Frequently Asked Questions

Cited is a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) platform that helps businesses track, analyze, and improve their visibility in AI-powered search results. We show you where AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview are citing your brand—and where they're not.

Getting started is easy! Click "Try Cited for Free" to create an account. You can run your first GEO audit within minutes—no credit card required for the free tier. Simply enter your business details and the questions your customers typically ask, and we'll show you your AI visibility score.

Not at all. Cited is designed to be intuitive for marketers, business owners, and SEO professionals. Our recommendations are written in plain language with clear action steps. For more technical implementations (like structured data), we provide ready-to-use code snippets.

Our 7-day free trial gives you full access to our Scale plan features, including multi-engine audits, visibility scoring, competitor analysis, and actionable recommendations. No credit card required to start.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of optimizing your online presence to appear more prominently in AI-powered search results. Unlike traditional SEO which focuses on search engine rankings, GEO focuses on being cited in AI responses from platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and other AI assistants.

Traditional SEO aims to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) to earn clicks. GEO takes this further by optimizing for AI systems that synthesize information to generate answers. While SEO targets rankings, GEO targets citations. As zero-click searches increase and AI assistants become primary search interfaces, GEO complements SEO as an essential visibility strategy.

Cited tracks visibility across major AI platforms including ChatGPT (OpenAI), Perplexity, Google Gemini, and more. Our multi-engine audits query these platforms simultaneously so you can compare your visibility across the AI search landscape.

AI assistants are rapidly becoming a primary way people discover businesses and make decisions. When someone asks an AI "What's the best CRM for small businesses?" or "Who offers the best digital marketing services in Austin?", the businesses cited in that response gain significant brand awareness and trust. If you're not being cited, you're invisible to a growing segment of potential customers.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is closely related to GEO and focuses on optimizing your content to be selected as the direct answer to user questions. While GEO broadly covers visibility in AI-generated responses, AEO specifically targets the "answer box" or featured snippet position—ensuring your content is structured and authoritative enough to be the definitive answer AI systems provide. AEO strategies include using clear question-and-answer formats, implementing FAQ schema markup, and creating comprehensive content that directly addresses user intent.

A GEO audit queries multiple AI platforms with questions relevant to your business and analyzes the responses. We examine whether your business is mentioned, how prominently you appear compared to competitors, which questions show strong vs. weak visibility, and where your biggest improvement opportunities lie. This provides the foundation for your GEO optimization strategy.

Your visibility score is based on multiple factors including: how often your brand is cited across AI responses, the prominence of those citations (primary recommendation vs. mentioned in a list), consistency across different AI engines, and comparison to competitors in your space. Higher scores indicate stronger AI search presence.

Cited provides specific, prioritized recommendations based on what's actually working for top performers in your space. These include content optimization suggestions, structured data implementations, authority-building strategies, and technical improvements. Each recommendation includes clear steps and expected impact.

Yes! Competitor analysis is a core feature of Cited. You can see which competitors AI is citing for your target queries, understand what makes them the preferred choice, and identify opportunities to improve your own visibility relative to your competitive set.

Yes. We have a built-in solutions engine that can create assets from FAQs, to blogs, to schema mark-ups with a click of a button. There is no limit to the kind or number of assets you can create in the app.

Yes! Our built-in LLM agent is accessible throughout the platform, is trained on your data and strategy, and can have the same two-way conversations you're used to with AI chat. Simulate strategies, draft content, project trends and lift, and even get instant competitor pulses through your agent interface.

Yes! Our Pro tier allows you to upload your own logo and run reports with your brand or your client's brand on the outputs. Control how you prospect and report to your clients and/or Executive team with your own white-labeled version of Cited.

We offer custom reports that can be exported in PowerPoint, Excel or PDF and can be fully customized to include or exclude any data you choose.

Yes! We offer both a referral program and Agency commission program. Email us at [email protected] for more information.

The Cited CLI is an open-source command-line tool that brings the full power of the Cited platform to your terminal. You can run GEO audits, manage businesses, generate recommendations, and create content solutions—all without leaving the command line. It's ideal for developers, agencies managing multiple clients, and anyone who wants to automate their GEO workflows. Install it with Homebrew (brew tap youcited/cited && brew install cited) or pip.

The Cited MCP (Model Context Protocol) server lets AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible tools interact directly with the Cited platform. With 30 built-in tools, your AI assistant can create businesses, run audits, analyze visibility scores, generate recommendations, and produce content solutions on your behalf—all through natural conversation. It's the fastest way to get GEO insights without leaving your AI workflow.

The easiest way is to add Cited as a custom connector: go to Settings → Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector and enter the URL https://mcp.youcited.com/mcp. You can also configure it via the Developer settings using mcp-remote (requires Node.js). Once connected, Claude can run audits, check visibility, and generate recommendations directly in your conversation.

Yes! The Cited MCP server works with any MCP-compatible tool. For Cursor, add a .cursor/mcp.json file to your project (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json globally) with the mcp-remote configuration pointing to https://mcp.youcited.com/mcp. Once configured, you can query your GEO data and generate optimized content right from your editor.

The Cited agentic skill is a pre-built capability that AI coding agents (like Claude Code) can use to perform end-to-end GEO workflows autonomously. Rather than calling individual tools one at a time, the agentic skill lets your AI assistant orchestrate multi-step pipelines: register a business, crawl its website, run an audit, generate recommendations, and create content solutions—all from a single natural language request.

Both the CLI and MCP server give you access to the full Cited platform including: managing business profiles, crawling websites for brand signals, creating and running GEO audit templates, viewing per-question citation data across AI providers, generating prioritized recommendations, and creating AI-ready content solutions like blog posts, FAQ schemas, and structured data. The CLI also supports JSON output for scripting and automation pipelines.

Yes! The Cited CLI and MCP server are open source and available on GitHub at github.com/YouCited/cited-cli. You can contribute, report issues, or explore the code. We welcome community contributions and feedback.

Yes! We offer a free tier that includes basic GEO audits so you can see your AI visibility. For more comprehensive features like multi-engine audits, competitor tracking, and detailed recommendations, check out our paid plans.

Absolutely. All Cited subscriptions are month-to-month with no long-term commitment. You can cancel anytime from your account settings, and you'll retain access until the end of your current billing period.

Yes, we offer custom enterprise plans for larger organizations with specific needs. Enterprise plans include dedicated support, custom integrations, higher audit limits, and team collaboration features. Contact us at [email protected] to discuss your requirements.

We're here to help! You can reach our support team at [email protected]. We typically respond within one business day. Paid plans also include priority support with faster response times.

Yes! All new users receive access to our knowledge base and video tutorials. Paid plans include personalized onboarding to help you get the most out of Cited. Enterprise customers receive dedicated onboarding and ongoing strategic support.

Check out our blog for the latest GEO insights, case studies, and optimization strategies. We regularly publish content to help you stay ahead of the rapidly evolving AI search landscape.