Sources: Used, Linked, and Avg. links per answer
The counts we keep for every domain an engine retrieves alongside its answers.
What it measures
Sources are the web pages engines retrieve and return alongside their answers. For every domain we track two different counts.
Used counts how many times the domain appeared among an answer's sources: the engine retrieved it while researching, whether or not the answer went on to link it. Linked counts how many times answers explicitly linked it, in the source chips and footnotes shown on the answer itself.
Avg. links per answer is the average number of explicit links a domain earns per grounded answer, and it can exceed 1.0 when answers link the same domain repeatedly.
How it's calculated
- What counts as one
- Used: every appearance of a domain among an answer's sources. Linked: every explicit link to it in the answer's own chips and footnotes.
- Divided by
- Avg. links per answer divides a domain's explicit links by the grounded answers it appeared in, so it can exceed 1.0.
- Direction
- Higher means more influential, not better. A domain the engines use often is one they lean on, so a mention of you there would carry further than one on a domain they rarely touch.
How to read it
Used measures retrieval; Linked measures explicit credit, which is the stronger trust signal.
Most of the domains here are not yours, and a high count on one of them is not a problem to fix. It tells you where the engines already go looking, and therefore where being mentioned would do you the most good.
Sources whose domains match a brand you track are labeled as yours or that competitor's.