Citation probability is the likelihood that an AI platform will cite your content in response to a given prompt. It reflects how well your pages align with platform preferences for extractability, authority, and recency.
What drives citation probability
Extractable structure with clear headings, a concise summary, and a compact table where appropriate. Authority signals such as expert authorship, reputable third‑party mentions, and original research. Freshness with visible dates, current pricing and features, and recent examples. Relevance fit with transparent criteria and best for guidance that maps to user intent. Alignment with platform citation patterns so the page is formatted the way each experience tends to select.
How to estimate and improve
We analyze citation frequency by URL and topic tag and look at the position distribution to understand prominence. We run link citation audits to spot the structural patterns that win. We then refresh and restructure pages to strengthen extractability and proof and measure again over two to four cycles to confirm a durable lift.
LLM Pulse reveals which pages are repeatedly cited and where gaps exist—guiding a roadmap to raise citation probability across platforms.
Quantitative heuristics
Older, undated pages typically underperform; adding visible updates reduces that penalty. Pages with a table, a TLDR, and an FAQ outperform bare prose. Third‑party coverage that references the page increases selection odds, especially in assistants that rely more on training.
Experiment loop
We form a hypothesis such as “adding a TLDR and a table to this guide will raise citations.” We ship the update, then measure for two to four weeks and watch count and position by platform. We keep what moves the needle and drop what does not. We annotate each experiment so we can replicate what works.
UI differences and expectations
Some platforms display more citations than others. We set expectations accordingly and normalize by what the interface shows. We also consider answer length and the presence of follow‑up questions that might add or remove sources. Probability is contextual; our goal is a sustained increase in early positions over multiple cycles.