Monitor
Sources
See which websites and pages AI engines cite when they answer your prompts, what kind of sites they are, and export the list to Excel or CSV.
AI engines that search the web cite the pages they read. The Sources page lists those citations for the answers to your tracked prompts: which domains and pages AI leans on in your category, what kind of sites they are, and which of them already mention you. Open it from Sources in the Monitor section of the sidebar.
Filters
All Platforms, All Locations, All Categories, All Themes (once your prompts span two or more themes) and the date range narrow every card and tab. When the window holds no run, an As of note next to the date picker gives the date of the run the figures come from. See Carried values.
A preset on this page includes today in its count, so Last 30 days starts one day later than the same preset on the Visibility page. When a run finished on that extra day, this page's totals can be lower than the Visibility page's Top Citation Sources card for the same preset. See Time zones.
The headline cards
- Total Responses: every AI answer in the window, including answers that cite no source. Every % Answers figure on the page is a share of this number.
- Total Citations: the links AI included in those answers. One answer can cite many sources.
- Unique Domains: the distinct websites behind those citations, each counted once.
- Source Types: how many kinds of site were cited, such as editorial, forum or review sites.
- Avg per Domain: total citations divided by unique domains. A higher figure means AI leans on fewer sites.
Source Trends and Brand Sources
Source Trends plots how many times AI cited your own site in each run, next to your tracked competitors' sites. Each point is one run; days between runs are left empty rather than drawn as zero. The line comes in from the last run before the range, so it starts at the left edge even when the range opens between runs. The large number is the count in the latest run, with the change from the run before it. Click a competitor's chip to hide or show its line.
Brand Sources lists the pages on your own site that AI cited most, with the engines that cited each page, its citations and its % Answers.
% Answers and % Citations
Two percentages appear on every source table, and they answer different questions:
- % Answers is the share of AI answers that cite a domain or page. One answer usually cites several sources, so this column does not add up to 100%.
- % Citations is a source's share of every citation AI made. Across all domains it adds up to 100%. On a card that lists only some domains, the column shows part of the whole.
A worked example. In a window of 40 answers, AI cites example.com in 10 of them, so its % Answers is 25%. Those 40 answers carry 200 citations in total, and 16 of them point at example.com, because some answers cite it more than once. Its % Citations is 8%.
Read % Answers to see how widely a source is used, and % Citations to see how much of the total it takes. See Citations.
Domains tab
The table lists every cited domain, most cited first, and loads more as you scroll:
Search by name, or pick one kind of site from All Source Types. Click a domain to see the pages AI cited on it and a % Answers by run chart, its Trend line at full size; hover a run to see how many of its answers cited the site. The Source Types ring beside the table splits the citations by kind of site; switch it between Citations and Domains to count links or sites.
URLs tab
The same view one level down: every cited page, with its Source, the Platforms that cited it, its % Answers and its Content type. Filter with All Source Types and All Content Types. The Content Types ring counts Citations or Pages.
What counts as one page
Two addresses are the same page when they differ only in tracking details: utm_ and similar campaign parameters, click identifiers, a referral tag, a # fragment or a trailing slash. Any other query parameter is kept, so two different videos on one video site stay two pages. The page counts on the Sources page use this rule, so its totals agree with each other.
Links to a page open it without its campaign parameters, click identifiers or referral tag, and the address under its title leaves them off too. AI engines tag the links they cite (the ChatGPT answers Ranqo collects through OpenAI's API carry utm_source=openai), so opening one of your own pages with the tag still on would count in your analytics as a visit from that engine.
Source types
Each domain is classified by how it relates to you:
Pages also carry a content type, the format of the page: Ranked List, How-to Guide, Guide, Alternatives, Comparison, Review, Case Study, Checklist, Blog Post, Documentation, Product Page, Research, Video, Homepage or Other. See Source and article types.
