> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.get3rd.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understanding citations

> Citations are the web pages AI models used to build an answer — your biggest clue for which content to write, promote, or reach out about next.

The **Citations** page shows which web pages AI references when answering your prompts. Understanding which sites build *your* authority — and which build a competitor's — is the most direct lever you have over AI visibility.

## What counts as a citation

A citation is a URL the model used as a source for its answer — whether or not your brand was named in the answer itself. Brand mentions and citations are independent: you can be mentioned without being cited, and cited without being mentioned.

## What the page shows

* **Top cited sources** — the domains and pages AI relies on most for your prompts, with per-source frequency
* **Owned vs. earned split** — how much of the citation pool you control directly
* **Which prompts each source influences** — so you can weigh a source's commercial importance

## Owned vs. Earned

Each citation is classified by who controls the page:

| Type       | Meaning                     | Your lever                                                      |
| ---------- | --------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Owned**  | Your website or a subdomain | Content — write and structure pages so AI can cite them         |
| **Earned** | A third-party site          | Outreach — get featured or corrected on pages AI already trusts |

This distinction drives your whole improvement strategy — it gets its own page: [Owned vs. Earned citations](/results/owned-vs-earned).

## How to use it

<Steps>
  <Step title="Find the sources that matter">
    Sort by frequency and filter to Must-Win prompts. The handful of sources cited again and again are the gatekeepers of your category.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check who they favor">
    Open the top earned sources. If they feature competitors and not you — that's an [Outreach](/drivers/authority-and-outreach) target with a known payoff.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Grow your owned share">
    If your own pages rarely appear, your content either doesn't exist for these prompts or isn't extractable. See [Content](/drivers/content) and [Crawlability](/drivers/crawlability).
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Related

* [Citation Share](/metrics/citation-share) — the metric built from this data
* [Authority & Outreach](/drivers/authority-and-outreach) — act on high-value earned sources