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Citation Tracking & Change Detection

Monitor citation patterns over time, detect when rankings change, and understand what causes citation fluctuations.

Overview​

Citation Tracking helps you:

  • Track citation snapshots over time
  • Detect changes when domains enter or exit citations
  • Monitor volatility to identify unstable rankings
  • Receive alerts when important changes occur
  • Attribute changes to content updates or competitor actions

Accessing Citation Tracking​

Navigate to Citation Tracking:

Dashboard → Analytics → Citations
URL: /dashboard/analytics/citations

Citation Snapshots​

What are Snapshots?​

Citation Snapshots capture the complete citation state at a specific point in time.

Snapshot Contains:

  • Query text
  • LLM provider used
  • Full list of cited domains
  • Citation positions (1-5, 6-10, etc.)
  • Snapshot timestamp
  • Unique hash for comparison

Automatic Capture:

  • Every query execution creates a snapshot
  • Weekly automatic snapshots for active queries
  • On-demand snapshots for tracking

Viewing Snapshots​

Snapshot History:

Query: "best seo tools for small business"
Provider: Claude

Oct 9, 2025 10:00 AM - Snapshot #5
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. ahrefs.com
2. semrush.com
3. moz.com
4. hubspot.com
5. neil patel.com

Oct 2, 2025 10:00 AM - Snapshot #4
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. semrush.com       ⬆️ +1
2. ahrefs.com        ⬇️ -1
3. moz.com           —
4. hubspot.com       —
5. neilpatel.com     —

Change Indicators:

  • ⬆️ Position improved (moved up)
  • ⬇️ Position declined (moved down)
  • ➕ New entry (domain added)
  • ➖ Dropped out (domain removed)
  • — No change

Snapshot Comparison​

Compare Two Snapshots:

  1. Select baseline snapshot (older)
  2. Select comparison snapshot (newer)
  3. View side-by-side comparison

Comparison View:

Baseline (Oct 2)         →  Current (Oct 9)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. semrush.com               1. ahrefs.com       ⬆️
2. ahrefs.com                2. semrush.com      ⬇️
3. moz.com                   3. moz.com          —
4. hubspot.com               4. hubspot.com      —
5. neilpatel.com             5. neilpatel.com    —
                             6. searchenginejournal.com ➕

Key Insights:

  • Which domains gained positions
  • Which domains lost positions
  • New entrants to citations
  • Domains that dropped out

Citation Change Detection​

Change Types​

Position Changes:

  • Rank Up: Domain moved to better position (e.g., #3 → #1)
  • Rank Down: Domain moved to worse position (e.g., #2 → #4)
  • No Change: Domain stayed in same position

Presence Changes:

  • Gained Citation: Domain now cited (was not before)
  • Lost Citation: Domain no longer cited (was before)

Example Changes:

Change Type: Gained Citation
Domain: example.com
Query: "best project management software"
Date: Oct 9, 2025
Position: #3
Previous: Not cited

Change Type: Rank Up
Domain: example.com
Query: "project management tools comparison"
Date: Oct 8, 2025
Old Position: #5
New Position: #2
Change: +3 positions

Change Timeline​

Visual Timeline:

Citation History for example.com

Oct 9  ●─────────────────  Position #1  ⬆️ Gained 2 spots
       │
Oct 7  ●─────────────────  Position #3  — Stable
       │
Oct 5  ●─────────────────  Position #3  ➕ New entry
       │
Oct 3  ○─────────────────  Not cited

Timeline Features:

  • Scroll through historical changes
  • Filter by change type
  • Zoom to date ranges
  • Export as CSV

Change Detection Triggers​

Automatic Detection:

  • Runs after each query execution
  • Compares to previous snapshot
  • Records all detected changes
  • Triggers alerts (if configured)

Manual Detection:

  1. Navigate to Analytics → Citations
  2. Select query
  3. Click "Detect Changes"
  4. View comparison report

Citation Volatility​

Volatility Score​

What is Volatility? Measure of how stable citation rankings are over time.

