An AI citation is a visible source link or attribution attached to an answer. A business can be mentioned without its own page being cited, and a cited page may support only one claim in the response, so the linked source should be opened and checked.
Answer formats vary by product and prompt. Some responses include several sources, some include none, and the same question may produce a different set later. A citation is evidence about one response, not a permanent position.
Clear, accurate pages and consistent public information can make a source easier to retrieve and evaluate. No source format, domain age, or optimization tactic guarantees selection.
If Perplexity answers a local question with numbered source links, each link is a citation for that response. Save the prompt, date, answer, and linked URLs before drawing a conclusion.
Go deeper: How to Get Your Business Cited by AI Search (2026).
This is part of the AI visibility work.