Glossary
LLM citation
Also called: AI citation, answer citation
An LLM citation is a reference an AI answer engine attaches to a claim in its answer — the source it credits — which is a primary driver of both traffic and trust in the AI-search era.
An LLM citation is the source an AI engine credits for a statement in its answer. Engines like Perplexity and the cited modes of ChatGPT and Gemini attach links to the sources they synthesized from; being one of those cited sources is how a brand earns attention when the engine — not a ranked list — is the destination.
Citations are earned differently from classic backlinks. An engine cites content it can extract cleanly, that corroborates what other trustworthy sources say, and that reads as a credible primary source on the question. Original data, clearly-structured explanations, and unambiguous entity identity all raise the odds of being cited.
Citation is not the same as recommendation. An engine can cite a source for a fact while recommending a different brand as the choice. Measuring both — who is cited, and who is recommended — is necessary to understand a brand's true standing in AI answers.