Formula:

volatility = (number_of_changes / total_snapshots) × 100

Score Ranges:

  • Low (0-20%): Stable rankings, predictable citations
  • Medium (20-40%): Normal fluctuation, moderate changes
  • High (40-60%): Frequent changes, competitive query
  • Very High (60%+): Unstable, rapidly changing results

Volatility by Query​

Example Display:

Query Volatility Analysis

Query: "best seo tools"
Volatility: 15% (Low) ✅
Changes: 3 in 20 snapshots
Status: Stable rankings

Query: "top cms platforms 2025"
Volatility: 65% (Very High) ⚠️
Changes: 13 in 20 snapshots
Status: Highly volatile

Interpretation:

Low Volatility (Good):

  • Citations are stable
  • Content is authoritative
  • Less competitive query
  • Reliable traffic potential

High Volatility (Concerning):

  • Rankings fluctuate frequently
  • Competitive landscape
  • Content may be outdated
  • Requires frequent updates

Volatility Factors​

What Causes High Volatility?

  1. Query Ambiguity

    • Query has multiple interpretations
    • Different LLMs understand differently
    • Solution: Create more specific queries

  2. Content Freshness

    • Time-sensitive queries ("2025 best...")
    • Rapidly evolving topics
    • Solution: Update content regularly

  3. Competitive Intensity

    • Many authoritative sources
    • Active competitor content creation
    • Solution: Differentiate, improve quality

  4. Seasonal Trends

    • Holiday-related queries
    • Industry cycles
    • Solution: Prepare seasonal content

Volatility Alerts​

Configure Alerts:

  1. Set volatility threshold (e.g., >40%)
  2. Choose alert delivery (email, dashboard)
  3. Select queries to monitor
  4. Receive notifications when threshold exceeded

Alert Example:

⚠️ High Volatility Detected

Query: "best running shoes 2025"
Volatility: 55% (up from 30% last week)
Action Needed: Review competitors, refresh content

View Details →

Change Attribution​

What Caused the Change?​

Automatic Attribution Factors:

  1. Your Content Updates

    • Detect when you published/updated content
    • Correlate with citation changes
    • Show time lag (update → citation change)

  2. Competitor Activity

    • Track competitor content updates
    • Identify when competitor gained position
    • Alert on competitive threats

  3. Query Pattern Changes

    • Detect trending query variations
    • Identify seasonal patterns
    • Show historical trends

  4. LLM Model Updates

    • Track when LLM providers update models
    • Correlate with citation behavior changes
    • Adjust strategy accordingly

Attribution Dashboard​

View Attribution:

Change Attribution Report

Domain: example.com
Query: "seo tools comparison"
Change: Lost citation (was #3, now not cited)
Date: Oct 8, 2025

Potential Causes:
1. Competitor Update (High Confidence)
   - ahrefs.com published new comparison guide
   - Published: Oct 6, 2025
   - Impact: +3 positions for ahrefs.com

2. Content Staleness (Medium Confidence)
   - Your content last updated: June 15, 2025
   - Age: 116 days
   - Recommendation: Refresh statistics and examples

3. Query Trending (Low Confidence)
   - Query volume increased 45% this week
   - More competition for citations

Confidence Levels:

  • High: Strong correlation (80%+ confidence)
  • Medium: Likely cause (50-80%)
  • Low: Possible factor (20-50%)

Citation Alerts​

Alert Types​

Citation Gained:

  • Your domain gained a citation
  • Moved up in rankings
  • Notification: Real-time

Citation Lost:

  • Your domain lost a citation
  • Dropped from results
  • Notification: Immediate

Competitor Activity:

  • Competitor gained position
  • New competitor entered top 5
  • Notification: Daily digest

Volatility Spike:

  • Query volatility exceeded threshold
  • Unusual ranking changes
  • Notification: Weekly summary

Configuring Alerts​

Step 1: Alert Settings

  1. Navigate to Settings → Alerts
  2. Click "New Citation Alert"

Step 2: Configure Trigger

  • Domain: Your domain to monitor
  • Queries: Specific queries or all
  • Change Type: Gained, lost, rank change
  • Threshold: Position change magnitude

