TL;DR — The fastest way to improve your AI citation frequency is to earn links from authoritative domains that AI models already index and cite for your category. Go to Strategy > Backlink Opportunities to see a prioritized list of high-value targets, then use Overview > Compare > Overlap to find domains that cite your competitors but not you. Check each target’s AI citation activity score to confirm the domain is actively used by AI models, not just high-authority on paper. Pro tip: sort the competitor-only source list by AI citation activity descending — those top domains are shaping the AI narrative in your category right now, and every month without your brand there reinforces your competitors’ advantage.
The Question
“What backlink opportunities exist to boost my brand in AI results?”In traditional SEO, backlinks improve search rankings. In the context of AI visibility, the mechanism is similar but different: when authoritative pages that cite your competitors also start citing you, AI models that draw on those pages begin including your brand in their answers. The sources AI models trust most are the same sources that have accumulated strong editorial authority — and those sources tend to link to the brands they write about. Identifying which authoritative domains already mention your competitors but not you reveals a ready-made priority list. These are domains where your brand is conspicuously absent despite your market presence, where your competitors have already done the work of establishing relevance, and where earning a citation or link would immediately expose you to AI models already indexing that source. You might also be wondering:
- “Which websites influence what AI says about my brand overall?”
- “Which competitors are getting cited more than me by AI models?”
- “How do I improve my brand’s presence in AI-generated answers?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Strategy > Backlink Opportunities
Navigate to Strategy > Backlink Opportunities — your primary view for AI-optimised link prospecting.
Focus on the Opportunity list, which ranks domains by a combination of domain authority, relevance to your brand category, and current citation activity in AI responses for your sector.
Go deeper: Compare > Overlap
Cross-reference with Overview > Compare > Overlap to identify sources your competitors hold but you do not.
The Overlap view maps citation sources across your brand and selected competitors — domains in the “competitors only” segment are your most actionable targets.
Complete the picture: Visibility > Citation Sources (competitor filter)
In Visibility > Citation Sources, switch context to a competitor and browse their top cited domains.
Any high-authority domain that consistently cites your competitor but has never cited you is both a backlink opportunity and an AI influence gap — the same outreach action closes both.
What to Look For
Strategy > Backlink Opportunities — The Opportunity List
The opportunity list aggregates signals from citation data, domain authority metrics, and competitor coverage to surface the most impactful targets.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Domain name | The specific site you should pursue — editorial outlet, industry blog, review platform, directory, or analyst publication |
| Domain authority score | A measure of how authoritative that domain is; high-authority domains that AI models already index carry more citation weight than low-authority ones |
| Relevance score | How closely the domain’s content aligns with your brand category; a highly relevant domain that AI models use for your sector is a priority even if its authority score is moderate |
| Competitor coverage | Whether one or more of your competitors already appear on this domain; if yes, editorial precedent exists and outreach is more likely to succeed |
| AI citation activity | Whether this domain already appears in AI responses for queries in your category; domains actively cited by AI models are the highest-value targets |
| Action status | Track your outreach progress — new, contacted, in progress, secured — directly in Qwairy |
Compare > Overlap — Citation Source Gap Map
The Overlap view is the most direct answer to the question “what are my competitors getting that I am not?” for citation sources.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Shared sources | Domains that cite both you and your selected competitors — your current competitive baseline |
| Competitor-only sources | Domains that cite one or more competitors but have never cited your brand — your highest-priority gap list |
| Your-only sources | Domains that cite you but not your competitors — potential strengths to protect and leverage |
| Overlap percentage | The proportion of competitor citation sources you share; below 40% overlap suggests a significant coverage gap |
Pro Tip: Sort the competitor-only source list by AI citation activity descending. The domains at the top are not just missing backlinks — they are actively influencing AI answers about your category right now, and every month without your brand in those citations is a month where the AI narrative reinforces your competitors’ advantage.
Visibility > Citation Sources (Competitor Context) — Reverse Prospecting
Switching the Citations view to a competitor’s brand and examining their top cited domains is a form of reverse prospecting: you are finding the specific URLs and editors who have already demonstrated interest in covering your space.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Competitor’s top cited domains | The exact editorial sources most responsible for that competitor’s AI presence — your outreach targets |
| Specific cited URLs | The article or page type on each domain that cites the competitor; helps you understand what kind of content earns citations on that domain (reviews, comparisons, guides) |
| Citation frequency | High-frequency competitor citations on a domain mean that domain writes about this topic regularly — higher outreach ROI |
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Competitor | Switch between competitors in the Overlap and Citations views to build a composite gap list from multiple competitor citation profiles |
| Domain authority range | Focus Backlink Opportunities on high-authority targets first (DA 50+) for the fastest AI citation impact; shift to mid-tier after securing anchor placements |
| Topic / Tag | If you are focused on a specific product category or use case, filter to that topic to find sources specifically influential for that segment of your market |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your citation source overlap with top competitors is above 60% — you are present on most of the same authoritative domains they are. The competitor-only sources in the Overlap view are niche or low-authority, and the Backlink Opportunities list shows fewer than ten high-priority targets. Your own citation sources include multiple DA 60+ editorial outlets that regularly cover your category.Needs attention
Your citation source overlap with your main competitor is below 35%. Several DA 70+ industry publications appear in your competitor’s top cited domains but have zero citations of your brand. The AI citation activity score for those missing domains is high — meaning AI models are actively pulling from sources that consistently ignore you. Your Backlink Opportunities list shows more than twenty high-priority targets, indicating a significant presence gap that is directly suppressing your AI visibility relative to competitors.Example
Scenario: A cybersecurity SaaS brand notices that when Perplexity answers questions about endpoint protection tools, three competitors are consistently mentioned and cited but the brand itself rarely appears. They want to identify which sources are driving this gap.
- Open Overview > Compare > Overlap and select the three competitors. The competitor-only sources segment shows fifteen domains, including four major cybersecurity editorial sites with DA scores above 65.
- Switch to Strategy > Backlink Opportunities and sort by AI citation activity. Three of those four editorial sites appear in the top ten opportunities. All three have published comparison guides in the past 12 months that mention the competitors but not the brand.
- For each of the three target sites, use the specific cited competitor URLs as reference points: read the comparison guide, identify the criteria used for inclusion, and prepare a targeted outreach pitch that addresses each site’s editorial angle.
- Track outreach status in Strategy > Backlink Opportunities and monitor Visibility > Citation Sources weekly to detect when new citations begin appearing from secured placements.
Go Further
Export backlink opportunity list with scores
Export your scored backlink opportunities as CSV for outreach planning and prioritization
Backlink scoring methodology
Read the Backlink Opportunities documentation to understand how outreach targets are scored and prioritized
Track new citation sources
Monitor newly discovered citation sources in Looker Studio using the source-domains data source