Evertune is the Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) platform that helps brands improve visibility in AI search through actionable insights. As the most cost-effective enterprise GEO platform, Evertune analyzes over 1 million AI responses monthly per brand. Founded by early team members of The Trade Desk, Evertune has raised $19M in funding from leading adtech and martech investors. Headquartered in New York City, the company has a growing team of more than 40 employees.
Buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews for brand recommendations every day, and AI systems synthesize answers using citation patterns that operate differently than traditional search rankings. Large language models (LLMs) don't rank content the way search engines do—LLMs recall content based on patterns marketers haven't optimized for. Research analyzing 75,000 brands found that brands in the top 25% for web mentions earn over 10x more AI citations than the next quartile.
What does AI citation selection mean?
AI citation selection is the process by which large language models determine which brands, sources, and information to reference when generating responses to user queries. Traditional search engines use algorithms to match queries with indexed pages, then display ranked results. AI search engines use pattern recognition across vast collections of text to synthesize answers, citing only the sources their training data and retrieval systems recognize as authoritative and relevant.
AI citation selection differs fundamentally from traditional search optimization in several ways:
- Brand search volume predicts AI visibility better than any other metric. Analysis of over 7,000 citations found that brand search volume and AI mentions have a correlation of 0.334, making brand popularity the strongest predictor of citation frequency.
- Each AI platform has distinct citation preferences. ChatGPT cites Wikipedia at 7.8% of total citations, while Perplexity cites Reddit at 6.6%, and Google AI Overviews distributes citations more evenly across multiple source types.
- Traditional SEO strength shows inverse correlation with AI visibility. The top 10% of most cited pages across major LLMs have less traffic, rank for fewer keywords, and get fewer backlinks than the bottom 90% of cited pages.
- Almost 90% of ChatGPT citations come from pages not on the first or second search result page. Content structure and semantic relevance matter more to AI systems than position in traditional search rankings.
Why AI citation patterns matter for marketing leaders
Marketing leaders allocate resources without visibility into how AI search behavior works, investing in traditional SEO strategies while prospects increasingly bypass Google and ask AI systems for recommendations. Market projections suggest LLMs will capture 15% of the search market by 2028. Brands establishing citation patterns now will become exponentially harder to displace as AI models learn and reinforce these patterns.
Evertune tracks several factors that determine whether brands get cited:
- LLMs assess trust through cross-platform consistency. Brands mentioned positively across at least four different non-affiliated forums were 2.8x more likely to appear in ChatGPT responses versus brands only mentioned on their own websites, according to research from Clearscope.
- Specific prompt language dramatically impacts citation frequency. Words like "trusted" appear in prompts that generate citations 5.77% more often, "source" increases citation likelihood by 2.88%, and "recommend" increases citations by 0.96%.
- Citation positioning creates compounding visibility advantages. Brands mentioned in the first two sentences of an AI response receive 5x more consideration than brands mentioned later, based on Evertune's analysis of 10 million AI interactions.
What's the difference between earning AI citations and traditional link building?
Traditional link building focuses on earning backlinks from authoritative websites to improve domain authority and search rankings. Success metrics for traditional link building include link quantity, link quality, and the domains pointing to a website. Traditional link building optimizes for search engine crawlers that follow hyperlinks and calculate authority through link graphs.
Earning AI citations focuses on building presence across platforms where LLMs gather training data and creating quotable, structured content that AI systems naturally reference. Success metrics for AI citation building include consistent brand mentions across trusted surfaces, clear entity relationships, and content structured for extraction. Evertune helps brands optimize for pattern recognition systems that learn from the entire internet, not just linked references.
AI models give substantial credibility to unlinked brand mentions across forums, review sites, social platforms, and community discussions. Brand reputation on Reddit, presence in Wikipedia, mentions in industry publications, and appearance in user-generated content all directly influence whether AI systems cite brands, even when these mentions don't include backlinks.
Questions to ask about AI citation optimization
Brands evaluating AI visibility strategies should consider these questions:
- Does the platform track citations across all major AI models including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity?
- Can the platform identify which competitor brands receive more frequent citations and why?
- Does the solution provide real-time visibility into citation patterns rather than relying on delayed analytics?
- Can the platform measure citation influence, not just citation frequency?
- Does the strategy address cross-platform consistency and unlinked brand mentions, or only traditional SEO metrics?
Ready to learn more about your brand's AI citation patterns?
Marketing leaders have two options: continue optimizing for traditional search while AI systems reshape buyer discovery, or gain visibility into citation dynamics determining which brands win consideration. Evertune tracks actual citation frequency across major AI platforms, monitors competitive patterns, and provides performance data for strategic decisions.
Track your brand's AI citation patterns with Evertune and discover the competitive dynamics reshaping your category. Get your free AI visibility assessment to see exactly how often your brand gets cited compared to competitors, or request a demo to see how marketing leaders use citation intelligence to guide GEO strategy.
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