Step 3: Delivery Method

  • ✅ Email (configured via Settings → Email)
  • ⚠️ Slack (coming soon)
  • ⚠️ Webhook (coming soon)
  • ✅ In-App Dashboard Notification

Example Alert Configuration:

Alert Name: "Track example.com top rankings"
Domain: example.com
Trigger: Lost citation OR rank down >2 positions
Queries: All queries with current citations
Frequency: Immediate
Delivery: Email + Dashboard

Alert Digest​

Daily Digest Email:

Subject: Citation Changes - Oct 9, 2025

Good morning! Here's your daily citation summary:

⬆️ Gained (3)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• "seo audit tools" - Position #4 (new)
• "content optimization" - Position #2 (↑ from #5)
• "keyword research tools" - Position #3 (new)

⬇️ Lost (1)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• "backlink analysis" - Dropped from #3

🔄 Position Changes (2)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• "technical seo guide" - #2 → #1 (↑)
• "seo checklist" - #4 → #6 (↓)

View Full Report →

Citation Freshness​

What is Freshness?​

Citation Freshness: How recently a citation appeared

Freshness Indicators:

  • Fresh (less than 7 days): Recently cited
  • Current (7-30 days): Actively cited
  • Aging (30-90 days): Becoming stale
  • Stale (90+ days): Needs verification

Freshness Dashboard​

View Freshness:

Citation Freshness Report

example.com citations by age:

Fresh (less than 7 days):        42 citations (35%)  ████████
Current (7-30 days):              56 citations (47%)  ██████████
Aging (30-90 days):               18 citations (15%)  ███
Stale (90+ days):                  4 citations (3%)   █

Action: Refresh stale queries (4 total)

Freshness Actions:

  • Fresh/Current: Continue monitoring
  • Aging: Plan content refresh
  • Stale: Re-execute queries to verify

Freshness Alerts​

Alert Trigger: Citation becomes stale (90+ days)

Alert Content:

⏰ Stale Citation Alert

Query: "seo best practices"
Domain: example.com
Last Cited: June 15, 2025 (120 days ago)
Action: Re-run query to verify citation status

[Re-execute Query] [View History]

Historical Trend Analysis​

Trend Chart:

Citation Count for example.com

Citations
    ↑
 25 │                     ●───●
    │                 ●───●
 20 │             ●───●
    │         ●───●
 15 │     ●───●
    │ ●───●
 10 │
    └─────────────────────────────→ Time
      Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec  Jan  Feb

Trend Indicators:

  • 📈 Trending Up: +20% growth
  • 📊 Stable: ±10% variance
  • 📉 Trending Down: -10% to -20%
  • ⚠️ Decaying: -20%+ decline

Trend Analysis Insights​

Example Insights:

Trend Analysis: example.com

Period: Last 90 days
Trend: 📈 Trending Up (+32%)

Key Findings:
1. Strong growth in October (+45%)
   - Likely due to new content published Oct 1
   - Gained citations in "project management" topic

2. Seasonal pattern detected
   - Higher citations Q4 vs Q3
   - Align content calendar with trend

3. Competitive positioning improving
   - Market share: 8.2% (up from 6.1%)
   - Outpacing competitors by 15%

Recommendations:
→ Continue current content strategy
→ Accelerate publishing in November (peak season)
→ Target 30 citations by end of year

Competitive Citation Tracking​

Track Competitor Citations​

Add Competitors:

  1. Navigate to Analytics → Competitive
  2. Click "Add Competitor"
  3. Enter competitor domain
  4. Assign label and color

Competitor Dashboard:

Competitive Citation Tracking

Your Domain: example.com (35 citations)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Competitor Performance:
1. competitor-a.com    48 citations (+12)  ⚠️
2. competitor-b.com    42 citations (+5)
3. competitor-c.com    31 citations (-3)
4. Your domain         35 citations (+8)   ✅

Competitive Alerts:
⚠️ competitor-a.com gained 12 citations this week
✅ You gained 3 positions vs competitor-c.com

Win/Loss Analysis​

Citation Wins:

