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Definition
Sources
Sources are the external URLs (articles, pages, documents) that AI models use to generate answers and sometimes include in responses.
Why Sources Matters
- If you become a frequently used source, you influence:
- what AI says about your category,
- which brands get recommended,
- and whether you get traffic (when citations/links are shown).
- **Types of sources you should care about:**
- AI systems can use sources in different ways:
- **Cited Sources:** listed separately for attribution
- **Inline Sources:** links embedded within the answer text
- **Source Domains:** the underlying websites behind those links
- **Inline Domains:** domains influencing answers without obvious attribution
Key Factors
- Domain authority of mentioning sites
- Relevance to the query topic
- Recency of content
- Consistency of information across sources
Action Steps
- **How to earn source status:**
- **Create reference-worthy pages:** definitions, original research, benchmarks, methodology pages, statistics.
- **Make pages easy to extract:** clear sections, short explanations, consistent terminology.
- **Be cited by others:** PR, partnerships, and credible mentions increase the chance you're treated as authoritative input.
- **Keep content fresh:** "updated" pages tend to win for fast-changing topics.
- **See which sources shape your category with BeRecommended.com.**