How to read citation tracking results
Citation tracking shows whether AI engines cite your business when people ask the kinds of questions your prospects ask.
The chart at the top
A line per engine: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews. The Y-axis is your citation rate, the percentage of your tracked queries that cited you in that engine's responses. The X-axis is time.
Most new customers see all four lines starting at 0% and slowly climbing. The climb is gradual. AI engines update their behavior on the order of weeks, not days. By month 3 most customers see at least one engine over 10%. By month 6, 25 to 40 percent across multiple engines is typical.
The query-by-query table
Below the chart, a table of your tracked queries with one column per engine. Each cell shows whether that query cited you in that engine in the most recent run.
Use this to find:
- Queries no engine cites you for. These are your highest-value targets. The content engine should be generating supporting content for those queries.
- Queries one engine cites but others don't. Often a content gap that's specific to how that engine indexes. ChatGPT pulls from Reddit, Perplexity pulls from news sources, Google AI pulls from authoritative sites.
- Queries every engine cites. Wins. Note which content piece produced the win, then replicate the structure for the queries you're not yet winning.
Citation position
Each citation is also categorized: primary (the engine recommends you as the answer), secondary (you're mentioned alongside others), passing mention (your name appears but the recommendation goes to someone else), or absent.
A primary citation is roughly 10x more valuable than a passing mention. The chart counts any citation, but the per-query detail shows the position so you can see which queries you're winning vs only placing in.
Sentiment
Each citation gets a sentiment score: positive (the engine speaks of your business favorably), neutral (factual mention without judgment), or negative. Negative is rare, and usually happens when a query asks about a complaint or controversy.
Negative sentiment needs investigation. If an engine starts citing you negatively, check what content the engine is pulling from and whether there's a review or article that could be addressed. Email hello@scowty.com if you spot one and we'll dig in with you.
Share of voice
A single number showing your share of citations across all queries vs the competitors named in the same engine responses. Useful for benchmarking against the firms you're competing with.