Why isn't my page cited?

AI engines that search the web pick a handful of pages to build an answer from and list them as sources. Your page is competing with every other page for those few slots. When it is not picked, the reason is usually one of the six below, listed in the order they most often apply.

Before you start, open the prompt on Prompts and use Compare a URL in the prompt detail. Enter the page you want cited and AmICited crawls it and compares it with the pages engines currently cite for that prompt, showing a citation readiness score and which fan-out questions your page covers, misses, or leaves as a gap. Most of the checks below start from that report.

1. The page does not answer the questions engines search for#

Engines break a prompt into sub-queries (query fan-out) and cite pages that answer them. A page that targets the headline keyword but skips the sub-questions (“pricing”, “vs. alternatives”, “for small teams”) loses to pages that cover them.

• Check. In Compare a URL, look at fan-out questions marked “You miss” or “Gap”. Prompt coverage shows the same per prompt, and flags when several uncovered questions cluster into a new-page candidate.
• Fix. Answer the missing questions in plain language, in their own sections, near the top of the page.

2. Engines cannot read the page#

If AI crawlers are blocked by robots.txt, or your CDN or firewall returns an error to them while browsers get a 200, the page cannot be used however good it is.

• Check. Run Audit → Domain audit. It reports which AI and search crawlers robots.txt allows, whether Common Crawl can fetch the site, the accessibility tree engines see, and your llms.txt. If Compare a URL says it could not fetch the page, start here.
• Fix. Allow the crawlers in robots.txt and allowlist them at your CDN or firewall. See domain audit and AI accessibility.

3. The page does not rank in regular search#

Many engines assemble answers from pages that already rank for the underlying searches. A page search engines have not indexed, or rank on page five, is rarely picked.

• Check. With Search Console connected, Reports → Traffic → Query coverage shows whether you rank for the prompt’s queries. The citation gap report lists prompts where you rank well but are still not cited, which points back to causes 1 and 4.
• Fix. Get the page indexed and linked internally from your strongest pages. See Search Console and Bing.

4. The cited pages are fresher#

For some prompts engines strongly prefer recent pages. Each prompt has a freshness sensitivity score (0 to 100) based on its top 10 cited URLs.

• Check. Look at the prompt’s freshness sensitivity, and at Audit → Freshness for when your page’s sitemap lastmod last changed.
• Fix. Update the page with current information and a real change date. See freshness and Web Vitals.

5. Third-party pages own the prompt#

For “best X” and “X alternatives” prompts, engines often cite review sites, directories and listicles rather than any vendor’s own page.

• Check. On Sources, filter to the prompt’s engines and see which domains dominate. If they are third-party lists, your own page may never be the one cited.
• Fix. Get listed on those pages. It often moves visibility faster than improving your own page, because being named in a cited list is a mention.

6. The page is slow#

Some prompts’ cited pages are consistently fast. Each prompt has a Web Vitals sensitivity score (0 to 100) over its top 10 cited URLs.

• Check. Compare the prompt’s Web Vitals sensitivity with your page’s field data in Audit → Web Vitals.
• Fix. Improve the page’s Core Web Vitals if the prompt is sensitive to them. If the score is low, spend the effort on causes 1 to 5 first.

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