# Citation Analysis (/docs/user-guide/citations)



## Citations Page [#citations-page]

The **Citations** page shows which URLs and domains AI models cite when answering prompts about your brand and industry.

{/* TODO: Screenshot of the citations page */}

## Citation Categories [#citation-categories]

Elmo categorizes citations into groups:

| Category          | Description                                                 |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Brand**         | Citations pointing to your own domains                      |
| **Competitor**    | Citations pointing to competitor domains                    |
| **Social Media**  | Citations from social platforms (Reddit, Twitter, etc.)     |
| **Google**        | Citations from Google properties                            |
| **Institutional** | Citations from institutional sources (.edu, .gov, research) |

## Why Citations Matter [#why-citations-matter]

Citations tell you:

* **What sources AI models trust** for your industry — these are the pages you want to appear on or outrank
* **Where competitors are getting cited** — revealing content gaps or opportunities
* **Which of your pages AI models reference** — helping you understand what content performs well for AEO

## Using Citation Data [#using-citation-data]

When you see competitors being cited more than your brand:

. Identify the specific URLs being cited
. Analyze what content those pages provide
. Create or improve your own content to better answer those queries
. Track whether your citation share improves over subsequent evaluations