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In the Search Visibility module you already see domains and URLs ranked, along with brand mentions. You also see sources and citations appear. Both look like URLs or domains — what’s the difference, and why does it matter for activation?

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Cited URL vs. Ranked URL

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Examples

Prompt: “What are the best running shoes for trail?” In ChatGPT you may see the answer cite several sources behind the scenes — URLs whose content was used to build the answer — alongside some ranked domains as links.
ChatGPT example

ChatGPT — sources accessible from the interface

Sources are not always accessible from the user interface. In Gemini, for the same prompt, neither the sources nor any ranked domain appears in the visible answer.
Gemini example

Gemini — same prompt, no visible sources or links

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Important notes

  • The model always uses sources (cited URLs) to build its answer.
  • Not all sources are displayed as ranked URLs, and not all ranked URLs are used as sources.
  • Whether sources are accessible depends on the model, prompt and collect.
  • There are typically more sources feeding the answer than URLs shown in the final response.
  • Sources may or may not mention brands.

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Why we distinguish the two

The distinction matters for activation and strategy — each type plays a different role in your visibility ecosystem.

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To recap

  • Cited URLs = “Sources” in the Search module = what the LLM reads.
  • Ranked URLs = “Links” in the Search module = what the user sees.
  • Both matter — they activate different levers: influence vs. visibility.

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What’s next

Sources & Links view

Explore sources and links in the platform.

Query Fan-out Explained

The internal layer that produces sources and links.