Glossary
Citation Readiness
A score for how likely a page is to be cited by AI engines for a target prompt, based on answer completeness, entity and statistic coverage, schema, internal linking, and source support.
Definition
Citation readiness turns the question "is this page good enough to get cited?" into a measurable checklist. Rather than a generic content-quality grade, it scores a draft or page against what AI engines reward for a specific prompt: whether it answers the question directly and completely, whether it names the entities and cites the statistics the winning pages carry, whether its schema is valid, whether it links sensibly to and from related pages, and whether every claim is backed by a real source. A high score means the page is built to be retrieved and quoted. A low score comes with the specific blockers holding it back and the improvements that would lift it.
Example
A draft answering "best CRM for startups" scores low on citation readiness because it lacks a comparison table and three of the statistics every cited competitor page includes. The readiness report names both as blockers before the page is published.
Related terms
Citation
A specific URL or source that an AI engine links to when supporting a claim in its answer.
Citation Gap
The difference between the content AI engines cite for a question and the content your own site offers: the specific, missing pieces that keep you out of the answer.
On-Page Optimization (for AI Search)
Editing an individual page (its structure, schema, and content) so AI engines cite it, based on the pages they already cite for a given prompt.
Schema Markup
Structured data added to your pages (in JSON-LD format) that tells search engines and LLMs exactly what your content is about.
Prompt-to-Page
Deciding what page should exist to win a specific AI prompt (a new article, an update to an existing page, a comparison, an FAQ block, or nothing) before any content is written.
Want to see this in your own data?
Track your brand's visibility across every major AI engine: start free, no credit card.
Start Free