Source Ecosystem
Map the domains and URLs AI systems trust and cite in your category. Find your authority gaps and the third-party coverage plays that close them.
Overview
AI engines don't cite sources randomly. Each engine has a trust hierarchy — a set of domains and URLs it returns to repeatedly when generating answers in a given topic area. Source Ecosystem maps that hierarchy for your category, shows where your domain sits within it, and identifies the external sources you need to appear on to increase your AI citation authority.
Citation Graph
The citation graph is a visual map of the domains most frequently cited by AI engines across your tracked prompt corpus. Nodes represent domains; edge weight represents co-citation frequency (how often two domains are cited together in the same response).
Your domain's position in the graph shows:
- How central your brand is to the AI trust network in your category
- Which high-authority domains are closest to you (potential partnership or citation targets)
- Which competitor domains occupy more central positions (their structural advantage)
The graph is filterable by engine, prompt cluster, and date range.
Domain Trust Rankings
The domain trust table ranks every cited domain by:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Citation Count | Total citations across all engines and prompts in your corpus |
| Engine Breadth | Number of distinct AI engines that cite this domain |
| Category Relevance | How often citations are triggered by prompts in your core category |
| Trust Score | Composite score (0–100) |
Your domain's row is highlighted. Domains ranked above yours are your authority gap targets.
URL-Level Citation Data
Go deeper than domain-level with the URL detail view. For any cited domain, you can expand to see:
- The specific URLs that have been cited (not just the domain root)
- Which prompts triggered each citation
- Which engines cited each URL
- Citation count and trend over time
This is particularly useful for competitive analysis: if a competitor's /blog/best-x-tools post is heavily cited, you can study its structure and build a stronger alternative.
Authority Gap Analysis
The authority gap report compares your domain's Trust Score against the top-cited domains in your category and surfaces:
- Score gap — how far behind you are from the top-cited domain overall
- Engine-specific gaps — engines where the gap is largest (e.g. weak on Perplexity, strong on Claude)
- Content-type gaps — the formats AI engines cite most in your category that you don't have (comparison guides, data studies, FAQ pages)
- Missing third-party presence — high-Trust-Score domains that cite your competitors but not you
Each gap comes with a recommended action and estimated impact on your Trust Score if closed.
Third-Party Source Opportunities
The most reliable way to increase your AI citation authority is to appear on domains AI already trusts. The third-party opportunities view shows:
- High-Trust-Score domains in your category that cite competitors but not your brand
- The specific pages on those domains that generate the most AI citations
- Suggested outreach angles (guest post, product review, partnership mention, data contribution)
Prioritize domains with high Engine Breadth — appearing on a domain that multiple AI engines trust gives you leverage across all of them simultaneously.
Publisher Intelligence
The publisher intelligence view breaks down citation sources by type:
| Publisher type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Industry media | TechCrunch, G2, Capterra, industry-specific publications |
| Review platforms | G2, Trustpilot, Capterra, GetApp |
| Reference sites | Wikipedia, official documentation, government/academic domains |
| Competitor-adjacent | Blogs and tools in adjacent categories that cover yours |
For each engine, the top 10 publisher types by citation frequency are ranked. This tells you which publication categories to prioritize for PR and content distribution.
Trend Analysis
Track how the source ecosystem evolves over time:
- Rising domains — new sources gaining AI trust in your category (early signals to monitor)
- Declining domains — sources losing AI citation share (opportunities if you're present there)
- Your trend — your domain's Trust Score over the last 30/90/180 days
Related
- GEO Audit — citation index for your own domain's pages
- AI Visibility — overall brand visibility score and trends
- AEO Audit — prompt-level attribution and content gap recommendations