AI citation (cross-LLM)
AI citation is the inclusion of a website's content (with source attribution) in the response of an AI assistant, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Claude with web access, Gemini, Bing Copilot. Citation in AI responses is increasingly the goal of content marketing in 2024-2026, replacing or supplementing traditional organic search rankings.
Different AI surfaces cite content differently: Perplexity surfaces source URLs inline; ChatGPT browsing surfaces them in a sidebar; Google AI Overview embeds source links in the answer; Claude with tool use cites in its written response. The optimisation patterns converge: provide content the AI can read confidently (clear, definition-led, factually dense), make it machine-accessible (clean HTML, llms-full.txt, schema.org markup), and demonstrate authority (original research, primary sources, backlinks). Tracking AI citation share is harder than tracking organic ranking because most AI APIs don't expose query logs, operators typically use a query template set checked weekly.