← Glossary
Source class
The type of site a citation comes from: editorial, corporate, user-generated, reference, or your own domain.
Classifying citations by source class is what turns a list of URLs into a decision. If the answers in your category are dominated by user-generated content, publishing another page on your own site will not change anything, and community presence will.
The classes behave differently. Editorial and reference sources are earned through outreach and merit. Corporate sources are competitor pages, which you displace rather than join. Your own domain is the only class you control directly, and usually the smallest share.
Related
Content angleThe editorial stance a cited page takes: cost, depth, authority, freshness, or written for a named audience.Citation rateThe proportion of AI answers that cite at least one page on your own domain as a source.Generative engine optimization (GEO)The practice of getting a brand named and cited inside answers written by AI assistants, rather than ranked in a list of links.