Citation target
A citation target is a third-party page that AI engines already cite when answering questions in your category. It turns the vague instruction to build authority into a specific, addressable place to earn a mention.
Why third-party pages carry the answers
When an assistant answers a commercial question, it usually assembles the response from sources that compare options rather than from any single vendor's marketing. Review platforms, community threads, category roundups and independent comparisons do most of the work.
That is why the fastest route into an answer is often not another page on your own site. It is being present, and accurate, on the specific pages engines already read.
How targets get prioritized
Not every cited page is equally worth pursuing. A useful ordering combines how often engines cite the page for your category, how authoritative the domain is, and whether the page is one you could realistically appear on. A frequently cited roundup that accepts submissions is worth more attention than a frequently cited page that will never change.
The line that matters
Earning a mention means giving a publisher something genuinely worth including, and being accurate about what you do. Manufacturing mentions at scale on pages that do not merit them is the tactic that gets brands removed from the sources they depend on, and it is not something we build for.
Related terms
- Answer engine optimization (AEO)Answer engine optimization is the practice of getting a brand named, cited and recommended inside the answers AI assistants generate, rather than inside a ranked list of links.
- Cited rateCited rate is the share of sampled AI answers that link to one of your own domains as a source.
- Named rateNamed rate is the share of sampled AI answers that mention your brand at all, decided by exact word-boundary matching rather than by a model's judgment.
Want this measured on your own domain rather than defined? Run a free report and see the rates, with their sample sizes and ranges, for your own buyer questions.