Are you in the AI answer?
AI Citation Report
For a growing share of your buyers, the first answer about your category doesn't come from a list of ten blue links. It comes from ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini, and it names a handful of firms. The AI Citation Report measures whether one of them is you, and tells you who it is when it isn't.
15-20
Real Buyer Questions Tested
3
AI Surfaces Measured
4
Categories Every Question Lands In
0
Surveys or Self-Reported Data
The Question Behind It
Buyers Are Asking ChatGPT. Who Is It Naming?
Someone with a real problem used to open Google and read. Now a lot of them open a chat window and ask. They type the question the way they'd say it out loud, "how much does estate planning cost in Ohio" or "best family lawyer in Spokane," and they get a paragraph back with a few sources attached.
That paragraph is the shortlist. The firms cited in it get considered. The firms left out of it don't get rejected, which would at least be information. They simply never enter the conversation.
Most owners have heard this is happening and have no way to find out where they stand, because there's no dashboard for it and asking the chatbot yourself once tells you almost nothing.
Methodology
How the Report Works
We Ask
We build a list of 15 to 20 questions your buyers actually type. When you share your search data, the list comes from your own demand. When you don't, it comes from category research. Either way these are buying questions, not vanity phrases.
We Record
We run every question through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini programmatically, the same way every time. Typing a question into a chat window once and eyeballing the answer isn't a measurement. We record which sources each model cites, whether you're among them, and who is there when you aren't.
We Categorize
Every question then gets cross-checked against where you rank on Google for the same topic. That pairing sorts each question into one of four buckets, which is what turns a pile of results into a work order. We also check whether AI systems can read your site at all.
The Four Categories
Where You Stand, Question by Question
Every question you're tested on lands in exactly one of these four, and the mix tells you what kind of problem you have.
Winning Both Ways
You rank on Google and the models cite you. Protect these and use them as the template for everything else.
Ranked but Not Cited
Google can find you and the AI answers skip you anyway. This is the most common gap and usually the most fixable one, which makes it the first place we point.
Cited but Not Ranked
A model quotes you on a question where your Google position is weak. It's a real win and a fragile one, because it's resting on a single source rather than a durable position.
Invisible on Both
Nobody sees you on this question, in either place. These are the growth list, and they're honest about how much ground there is to cover.
What You Get
A Report You Can Hand to a Partner Meeting
The deliverable is a written report, plus a call to walk through it.
The question-by-question table
Every question, every surface, and exactly what came back.
Your overall citation share
The whole picture reduced to one number you can watch.
The competitor list
The firms that own the AI answer in your category today.
A prioritized fix list
Ordered by what's most likely to move and least expensive to change.
An AI crawler check
Some sites block AI systems in their robots file without ever knowing it, and no amount of content fixes that.
A walkthrough call
We go through the findings together and you ask the uncomfortable questions.
Track It Over Time
The Answers Change Even When You Don't
Citation results move. Models get updated, sources get re-weighted, and a question you owned in March can quietly go to someone else by June.
One report is a clean snapshot of where you stand right now, which is worth having, but a snapshot can't tell you which direction you're heading.
The tracking tier re-runs the same test monthly or quarterly and reports the difference against your last run:
+
Questions gained
−
Questions lost
=
Net change
Same questions, same surfaces, same method, so the comparison is real rather than approximate. That's where the trend lives, and the trend is what tells you whether the work is working.
Common Questions
Can you guarantee we'll get cited?
No. Nobody can, and anyone who promises you an AI citation is guessing with a straight face. What we can do is measure where you stand, explain the gap in specific terms, and fix the things that are measurably in the way.
How is this different from SEO rank tracking?
Rank tracking tells you where you sit on a results page. This tells you whether a model names you when it answers the question, which is a different outcome with different causes. The report holds both side by side, because the gap between them is usually the most useful thing on the page.
Do you need access to our website or accounts?
No. Every data point we collect is externally observable, so nothing depends on your cooperation or anyone else's. Sharing your search data sharpens the question list so it reflects your actual demand, but the report runs fine without it.
What happens after the report?
You get the fix list and you decide. Hand it to your own team, hand it to another agency, or hand it to us. There's no obligation attached to the report, and we'd rather the findings get used than sit in a folder.
Find Out Whether the Models Know You Exist
The measurement takes a few days and the answer is the same whether you like it or not. If you're already ranking on questions the models skip, that's the cheapest gap in marketing to close.
Part of Cascade's Marketing Strategy & Research practice.