Read citations coverage
Which sources do AI engines cite when they answer about me?
When an assistant answers a question about your category, it reads sources first. Open AEO, choose a location and select the Citations tab to see which ones. The tab splits what the engines cited into recognised directories, everything else, and the well-known directories that never appeared. The last group has a Fix in Listings button that opens Listings with those directories already filtered.
Key facts
| Where it lives | AEO → Citations, for one location |
| The three tiles | Directories citing you, Other sources detected, Key directories missing |
| Directories it watches | A fixed list of eleven: Google Business, Yelp, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Bing Places, Apple Maps, BBB, Foursquare, Instagram, MapQuest and Yellow Pages |
| Per-engine lists | Up to 12 sources for each of ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, each marked Directory or Detected |
| Fix button | Fix in Listings → opens Listings → Published for the same client and location |
| Where the numbers come from | The location's latest AEO report, so they change when the report is updated |
Why this matters
Being listed is not the same as being cited. Listings tells you whether a directory has your profile. Citations tells you whether an answer engine reached for that directory when it described your category. The two together show you which listings are worth finishing first.
Steps
Open AEO from Marketing, choose the client and location, and select Citations.
Read the three tiles and the bar above them. In the example,
4,12and7add up to the Sources cited card on Overview, which shows23.Read Missing — get listed here. These are the well-known directories none of the engines cited for this location.
Scan each engine's list. Directory marks a source that matches the eleven known directories, and Detected marks anything else, such as local press, review sites and competitors' own websites.
Select Fix in Listings → to open the directories you are missing (see below).
The three tiles
Directories citing you
- Count here
- 4
- What it is
- sources the engines cited that match one of the eleven known directories
- What to do
- confirm your information on these directories is complete and accurate
Other sources detected
- Count here
- 12
- What it is
- everything else the engines cited, such as local press, review sites and rival practices' own sites
- What to do
- read them for what earns a mention in your category
Key directories missing
- Count here
- 7
- What it is
- known directories that no engine cited as a source for this location
- What to do
- check whether you are listed there, starting with the ones your customers use
The tile called Directories citing you counts directory-type sources the engines cited while answering. It does not prove that the directory holds your listing, and the match is by name, so any cited source with, for example, "google" in its name counts as Google Business.
Those three numbers add up to the Sources cited card on Overview. That card is a coverage total, not a literal count of cited sources: the sources the engines cited plus one slot for each missing directory. To get the number of distinct sources that appeared, add only the first two tiles (16 in the example). The figures here come from one example report; your own totals change with each report and each engine.
The missing list is the actionable part
Under Missing — get listed here the page names the directories outright instead of making you infer them. In this example: Google Business, Bing Places, Apple Maps, BBB, Foursquare, MapQuest and Yellow Pages.
A directory in that list does not mean the profile is broken, or even missing. It means that across these particular answers no engine cited it as a source. Different categories get read differently, and a directory that matters a great deal for a restaurant may never surface for a dental practice.
What Fix in Listings does
Fix in Listings → opens Listings → Published for the same client and location, with the missing directories already applied as a filter. A banner above the table reads Directories absent from AI citations and names them, and Clear removes the filter. The table then shows only the matching publishers.
Two things to expect. The table shows the directories Synup manages for the location, so a directory with no row, such as BBB here, will not appear even though the banner names it. And a directory can show Synced in Published while still being missing from the citations list: the listing exists, the engines just did not use it in these answers. Use Published to check each directory's status, and use the Listings overview to fix the ones that need work.
Read the per-engine columns for where to publish
Below the tiles, each engine lists the sources it cited, up to twelve. Compare the three lists: sources that appear for every engine are the ones to take most seriously, and a source that only one engine uses tells you where that engine is looking.
Treat the lists as evidence from this report, not as a rule about how the engines behave. Compare them again after the next update before turning a pattern into a content plan.
A high coverage total is not visibility
A location can show a large Sources cited figure and still have low AI visibility. The engines can cite many sources while answering category questions without naming the business, and the total also includes the missing-directory slots.
Use the visibility score and prompt coverage to learn whether the business appeared. Use Citations to learn which sources shaped the answers. One number cannot stand in for the other.
What you'll see when it's done
- The three tiles and the missing list for the location's latest report
- A list of sources for each engine, marked Directory or Detected
- From Fix in Listings, the Published table filtered to the directories you are missing, with a banner you can clear
Watch out for
- Counts are example-bound. Do not compare your totals with a screenshot. Compare your own location from one report to the next.
- A name match is not a listing check. A source counts as a directory because of its name. Confirm the listing itself in Listings.
- The missing list uses a fixed set of eleven. A directory outside the list can be important to you and still never appear here.
- The numbers change only when the report does. Fixing a listing does not change them until the next update.
Questions people ask
Getting listed didn't change my citations. Why?
Citations come from the latest AEO report, so they change only when the report updates, on the location's schedule (Monthly unless you changed it) or when you refresh it by hand. Being listed is also not the same as being cited: the engine has to choose your listing as a source. On the next report, first check whether the directory left the missing list. It appears in the engine columns only if an engine actually cited it. How AEO reports are made explains the schedule and Refresh….
Why is a competitor's own website in my citations?
Because an engine cited it while answering your question. Rival sites appearing as sources is normal, and it tells you what the assistant considered authoritative enough to quote.
Why does Fix in Listings show fewer directories than the missing list?
Published shows only directories Synup manages for the location. A directory in the missing list without a row there, like BBB in the example, has nothing to filter to.
Where to go next
- What should I fix first? — where the missing-directories count becomes a ranked action
- How do I update a location's listings? — the tool the Fix in Listings button opens