Not all citations are equal. A brand being cited in a news article carries different weight than being cited on a product review site, which is different again from being cited on a social platform or an academic source. Today, we're launching Enhanced Citation Categories to make these distinctions visible and actionable.
We analyzed 27 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews to build a taxonomy of citation source types: News, Reviews, Social, Academic, Brand-owned, Aggregator, and Forum. Each category has distinct characteristics in terms of how AI models weight it, how quickly it changes, and how brands can influence it.
What we found in the data
- News citations are the highest-velocity category — they appear quickly and disappear quickly as stories age
- Review site citations are the most durable — a high-quality product review page can drive citations for years
- Social citations (Reddit, LinkedIn) are rising fastest, growing 340% YoY in our dataset
- Brand-owned citations are lower than most brands expect — your .com is rarely the primary source for category-level queries
- Academic citations matter disproportionately for health, finance, and technical queries
Enhanced Citation Categories are now live in Answer Engine Insights for all Pro and Enterprise customers. Use the Category Breakdown view to see how your citation profile compares to competitors, and identify which source types are most underrepresented in your current visibility.