Owned vs earned
Wikipedia alone is cited about you five times as often as you are
Every 1,000 citations AI makes about a brand, by whose site they point to.
| Where it points | Cells of 1,000 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| The brand’s own site | 18 | 1.84% |
| Wikipedia | 96 | 9.6% |
| The rest of the web | 886 | 88.6% |
One citation in ten about you is an encyclopedia page
The page types behind citations to the brand’s own site and to everyone else’s. Top six each.
| Page type | Brand’s own site | Other sites |
|---|---|---|
| Other | 52.0% | 41.5% |
| Blog and editorial | 19.3% | 20.2% |
| Encyclopedia | Not in its top six | 9.8% |
| Homepage | 6.6% | 7.9% |
| Product page | 7.9% | 6.3% |
| Service and use case | 3.7% | 2.6% |
| About and contact | 2.8% | Not in its top six |
The slice you own is the warmest
When AI cites a brand’s own page it speaks better of the brand, and it keeps coming back to the homepage.
Common questions
How much of what AI cites about a brand is the brand’s own site?
Very little. Across 337K citations, only about 1.84% point to a brand’s own domain. The other 98% are third-party pages: reviews, listicles, encyclopedias and editorial that talk about the brand. AI mostly cites the web about you, not you.
Does AI cite Wikipedia more than my own website?
Across the brands studied, yes. Wikipedia alone is around 9.6% of all citations, roughly five times the share that a brand’s own domain earns. The encyclopedia, not a competitor, is usually the page standing between you and the citation.
Is it worth getting AI to cite my own pages?
The slice is small but it is the friendliest slice. When AI cites a brand’s own content, sentiment averages 76 out of 100 versus 58 for third-party citations, an 18-point lift. Owned citations come with warmer descriptions, not just more visibility.
Which of my own pages does AI come back to?
The homepage. Once AI starts citing a brand’s homepage it averages about 35 repeat appearances, versus 8 for other owned pages. If you make one page AI-readable first, make it the homepage.