Being cited and being recommended are different outcomes. A citation puts your URL in an AI answer's source list; a recommendation puts your brand name in the sentence the buyer acts on. Semrush's June 2026 ghost-citations study found 61.7% of domain appearances were citations where the brand was never named in the answer. Track link-citation share and brand-mention share in separate columns, beca
What this covers
- The two outcomes, defined precisely
- Why the gap exists
- The economics are not equivalent
- Five metrics, and what each one is honestly worth
- Why tracking tools conflate them
This is a technical summary. The full guide — with the tables and worked examples — is on our site: *Cited vs Recommended: The Two AI-Visibility Metrics Teams Keep Confusing*.
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