Citations are GEO’s currency. Inline footnotes on Perplexity, hover-cards on Google AI Overviews, and source lists on ChatGPT browsing mode are all citation surfaces. Every citation is the model telling the user where the information came from; every citation that lands on your domain is a high-quality piece of organic discovery.
GEO glossary
Citation
A citation is an explicit, linked reference inside an AI-generated answer pointing to a specific source URL, distinct from an unlinked brand mention.