, for example Corporate or Editorial.
How often the website is cited
- Subdomains — how many of the website's subdomains are cited. Click the number to see them.
- Pages — how many pages from this website are cited.
- Coverage — the share of AI answers that cite this website.
- AI answers — how many AI answers cite it.
- Prompts — how many of your prompts got answers that cite it.
How often the website mentions you
- Your brand mentions — how many of the website's cited pages mention your brand.
- Mention rate — the share of those pages that mention your brand.
- Mentions — logos of the tracked brands mentioned on the website.
SEO metrics
- Domain traffic — estimated organic traffic to the whole website.
- DT — Domain Trust, how authoritative the website is.
- Backlinks — how many links point to the website.
- Ref. domains — how many different websites link to it. This is usually a better sign of strength than the number of backlinks.
Read these together with Coverage. A website with high Coverage and high DT is a top priority. High Coverage with low authority is still worth a mention. Low Coverage with high authority is a long-term goal.
Columns in the URLs view
Each row shows the page title, its URL, and its page type, for example Listicle or Homepage.
How often the page is cited
- Coverage — the share of AI answers that cite this page. The higher it is, the more influence the page has.
- AI answers — how many AI answers cite it.
- Prompts — how many of your prompts got answers that cite it.
Which brands the page mentions
- My brand mentioned — ✓ if the page mentions your brand, ✗ if it doesn't.
- Gap score — how big the opportunity is. It's high for pages that are cited often and mention your competitors but not you. It's 0 when your brand is already mentioned, and N/A for your own pages.
- Mentions — logos of the tracked brands mentioned on the page. If no tracked brands are mentioned on your own pages, you'll see + Add. Click it to open Settings → Project → Brands, where you can add competitors to track.
SEO metrics
- Domain traffic — estimated organic traffic to the website the page belongs to.
- DT — Domain Trust, how authoritative the website is.
- Page traffic — estimated organic traffic to this page. N/A if there's no data.
- Has backlink? — whether the page already links to your website. If it does, you'll see whether the link is Dofollow or Nofollow.
- Last check — when the page was last scanned.
Page types and domain types
Page types
SE Visible detects the type of each cited page automatically and shows it under the URL. The most common types are:
- Listicle — a list or ranking, such as "Top 10 tools".
- Alternative page — alternatives to a product, such as "Semrush alternatives".
- Comparison page — two or more products compared, such as "X vs Y".
- Reviews & pricing — a review of a product or service, or a page with ratings.
- How-to guide — step-by-step instructions.
- FAQ page — a page of frequently asked questions.
- Article — any other editorial content.
- Other types — general types such as Homepage, Product page, Documentation, Community / forum, File, Video and Social.
Page types show what kind of content gets cited in your market. If most top sources are listicles and comparison pages, that's where to focus your outreach and content.
Domain types
SE Visible also groups cited websites by domain type:
- You — your own website.
- Competitors — websites of the competitors you track.
- Corporate — official websites of other companies, such as partners, vendors and other industry players.
- Editorial — news outlets, trade publications, review sites and blogs. These are your PR and earned-media targets.
- UGC — platforms where users publish content themselves: social networks, Q&A sites, review platforms and forums.
- Reference — encyclopedias and knowledge bases, such as Wikipedia.
- Institutional — government, educational, research and nonprofit websites.
- Other — online stores and anything that doesn't fit the types above.
Domain types show where AI engines get their information. For example, if most cited websites are Editorial, PR and media coverage will have the biggest effect. If most are UGC, community and review work matters more.
Find sources that mention competitors but not you
You can build this list on the URLs page:
You now have a list of pages that AI engines use, that mention your competitors, and that don't mention you. You can filter it by Type to split it into tasks. For example, listicles and comparison pages are outreach targets.
You can do the same on the Domains page to find whole websites to build relationships with.
Filter and set up the table
You can use Search to find a website or page by name. On both pages, you can also filter by:
- Is my brand mentioned? — Yes, No, or N/A. Use No to build your gap list.
- Tracked competitors — Any selected or All selected, then one or more competitors.
On the URLs page, click Filters to add more. Each filter you add appears as its own button next to the others:
- Number of tracked competitors — how many of your competitors the page mentions.
- Type — one or more page types, such as listicles or comparison pages.
- Has backlink? — whether the page already links to your website.
On the Domains page, Filters adds:
- Number of tracked competitors — how many of your competitors the website mentions.
- Domain type — one or more domain types, such as Editorial or UGC.
The filters at the top of the page (date range and comparison period, topics, AI engines, locations, sentiment and the Unbranded switch) apply to the widgets and the table. The table filters apply to the table only.
Choose which columns to show
Click the columns icon next to Export to show or hide columns, and drag them to change their order. The Domains, Subdomains and URLs views each keep their own column settings.
Export the data
You can click Export to download the table you're viewing (Domains, Subdomains or URLs) as a CSV file and share it with your team. The export includes the columns of the table, including the SEO metrics and the page or domain types.