aeo-citation-drill-down
Use when citation data needs to become a content strategy. Produces a ranked list of the domains, pages, and content patterns that drive AI answers in the category — and where the brand can plausibly earn a mention. Work top-down; never stop at the domain level.
Level 1 — domains
Pull the domains that co-occur with the brand in AI answers, with citation counts and type (review site, competitor, news, community). This gives the shape: "a review platform appeared in 38 citations across answers mentioning the brand last week" tells you which kind of property owns the category's answers.
Level 2 — URLs
Drill into each heavyweight domain for the specific pages driving its citations. Concentration is the finding: one competitor comparison post out-citing every other page on its domain 14-to-1 means that single page — not the domain — owns the answer. Capture the scan identifiers for level 3.
Level 3 — full answers
Open the complete AI responses behind the key citations: answer text, engine, brand sentiment, and how the citation is actually used. This is where you learn whether a cited page is quoted for its comparison table, its pricing, or its one-line verdict — which dictates what a competing page must contain.
Turn it into strategy
- competitor intelligence — heavily-cited competitor content reveals the structure AI engines prefer; reverse-engineer the format, not just the topic
- content targets — high-citation third-party properties (review sites, community threads) are where presence is earned; rank them by citation count × plausibility of getting the brand added
- reputation watch — new domains entering the citation mix signal category coverage shifting before any score moves