TL;DR — Identify your highest-cited pages to reverse-engineer what makes them work, then replicate those patterns across underperforming content. Go to Visibility > Citation Sources and sort by Citation Count to see your top URLs, then cross-reference with Analytics > Page Performance to get each page’s AI Score. Layer in Strategy > Google Search Console to spot pages with high citations but low organic traffic — these AI-first assets deserve more investment. Pro tip: extract the common structural patterns from your top 10 cited pages (TL;DR blocks, comparison tables, specific statistics) and apply them to your 10 least-cited pages on high-priority topics for faster results than writing new content.
The Question
“Which of my existing pages are most frequently cited by AI?”Your website already contains pages that AI models actively cite today — but without visibility into which ones, your content team cannot replicate the patterns that made them work. A page that gets cited 40 times per month has done something right: the right topic coverage, the right structure, the right level of specificity. Understanding this is more valuable than any keyword research tool. Qwairy’s Citations view and Page Performance analytics give you a ranked list of your most-cited URLs, the queries that trigger each citation, the AI providers citing them, and the organic performance of the same pages — so you can build a content playbook from your actual winners. You might also be wondering:
- “How is my overall AI visibility trending over time?”
- “Why do some of my pages get cited but others do not?”
- “Which AI providers are most likely to cite my content?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Visibility > Citation Sources
Navigate to Visibility > Citation Sources — your primary view for page-level citation data.
Sort by Citation Count descending to see which URLs are cited most often across all monitored AI providers. Click any URL row to see the full citation breakdown: which queries triggered the citation, which providers cited it, and what text snippet was quoted.
Go deeper: Analytics > Page Performance
Cross-reference with Analytics > Page Performance to see the AI Score assigned to each page based on how frequently and how prominently it appears in AI-generated answers.
Use the Sort by AI Score option to confirm which pages outperform their organic metrics in AI contexts — these are your citation leaders.
Layer in organic data: Strategy > Google Search Console
Connect Strategy > Google Search Console to overlay organic impressions and clicks on your citation leaders.
This split view identifies two important patterns: pages with high citations and high organic traffic (your best all-around content), and pages with high citations but low organic traffic (AI-first pages that traditional SEO undervalues — these deserve investment).
Complete the picture: Analytics > Crawler Analytics + Exports
Review Analytics > Crawler Analytics to confirm that your top-cited pages are being actively crawled by AI bots (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, etc.). Pages with zero crawler visits in the last 30 days may be losing citations they previously held.
Export the full citation list via Workspace > Exports as CSV for deeper analysis in Looker Studio or a spreadsheet.
What to Look For
Citations — Page-Level Breakdown
The Citations view is the ground truth for which pages AI models are actively referencing. Each row represents a unique URL from your domain that has appeared as a source in at least one monitored AI response.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Citation Count | Total number of times this URL was cited across all providers and all monitored prompts in the selected period |
| Provider Breakdown | Which AI engines cite this page — a page cited by 4+ providers is a structural asset; one cited by only 1 may be format-specific |
| Top Triggering Queries | The specific questions that most often surface this page — tells you the exact intent the page is serving |
| Citation Snippet | The verbatim text the AI quoted from the page — reveals which section is most valued |
| Citation Trend | Whether citation count is growing, stable, or declining — a declining trend may mean a competitor published better content |
| First Citation Date | How old the citation relationship is — old citations are more durable; new citations may be volatile |
Page Performance — AI Score by URL
Page Performance computes an AI Score (0–100) for each page based on the frequency, prominence, and diversity of its citations across providers and query types. This score lets you rank your pages purely by AI value, independent of organic SEO metrics.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| AI Score | Composite AI citation quality score — above 70 indicates a reliably cited page |
| Provider Coverage | The number of distinct AI providers citing this page — higher coverage = more durable asset |
| Average Position | Whether the page is cited first, second, or further down in multi-source AI answers — first position citations drive more traffic |
| Query Diversity | How many distinct query types trigger a citation — high diversity means the page is versatile across intent variants |
GSC — Organic Performance of Cited Pages