Queries Where You Outrank Competitors

Query: "project management best practices"
Your Position: #2
Competitors:
  - competitor-a.com: #5
  - competitor-b.com: Not cited
Win: You rank higher ✅

Citation Losses:

Queries Where Competitors Outrank You

Query: "agile project management tools"
Your Position: Not cited
Competitors:
  - competitor-a.com: #1  ⚠️
  - competitor-b.com: #3  ⚠️
Loss: Content gap opportunity

Use Cases & Workflows​

Weekly Citation Review​

Monday Morning Routine:

  1. Check citation changes from last week
  2. Review volatility alerts
  3. Investigate any major position changes
  4. Plan content updates for declining queries
  5. Execute re-checks for stale citations

Time: 15-20 minutes Goal: Stay on top of citation health

Content Refresh Trigger​

When Citations Decline:

  1. Detect citation loss or rank decline
  2. Review change attribution (what caused it?)
  3. Analyze competitor content
  4. Update your content
  5. Re-execute query after 7 days
  6. Monitor for position recovery

Success Metric: Citation restored within 30 days

Competitive Monitoring​

Track Top 3 Competitors:

  1. Add competitors to tracking
  2. Weekly comparison report
  3. Alert on competitor gains
  4. Analyze their citation patterns
  5. Create competitive content

Goal: Maintain or improve market share

Best Practices​

Citation Tracking Cadence​

Daily:

  • High-value queries
  • Competitive queries
  • Campaign-specific tracking

Weekly:

  • General monitoring
  • Most queries
  • Trend analysis

Monthly:

  • Deep-dive analysis
  • Strategy adjustment
  • Historical comparison

Volatility Management​

Low Volatility Queries:

  • Monitor quarterly
  • Maintain content quality
  • Avoid over-optimization

High Volatility Queries:

  • Monitor weekly
  • Frequent content updates
  • Competitive analysis

Alert Strategy​

Alert Prioritization:

  1. Critical: Lost citations on high-value queries
  2. High: Rank declines >3 positions
  3. Medium: Competitor activity
  4. Low: Volatility spikes

Alert Fatigue Prevention:

  • Set appropriate thresholds
  • Use daily digests for low-priority
  • Turn off alerts for experimental queries

Advanced Features​

Citation Prediction (Coming Soon)​

Predictive Analytics:

  • Forecast future citation trends
  • Predict ranking changes
  • Seasonal adjustment
  • Confidence intervals

Use Case: Plan content calendar based on predictions

Multi-Query Patterns (Coming Soon)​

Pattern Detection:

  • Identify citation patterns across queries
  • Topic-level volatility
  • Domain authority trends

Use Case: Understand broader content strategy impact

Troubleshooting​

No Snapshots Available​

Problem: Citation tracking shows no data

Solutions:

  1. Execute queries to create snapshots
  2. Wait for automatic weekly snapshots
  3. Manually trigger snapshot capture
  4. Check database connection

Changes Not Detected​

Problem: Changes occurred but not showing

Solutions:

  1. Verify snapshots exist (baseline + current)
  2. Check snapshot hash differs
  3. Manually trigger change detection
  4. Review snapshot comparison logic

Alerts Not Received​

Problem: Configured alerts not delivered

Solutions:

  1. Check alert configuration (enabled?)
  2. Verify email delivery setup (Settings → Email)
  3. Check spam/junk folder
  4. Review alert thresholds (too strict?)
  5. View in-app notifications instead

FAQs​

Q: How often are snapshots created? A: Automatically on every query execution + weekly for active queries.

Q: How far back does citation history go? A: Indefinitely. All snapshots are preserved.

Q: Can I compare snapshots across different providers? A: Not directly. Snapshots are per query + provider combination.

Q: What's a good volatility score? A: Less than 20% is stable, 20-40% is normal, 40%+ needs investigation.

Q: How quickly are changes detected? A: Immediately after query execution (real-time detection).

Q: Can I export citation history? A: Yes. CSV export available in Analytics → Citations.

Q: Do alerts work for all domains? A: Yes, but you must configure alerts for specific domains you want to track.

Last Updated: October 9, 2025 Feature Status: Fully Implemented