What does a good citation rate look like?

A retrieval means your page entered the candidate set. A citation means it was actually used in the answer. Citation rate connects the two — and healthy targets differ wildly by model.

Platform benchmarks

• ChatGPT: generous — treat 2.0+ as a strong bar; top URLs soak up disproportionate citations
• Google AI Mode: conservative — most URLs sit below 1.0; 1.1–1.5 is a solid aim
• Perplexity: polarized — many URLs never cited in-answer; 1.5–2.0 means you're in the favored set

Intent and content type

Informational and commercial intents concentrate citations on fewer URLs. Listicles punch above their weight on ChatGPT; AI Mode favors official product/category pages more evenly.

How to use this

Benchmark by platform inside Anny. Don't average ChatGPT generosity with Perplexity stinginess into one meaningless KPI.