AI visibility
Find the pages AI cites that leave your client out
Citation gaps are pages the AI answers to your prompts cite that name a competitor and not your client. Each one is a page worth getting your client onto.
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The basics
Why cited pages matter in AI search
When an AI engine answers with web search, it reads pages and lists some of them as sources. Those pages shape the answer. A list of the best plumbers in a city, a review site's roundup or a forum thread can decide which businesses the engine names.
A citation gap is one of those source pages that names a competitor and never mentions your client. The engine read it while answering a question your client's buyers ask, and came away with the competitor's name and not your client's.
That makes gaps one of the most concrete tasks in AI search: specific pages on specific sites. A directory to be listed in, an editor to pitch before the next update of a roundup, a comparison that leaves your client out, a thread where an honest answer would help.
Getting onto a cited page doesn't guarantee the next answer names your client. Engines change their sources, and the same question can be answered differently from week to week. Gaps show you which pages are feeding the answers right now, which is where outreach sits closest to the result.
In RankTwice
How it works
- 01
Answers are saved with their sources
Each prompt is asked on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews every week. Every answer is saved with up to 20 of the sources it cites, in order.
- 02
Cited pages are read
In the background, RankTwice reads the pages cited for your active prompts over the past month, about once a month each. Your client's own pages are skipped, since they name it by definition.
- 03
Names are looked for on the page
The page's text is checked for the same names as AI answers are: the client's project name, the name in its domain and any other brand names you add, and each competitor's domain name. Case, spaces and punctuation are ignored.
- 04
Gaps are grouped by prompt
A page that names at least one competitor and not the client is a gap. Gaps are listed under the prompt they were cited for, most-cited first, with the competitors each page names.
Reading the screen
How to read it
- Names
- The competitors the page mentions. A page naming several rivals but not your client is often a list or a comparison: the kind of page where asking to be included is a normal request.
- Answers
- How many saved answers from the past month cited the page for that prompt. Pages cited again and again are the ones to work on first.
- Read so far
- Pages are read in the background. Until all of them are, the tab says how many cited pages it has read so far, and the list grows as the rest come in.
- None
- If every cited page that names a competitor also names your client, the tab says so. With no competitors in the project there's nothing to compare, and it asks you to add some.
- Ours: get featured
- A gap on one of our own magazines is listed first and marked, with a link to place the client there through Get featured.
Putting it to work
What to do with it
Agencies
Turn gaps into the month's outreach list: one page per row, the rival it names and how often AI cites it. Report the pages you got the client onto, then follow the client's results on those prompts in the weeks after.
Freelancers and consultants
Gaps make AI-search work easy to scope and price. Each one is a named page with a clear next step: get listed, pitch the editor, or correct the client's details on that site.
In-house teams
Hand gaps to PR and partnerships. A review site or industry roundup that keeps getting cited and names your competitors is a sharper brief than a list of domains picked for their authority alone.
Plans and limits
Compare plans- Included with AI visibility on every plan, for every prompt you track: 5 on Free, 50 on Freelancer, 150 on Agency and 300 on Agency Pro.
- Up to 20 sources kept per answer.
- Up to 5 competitors per project; gaps need at least one.
- Reading cited pages uses no research lookups.
FAQ ( 6 )
Questions about citation gaps
How citation gaps works in RankTwice, and what each plan includes.
What counts as a citation gap?
A page that an AI answer listed as a source for one of your prompts in the past month, whose text names at least one of your competitors and doesn't name your client.
How do you know a page names a brand?
We read the page's text and look for the same names we look for in AI answers: the client's project name, the name in its domain and any other brand names you add, and each competitor's domain name. Case, spaces and punctuation are ignored, but a name inside a longer word doesn't count.
Why isn't a page I expected on the list?
A page shows only when we could load it and its text names a competitor. Pages that block our reader, need JavaScript to show their text, or aren't web pages, such as PDFs, can't be checked. A competitor whose brand name differs from its domain name may also be missed.
How often is the list updated?
Pages cited in the past month are read about once a month each. A page that adds your client leaves the list after its next read, and a page no longer cited drops off after a month.
Does reading cited pages use lookups?
No. Cited pages are read without touching your research allowance.
Will closing a gap get my client into the answer?
Not with certainty. Engines change their sources and their answers from week to week. A gap tells you which pages are feeding the answers now, which makes it a good place to start.
Related
- AI visibilityShare of voiceEvery week, your prompts go to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Share of voice shows how the mentions split between your client and up to 5 competitors.
- Competitor analysisKeyword gapCompare a client's site with up to 4 competitors and see the keywords they rank for on Google that the client doesn't, the ones they share listed first.
- FeatureAI readinessCan AI engines reach and read a site?
Get started
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