What it means
It is counted per answer, not per URL, so an engine that lists many sources cannot dominate: an answer citing five pages on the brand's site counts once. Only citations displayed with the answer count; pages an engine retrieved but did not show are not citations. Formula: eligible answers citing at least one page on the brand's own site ÷ eligible answers × 100.
Citation Share is one of RecoProof's three named metrics, with variants for the AI Recommendation Index, the paid audit and the free check, which shows it as a count out of five answers.
Why it matters
Citation Share shows whether the brand's own pages shape the answers in its category or whether engines rely on third parties to describe it. A low Citation Share next to a healthy Shortlist Share means others are making the case for you, which is worth knowing before you rewrite your site.
Example
Illustrative: on one engine, 8 of 40 eligible answers cite at least one page on the brand's domain, so Citation Share is 20%. An answer that cites only a review site's page about the brand does not count.
Common misunderstandings
- A citation is not a recommendation, so Citation Share does not show whether the brand was recommended.
- It does not mean the cited page is accurate or persuasive.
- It does not measure traffic or referrals from AI answers.
- It is a point-in-time measurement, not a guarantee of future citations or recommendations.