Follow the sources behind the answer.
A simple way to review cited domains, distinguish citations from brand mentions, and turn saved AI answers into a useful research workflow.
A citation and a mention are different facts.
A provider can mention your product without linking to your website. It can also link to a page on your domain without explicitly recommending your brand.
Review both outcomes. A citation describes a recorded source reference; a mention describes how the answer identifies a brand. Neither automatically proves that the source caused the recommendation.
Start in the saved answer.
Read the surrounding sentence before opening a source. Check what claim the link appears to support, and whether the displayed domain matches the destination.
Some provider interfaces render citations as badges or footnotes. If a reference was not captured completely, treat it as missing evidence rather than inventing a destination.
Look for recurring domains.
Filter by provider and topic, then look for sources that recur across saved answers. Your own documentation, review sites, publications, and comparison pages may play different roles.
A domain appearing often in your collected answers is a useful research lead. It is not a measure of that domain’s influence across every AI answer.
Turn a source into a specific follow-up.
Inspect whether the page is accurate, current, and relevant to your buyers. If your own page is unclear, improve the explanation. If a third-party page has factual errors, document the issue and the evidence.
Record the date of any change and monitor the same questions afterward. Do not promise that adding a backlink or editing a page will produce a particular AI recommendation.