AI cites its sources. Are they real?
For every URL an answer engine cited in answers about your space, RankSage checks whether the page still resolves and whether it actually mentions the brand the answer attached it to — and records a verdict per source.
The problem
An answer that cites five sources looks rigorous. If one link is dead and another never mentions you, the answer is resting on less than it appears to — and every citation count built on it is inflated.
Citation Integrity on one screen.
What you see in RankSage.
Per-source verdicts, as they appear in the product.
Address resolves to the operator's published records
Claimed GPTBot, resolved to an unrelated host
Operator publishes no records to check against
Unverifiable is its own bucket on purpose. It is never counted as a confirmed visit, and never dropped either.
What it measures, and what comes out.
Outcome and evidence at each step, never the recipe. Every number here can be traced to something stored.
- 01
It rides work already being done
Cited pages are already fetched to measure how much each one shaped the answer. Integrity checking reads those same fetches, so verifying every citation adds nothing to what the measurement costs.
- 02
Four verdicts, kept apart
Verified — the page resolves and mentions the brand. Cited without a mention — it resolves but never names you. Dead — the page provably no longer exists. Unverifiable — it could not be read. Each means something different, so they are never summed together.
- 03
Dead means proven dead
A source is only called dead when the failure is provable — the page or its domain is demonstrably gone. A site that blocks automated readers is recorded as unverifiable, never accused of anything.
- 04
Patterns per engine
Over time you can see which engines cite carefully and which cite loosely in your space — and which cited pages mention competitors but not you, which is a placement list in disguise.
What it does not do.
Disqualifying fast is part of the product. These are the edges, written down.
Pages that refuse automated readers cannot be verified. They are reported as unverifiable — an honest unknown, not a quiet pass or a quiet fail.
A verdict describes the source at the time it was checked. Pages change; the check records when it ran.
It verifies that a source resolves and mentions the brand. It does not judge whether what the page says is true.
The capabilities it joins.
Read the longer version.
Questions about Citation Integrity, answered.
What it measures, what it needs, and where its edges are.
Sometimes, yes — links rot, and engines sometimes attach a source to a brand the page never mentions. Citation Integrity checks every cited URL from your stored runs and records a per-source verdict, so your citation numbers count what can actually be confirmed.
The page could not be read — often because the site blocks automated readers. RankSage reports that as an unknown rather than counting it as dead or as verified, because accusing a page it could not read would be a fabrication.
Two reasons. Your own visibility numbers should be built on citations that hold up. And the cited-but-no-mention bucket is an opportunity list: pages engines already trust in your space where your brand simply is not present yet.
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