Combining Citation data with GSC performance creates a 2x2 matrix of content value:| Citation Rate | Organic Traffic | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| High | High | Core content asset — protect and update regularly |
| High | Low | AI-first page — invest in organic promotion and link building |
| Low | High | SEO-strong but not AI-optimized — reformat for AI citation |
| Low | Low | Underperforming on both channels — review or consolidate |
Crawler Analytics — Bot Validation
Crawler Analytics shows which AI crawlers have visited which pages and when. If a page was previously cited frequently but citation count has dropped, check whether the relevant AI crawler (e.g., GPTBot, PerplexityBot) has visited the page in the last 30–60 days.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Bot Visit Frequency | Pages visited weekly by multiple bots stay in AI training/retrieval pools |
| Last Crawl Date | If a high-citation page has not been crawled in 45+ days, its citations may be at risk |
| Crawl Blocked Pages | Any pages returning 403/noindex to AI bots are invisible to citation — check robots.txt |
Pro Tip: Combine Citations and Page Performance to build a “content playbook.” Sort your top 10 cited pages by citation count, read each citation snippet, and extract the common structural patterns — TL;DR blocks, comparison tables, numbered lists, specific statistics. Apply these patterns to your 10 least-cited pages that cover high-priority topics. This structural reformat is often faster and more effective than writing new content from scratch.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider | See which pages are cited exclusively by one engine vs. universally — engine-specific citation patterns indicate format preferences |
| Period | Compare last 30 vs. last 90 days to distinguish recently-rising pages from long-standing citation leaders |
| Topic/Tag | Narrow to a product area to build a citation inventory for a specific team or campaign |
| Source URL | Filter to a specific URL to see its complete citation history, all triggering queries, and all snippets |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your top 5 cited pages each have 20+ citations per month, are cited by 3+ distinct AI providers, and cover a range of funnel stages (at least one Awareness, one Consideration, one Decision page). Your AI Score for these pages is above 70, and Crawler Analytics confirms they are visited by GPTBot and PerplexityBot at least weekly. This is a mature citation portfolio — your job is to maintain these pages and replicate their structure.Needs attention
If your citation data is heavily concentrated — 80% of all citations coming from a single page — your citation portfolio is fragile. A single update or removal of that page would collapse your AI visibility. Diversify by identifying the next 5 highest-potential pages and running targeted rewrites to improve their citation readiness. If your top-cited pages are all blog posts from 12+ months ago and no newer content appears in the top 20, your recent content is not being cited. This usually means newer articles are not structured for citation — they may be too promotional, too thin, or missing the FAQ and structured sections that AI models prefer.Example
Scenario: You run a cybersecurity SaaS. Sorting Citations by count, you find that your “What is a SOC 2 audit?” blog post has 67 citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini — 4x more than your second-most-cited page, which is your “SOC 2 vs ISO 27001” comparison guide.
- Click the SOC 2 audit page row to view citation snippets. The AI consistently quotes two sections: the opening definition paragraph (cited as a direct answer to “what is SOC 2”) and the “How long does SOC 2 audit take?” FAQ item (cited for timeline queries). Neither section is particularly long — they are cited because they are direct, specific, and clearly labeled.
- Open Analytics > Page Performance and note this page has an AI Score of 84 — your highest. But its organic traffic in GSC is only 800 visits/month, well below other pages.
- Apply the structural patterns from this page (direct definition opener, labeled FAQ items with specific numeric answers) to your 3 most-visited product pages, which currently have AI Scores below 30 and zero citations. Set a 60-day monitoring checkpoint to measure the impact.
Go Further
Citation leaderboard by page
Build a page citation leaderboard in Looker Studio using the source-urls data source to track your top-performing content
Track citations programmatically
Use the source-urls endpoint to monitor citation counts and trends for each of your pages via API
How page citations work
Read the Citation Sources documentation to understand how Qwairy detects and attributes page-level citations
Related Questions
How is my overall AI visibility trending?
Track whether your citation portfolio is growing over time.
How do I turn a content gap into an article AI models will cite?
Use your citation playbook to build new high-citation pages.
Which AI providers mention me most often?
See which engines are driving the most citation traffic to your domain.
What content should I create to improve my AI visibility?
Build a content plan that extends your citation strengths into new topics.