> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.videntic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Citation Position
> How early and prominently your brand appears in LLM responses that cite you.
**Citation Position** measures the quality of the citations you do earn. Being mentioned first in an LLM's answer is very different from being mentioned fifth — users tend to skim, and the first brand frames the entire response.
## Overview
For every response that cites you, Videntic records where in the answer you appeared — first mention, second, third, and so on — and averages those positions over time. Lower is better: an average position of **1.0** means you're consistently the first brand named.
Citation Position only includes responses where you were cited. If your AI Visibility is 20%, Citation Position is computed over that 20% — not over every run.
## How Citation Position is calculated
```
Citation Position = average(position of first mention) across all responses where you were cited
```
For each qualifying response, Videntic finds where your brand appears in the cited sources or the narrative, records its ordinal position (1 = first, 2 = second, etc.), and averages the values per run.
Like the other metrics, it's computed per model and overall. A strong overall score with a weak per-model score on Perplexity often means Perplexity is surfacing a competitor ahead of you — a targeted problem to solve.
## How to read the number
Roughly:
* **1.0–1.5** — You're consistently the first or second citation. Category leader behaviour.
* **1.5–2.5** — You're in the top tier but often sharing the answer. Normal for competitive categories.
* **2.5+** — You're regularly cited but buried. Work on authority and structured data.
Users read answers top-down and rarely click every source. A meaningful share of real-world intent goes to whichever brand is named first.
## Why Citation Position matters
### Conversion lens: attention hierarchy
The first brand mentioned gets the most narrative weight, the most perceived authority, and — where the LLM surfaces clickable sources — the most clicks. Position 1 and position 5 are not equivalent citations.
### Competitive lens: share within share
You can have healthy AI Visibility and healthy Share of Voice and still lose the category narratively because a competitor is always cited *first*. Citation Position surfaces that.
### Content lens: canonical authority
When your domain is cited *first*, it tells you the LLM treats you as the canonical source for that query. That's the GEO equivalent of owning a keyword — and it's defensible.
## How to improve it
Citation Position tracks authority signals more than coverage. Improving it is slower than fixing AI Visibility but pays off longer.
1. **Invest in GEO‑16 Authority & Trust**. About, Team, Policies, citations of your own work — these are the pillars LLMs weight when deciding who's the primary source.
2. **Ship structured data**. Well-marked articles, products, and FAQs make you easier to quote cleanly, which models prefer.
3. **Earn real references**. Being cited by high-authority external pages (docs, research, reputable press) still matters — LLMs learned from the web, and that hierarchy carried over.
4. **Be the definitive answer, not a footnote**. Publish full explanations on canonical pages, not scattered across short posts. Depth wins position.
Position gains lag content changes by one or two analysis cycles, because LLMs need to re-encounter updated pages before citations shift.
## Related metrics
Whether you're cited. Position is the quality layer on top.
Your slice of citations versus competitors.
The on-site authority signals that drive Citation Position.
See which competitors tend to be cited ahead of you, per model.