When someone asks ChatGPT a question your business could answer, one of three things happens. The answer cites your page as a source. The answer mentions you by name but links to someone else. Or you are not there at all. Only the first one sends a reader to your site.
You can check which of these is true for you in about 15 minutes, with no tools. This guide walks through the routine, the traps that make a manual check misleading, and how to turn it into something you can repeat every week.
Citation or mention: know what you are looking for
A citation is a link to your page in the answer's sources. A mention is your brand name in the text with no link to you. Both matter, but only citations send traffic and show that the assistant used your page as evidence. We cover the difference in more detail in AI citation vs brand mention.
When you check, record both. A question where you are mentioned but not cited is usually the cheapest one to fix, because the assistant already knows who you are. It just found a better page to quote.
Step 1: Write the questions your buyers actually ask
Do not search for your brand name. Almost every assistant will find you for "What is [your company]?", and it tells you nothing. Write 5 to 10 questions a buyer would ask before they know you exist:
- "What is the best [your category] for [your customer type]?"
- "How do I [the problem your product solves]?"
- "[Your category] vs [the alternative people consider]: which is better for [use case]?"
- "How much does [your service] cost in [your city or market]?"
Good sources for these: your sales call notes, the questions in your support inbox, and the search terms in Google Search Console that already bring you visitors. Keep the wording natural, the way a person would type it into a chat box.
Step 2: Ask each AI assistant, the right way
Small setup choices change the answer. Do these before you start:
- Use a clean session. Assistants can remember earlier chats and tailor answers to you. In ChatGPT use a temporary chat, and in the others log out or use a private browser window. Otherwise you may be checking an answer only you will ever see.
- Make sure the answer used the web. You only get citations when the assistant searched the web for the answer. If an answer shows no sources at all, it came from the model's memory, so there is nothing to be cited in. Ask again or turn on web search where the assistant offers it.
- Ask each question more than once. AI answers vary between identical runs. The same question can cite you on one try and not the next. Ask each question 3 times in fresh chats and count how many times you were cited, for example "cited in 2 of 3 answers".
Then run your list through each assistant:
- ChatGPT: when it searches the web, the answer shows source links. Open the full sources list to see every page it used, not just the ones shown inline.
- Perplexity: every answer searches the web and shows numbered sources at the top and inline. Check the full list.
- Gemini: look for the links in the answer and the sources shown with it. Not every Gemini answer shows sources, so note when it gave none.
- Claude: when Claude searches the web, the answer includes citations to the pages it used. If it did not search, there are no sources to check.
Step 3: Record what you find
A simple sheet is enough. One row per question, per assistant, per day, with these columns:
- Question: for example "best crm for dentists"
- Assistant: for example Perplexity
- Date: the day you asked
- Cited: how many of your tries cited you, for example "1 of 3"
- Mentioned: whether your name appeared without a link
- Cited instead: the pages the answer used, for example two review sites and a competitor's blog
The last column is the most useful one. The pages cited instead of you show what the assistant wanted for that question: a comparison table, a price, a list, a specific fact. That is your to-do list.
Step 4: Read the results honestly
A few rules keep a manual check from fooling you:
- No answer is not a zero. If an assistant failed or returned no sources, record "no answer", not "not cited". Mixing the two makes things look worse than they are.
- One run proves little. "Cited in 1 of 3" this week and "2 of 3" next week can be normal variation. Look for a change that holds over a few weeks.
- Change one thing, then re-check. If you publish a new page, write down the date. Re-ask the same questions about a week later, then again after two and four weeks. A change that shows up after your fix is a good sign, though it does not prove the fix caused it.
- Keep the questions fixed. If you reword a question, its history starts again.
Step 5: Fix the gap, then check again
For each question where you are not cited, open the pages that were cited instead and compare them with your best page on the topic. Usually the gap is plain:
- They answer the exact question in the first paragraph. You answer it halfway down.
- They have a fact the question needs (a price, a number, a list of options). You leave it out.
- They are on a list or directory the assistant trusts. You are not listed.
- You have no page that answers that question at all.
Fix one question at a time, note the date you shipped, and re-check on the same schedule as before.
Doing this every week without the spreadsheet
The manual routine works, but 10 questions × 4 assistants × 3 tries is 120 answers a week, and the record is only useful if you keep it going.
CiteFlow is AI search visibility monitoring. It asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude the questions your buyers ask every week, shows which answers cite you and who they cite instead, and lists what to fix next. When you ship a fix, it re-asks the same questions on day 7, 14 and 28 so you can see whether the answers changed after it. Failed answers are shown as "no answer", never as a zero.
You can run a free scan to see where your site stands today.
FAQ
Why does ChatGPT cite my site sometimes and not other times?
AI answers vary between identical runs, even with the same question and settings. That is why a single check is not enough. Ask each question several times and record it as "cited in k of n answers".
Does ranking on Google mean ChatGPT will cite me?
Not reliably. Assistants that search the web often draw on pages that rank well, but they pick the sources that best answer the exact question. A page can rank and still not be cited if it does not answer the question directly.
Should I search for my brand name to check?
No. Branded questions almost always find you. Check the questions buyers ask before they know your name, because that is where new customers come from.
How often should I check?
Weekly is enough for most sites. Answers move as assistants and the pages they read change, and a weekly record makes real changes easy to spot.
Can I make ChatGPT cite my website?
No one can promise that. What you can do is make sure your best page answers the question directly, includes the facts the question needs, and can be read by AI crawlers. Then track whether answers change after you ship.
