TL;DR — The Citations Sources tab ranks every domain by how often AI models cite it when discussing your brand. Go to Visibility > Citation Sources > Sources to see which domains carry the most weight, then cross-reference with Insights > Social Signals to separate editorial from community influence. Check the citation share % to spot any single domain dominating your narrative. Pro tip: combine both views to build separate outreach lists for editorial coverage and community reputation management.
The Question
“Which websites influence what AI says about my brand?”When an AI model answers a question about your brand, it draws on a set of sources — review sites, media outlets, forums, competitor blogs, or your own pages. The mix of those sources determines the narrative. A brand covered mainly by one satisfied blogger and one angry Reddit thread will read very differently from a brand covered by ten independent industry publications. Understanding which domains carry the most weight for AI citations lets you decide where to invest: earn coverage from high-influence sources, correct misinformation on damaging ones, or build relationships you are currently missing. You might also be wondering:
- “Is the information AI cites about my brand accurate and up to date?”
- “Are Reddit threads or forum posts influencing what AI says about me?”
- “Which of my own website pages are getting cited by AI models?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Visibility > Citation Sources
Navigate to Visibility > Citation Sources and switch to the Sources tab — your primary view for domain-level citation analysis.
Focus on the Domain ranking table, which lists every external domain that appeared in AI responses for your brand, ordered by total citation count.
Go deeper: Insights > Social Signals
Cross-reference with Insights > Social Signals to isolate community-driven sources like Reddit, Quora, or niche forums.
Use the Source type filter to separate editorial coverage from community content and see which category carries more weight.
Complete the picture: Looker Studio + MCP
Connect Looker Studio using the
source-domains data source for a live, shareable dashboard showing domain citation trends over time.
For programmatic access, call the MCP tool get_source_domains to pull the ranked domain list directly into your workflow or reporting stack.What to Look For
Citations > Sources — Domain Ranking Table
The domain ranking table is the central artifact for this question. Each row represents one source domain and shows how many times it was cited across all AI responses in the selected period.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Citation count | Raw frequency — how many AI responses included a link or reference to this domain |
| Citation share (%) | That domain’s fraction of all citations for your brand; high share means high influence |
| Trend arrow | Whether citations from this domain are rising, stable, or falling compared to the previous period |
| Domain type badge | Editorial, community, social, owned, or competitor — helps you prioritise action |
| Linked response count | How many individual AI answers reference this domain; a high count means broad reach, not just volume |
Social Signals — Community Source Breakdown
The Social Signals view adds a layer the Citations table does not: sentiment and narrative context for community sources. A domain can appear fifty times in citations without necessarily helping your brand if every mention is a complaint thread.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Community domain list | Reddit, Quora, Stack Exchange, niche forums — ranked separately from editorial sources |
| Sentiment per domain | Whether that community source skews positive, neutral, or negative about your brand |
| Top thread previews | The specific posts being cited, so you can read the actual content AI is drawing on |
Pro Tip: Combine Citations > Sources with Social Signals to build two separate priority lists — one for editorial outreach, one for community reputation management — rather than treating all citation sources identically.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider | Isolate a single AI model (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity) to see whether source influence differs by model; Perplexity cites differently than Claude |
| Period | Compare last 30 days vs. last 90 days to detect whether a domain’s influence is growing or fading |
| Topic / Tag | Narrow to a specific product line or use case to see which sources dominate that conversation specifically |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your owned domains (your blog, product pages, help center) appear in the top five citation sources, alongside two or three respected industry publications. Community sources have moderate citation share and trend neutral-to-positive in sentiment. No single external domain accounts for more than 30% of all citations — your narrative is distributed across credible, diverse sources.Needs attention
A single external domain — a review aggregator, a forum, or a competitor’s comparison page — accounts for more than 40% of all citations. Or your owned domains are absent from the top ten entirely, meaning AI models build their picture of your brand from third-party sources you do not control. A competitor’s domain appearing in your citation sources is a red flag worth investigating immediately.Example
Scenario: A B2B SaaS company notices that when ChatGPT answers questions about their pricing, it almost always cites a two-year-old article from a third-party comparison site that lists outdated pricing tiers.
- Open Visibility > Citation Sources > Sources and filter by Topic: Pricing. The comparison site appears at rank 1 with 62% citation share.
- Switch to Visibility > Responses and read several AI answers on pricing prompts — they consistently quote the outdated figures from that domain.
- Open Strategy > Backlinks and check whether that comparison site is a partner candidate. If not, prioritise getting your own pricing page to outrank it by improving its AI-citability (structured data, clear headings, authoritative external links pointing to it).
Go Further
Source influence dashboard
Build a source influence dashboard in Looker Studio using the source-domains data source to track domain authority
Query source domains via API
Use the source-domains endpoint to programmatically analyze which websites AI providers trust most in your category
How source tracking works
Read the Citation Sources documentation to understand how Qwairy identifies and ranks influential source domains
Related Questions
Are Reddit threads or forum posts influencing what AI says about my brand?
Drill into community sources specifically and read the actual threads being cited.
Which of my own website pages get the most AI citations?
Shift focus from external domains to your owned URLs and their individual citation performance.