GEO & AI search glossary
LLM citation
What is an LLM citation?
A mention of a source, brand or URL inside an AI-generated answer. Citations are the visibility currency of generative search: if the model does not cite you, the user never learns you exist.
A citation can be a linked footnote, a named source in the body of the answer, or simply the sentence “one option is [your business]”. All three send the same signal to the buyer, and all three are what GEO measures.
Models cite passages they can verify and attribute. That is why sourced statistics and named experts matter more than adjectives: a claim with an attached authority is safe to repeat, while an unsupported superlative is a liability the model routes around. Pages that started lower in the rankings gained the most from citing sources — over 115% in the KDD 2024 measurements.
Related terms
- Cite-backed evidenceHard statistics and named authorities included in the body of a page with their sources attached. In the KDD 2024 GEO study, adding statistics, citations and quotations raised a page's visibility in generated answers by up to 40%.
- AI share of voiceHow often your brand is named, relative to competitors, when a set of buying-intent questions is put to the major AI engines. It is the closest thing GEO has to a ranking report.
- GroundingTying a model's answer to real, retrievable sources rather than to its training memory. Grounded answers are the ones that carry citations — and therefore the ones GEO can influence.
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