Citation Pool tab
Your citation pool is the set of sources AI keeps citing in your space: domains cited in 3 or more answers, or by 2 or more engines. The tab shows, for each of them, which brands AI names in the answers that cite it. The tab counts answers, and an answer counts once for a source however many times it cites it. Only the shares of citations on the top card count every link.
Being named beside a source is not the same as being named on it. The tab reads what each answer says, not what the cited page says.
Who AI names in the answers that cite each site
The card at the top gives each third-party site to the brand named in most of the answers that cite it. Your own sites and competitors' sites are left out, since no other brand can lead on them.
The sentence under the heading states the result: on how many of these sites a rival leads or you lead, and the share of their citations each group takes. A count of sites treats a site cited in three answers like one cited in a hundred, so the share shows how much of what AI reads each group accounts for.
- You lead: you are named in more of its answers than any rival.
- A rival leads: a rival is named in more of its answers than you.
- Tied: you and the strongest rival are named in as many answers.
- Nobody named: its answers name neither you nor any rival.
The strip under the counts has one block per site, in one row and the same four shades. When there are too many sites for each block to stay readable, as with a long date range on a brand with many cited sites, or on a phone, it is drawn as a single bar split by standing, in the same proportions. Beside it, Answers citing each brand's own site opens with a sentence comparing your site with the competitor's site AI cites most, then lists your site and the competitors' sites it cites most, counting a site's subdomains as that site.
Where to start
When a rival leads anywhere, the bottom of the card names the site to start with: of the sites where a rival leads, the one with the most answers that name a rival and not you, which is the first row under A rival leads. It shows the page on that site, among all its cited pages, cited in the most answers that leave you out, whether or not they name a rival. When Outreach has a target on that site that is still to do or in progress, Open in Outreach opens the highest-ranked of them; otherwise the button names the site and opens its detail. Click the site's name to see it in detail.
Source by source
The table lists the pool with these columns:
On each row, the share of the brand named most is set in heavier, darker type and the other shares in grey. Hover a share to see the count behind it, and click a row to open the source.
Compare with, beside the search box, chooses the rival columns. It lists the competitors you watch first, then the rivals named most in these answers (search finds the rest), each with how many answers citing third-party pool sources name it. Tick up to 3, and the table changes as you tick; one column always stays, and Reset goes back to the default. Your choice is remembered for the brand in this browser. A rival you chose has no column in a date range where no answer citing a third-party pool site names it, and when none of your choices is named there, the default columns show, and unticking your last choice goes back to them. A watched competitor those answers do not name is listed but cannot be ticked.
The filters above the table pick rows: A rival leads (sorted by Missing you, so the sources leaving you out most come first), Tied, You lead (sorted by your lead) and All, which also lists your own sites and competitors' sites. Search narrows any of them by domain.
Rivals are counted as on the Competitors page: spellings of one company count as one, and a rival counts when it would count toward Share of Voice, so a name AI gave once, with no website, is left out unless you watch it.
A source in detail
Click a row to open it:
- Who AI names: you and every rival the tab counts, with how many of its answers name each.
- Pages AI cites most: its most cited pages, titled as on the URLs tab, and how many of the answers citing each page left you out.
- Prompts behind it: the tracked prompts whose answers cite it, and how often you were named. Each opens the prompt's page.
When Outreach has targets on the site that are still to do or in progress, the drawer says how many and links to the highest-ranked of them. To act on the sources where a rival leads, see Outreach.
Like every card on the page, the tab follows the filters: with one engine selected, it counts only that engine's answers.
Export Data
On the Domains and URLs tabs, Export Data downloads the list as Excel (.xlsx) or CSV (.csv). The file holds the full filtered list, not only the rows loaded on screen. It follows the page filters and the source type and content type pickers; the search box does not narrow it.
- Domains export: rank, domain, total pages, source type, % Answers, total citations and % Citations.
- URLs export: rank, page title, page address, source type, % Answers and content type.
In the Excel file each page address is also a link, which opens the page as the URLs tab does; the cell shows the full address, as the CSV does.