Concepts
Mention
A mention is a brand's name appearing in the text of an AI answer. It is the unit Zebora counts: whether the assistant said your name when a buyer asked a question in your category. A mention is not the same as a citation, and the two diverge sharply between engines.
Mention or citation
A citation is an attributed source link. An engine can mention your brand without citing you at all, because the model already knows the name, and it can cite your site without naming you in the sentence a buyer reads. Tools that track only citations are effectively blind on engines that answer from memory.
Why we lead with mentions
Buyers read the answer, not the footnotes. Being named in the sentence is what shapes a shortlist; the citation is one of the levers you have to influence it. Both are worth measuring, which is why we report them separately rather than folding one into the other.
Named without a link, linked without a name
An assistant recommends a brand by name and cites nothing, because the model already knows it. The same week, another answer cites that brand's pricing page as a source while the visible text names only a competitor. The first is a mention with no citation; the second is a citation with no mention. A tool that tracks only one of them reports half the story.
Related terms
- Citation — The other half of the pair. An engine can do either without the other.
- AI visibility — The score built from counting these across a prompt set.
- Recommendation — The stronger outcome: named, and then endorsed.
Last reviewed . Definitions are reviewed quarterly, and whenever the underlying measurement changes.
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