Often when we think of the term “citation,” whether it pertains to our personal life or our business, we think of something bad or negative. Per Findlaw.com’s definition of “citation,” when someone hears the word “citation,” their mind may immediately go to thoughts of having to appear in court and/or being charged for some kind of minor offense.
But in the world of being found online (SEO, GEO, AEO), particularly in the results spit back by AI search tools like ChatGPT, being awarded a citation is a positive thing. It means the AI search engine in-question has included a link back to your organization’s digital property or assets or an external organization’s digital content that mentions you (often your or an external party’s website, but it could be a social media or discussion-forum presence or post).
Two Types Of Citations You’ll Want And Need To Be Found Online
Citations from AI search tools themselves where they are sharing a link to content that you own or that mentions you
Citations from non-search-tool, external organizations who provide links on their digital properties/assets back to your digital properties and assets
You’ll really want and need both of the above in order to drive traffic directly from AI search tools to your website because, as pointed out in the previous blog post whose link we shared above, an AI search tool is less likely to provide a citation (backlink) to your website if you aren’t receiving citations from other creditable external organizations on the internet.
Need Help Identifying Opportunities For Positive Online Citations?
As has happened very often over the last 11.5 years, recently, there’s been a lot of commonality in questions I’ve been getting from clients or in the challenges they are facing. Writing a blog post that I can share with them, seems like the perfect way to document my thoughts for both them and any other for-profit or non-profit organizations with the same question or concern.
Because of the uptick in use of AI search tools (by both businesses and consumers), more and more organizations want and need to understand exactly what goes into making sure AI search engines think your organization is a credible one. Why? Because how trustworthy your organization is believed to be by search engines plays greatly into their decisions about whether to mention your organization in the content they spit back in response to a query. And, particularly, into whether or not they will serve up a link to your website (known as a citation) in their results.
As pointed out in this outstanding piece about AI Search Trust Signals by SEMRush, there are a number of factors that influence how search engines/tools view your organization’s creditability, but the focus of this post is going to be on the less technical and website development tactics, and on what SEMRush labeled “Evidence and Citations.” We love how they described such factors/tactics as online evidence and content that “shows that credible third parties vouch for you.”
Evidence and Citations That Indicate To AI Search Tools Your Organization Is A Creditable Expert
The following ongoing online/digital activities indicate to search tools that your organization is trustworthy:
Other creditable sites are willing to share links back to your site (known as backlinks or citations) from their digital properties. The sharing of such links could be related to the following:
The external organization sharing your information wrote and published a story about you, i.e., you received a publicity/PR mention/coverage from a general news outlet or a publication specific to your industry.
Your organization is a member of their organization or part of their business directory — think trade/industry association or Chamber of Commerce or other business networking organization.
Your organization has completed various exams or other tasks required to become certified with or accredited by the external organization.
Your organization is simply considered an expert in your industry by other organizations and they look to share your thought-leader content. AI search tools give bonus points for mention or links from .edu or .gov sites because of those sites’ creditability.
You are being proactive about sharing links to external experts, and therefore, you have links to external sites that are current vs. old and out-dated. The sharing of such links could be related to the following:
You received a certification or accreditation badge (in the form of artwork you can use on digital properties) and you make that badge clickable/linkable, so that when someone clicks on it, it takes them to the external organization’s website.
If you are a business-to-business (B2B) organization and have your clients’ permission to do so, you share links back to the clients’ digital properties.
You are aware of who the experts are in your particularly field/industry and share links to their digital content (such as I did above related to SEMRush, since they are a widely respected leader in the field of SEO) since you don’t want or need to recreate the wheel by covering topics on which they can provide more detail and may be more knowledgeable.
You are a distributor or sales representative for a particular external organization’s products or services and share links to their website.
You actively solicit from customers the following types of reviews and testimonials:
Reviews that appear on social media platforms like Yelp, Facebook and Nextdoor.com or recommendations or mentions that appear on discussion forums like Reddit and Quora, and particularly on any relevant sites that provide reviews of organizations belonging to a particular industry, such as private primary education.
Links emanating discussion-forum sites are priceless because AI search engines love sharing Reddit and Quora content that answers the question posed in a query by the engine’s user. But, be forewarned that discussion forums don’t support organizations who toot their own horn, so ideally, any links from sites like Reddit and Quora to your site would be posted on there by a happy customer or collaborator vs. your own organization.
Testimonials that you can post on your website or on other digital presences like social media.
You take the time to respond to reviews, i.e., publicly thank those who wrote them and reinforce how you love serving your target audiences and how you serve them; plus, acknowledge professionally address bad reviews — this shows you care and are committed to excellence!
Related to the last bullet above, as Dream Local Digital pointed out in their blog post about how positive reviews (mentions or backlinks) influence AI search presence, organizations need to be aware that AI search engines may use reviews to make decisions like what organization’s name and/or content to serve up related to queries like “who’s the best…” And, as part of serving up your organization as a “best…” it might include a piece or all of a review someone wrote and published anywhere on the digisphere. For example, AI search tools might indicate my agency, Results Communications & Research is one of the best digital marketing agencies in the Greater Boston area because their Principal is an “SEO guru and definitely knows her stuff! Every interaction with Gail has been a standout experience. She is remarkably patient and very experienced, dedicating significant time to analyzing data, reviewing metrics, and devising tailored plans to enhance my company’s SEO performance. Her depth of knowledge in the field is evident, and her insights have been invaluable.” (note that what appears in quotations in the previously statement comes from a Google Review written by one of our clients.)
