- name:
- aeo-citation-drill-down
- description:
- Use this skill when the user wants to know which content actually shapes AI answers in their category — "what sources do AI engines cite about us," "why does the competitor win the AI comparison answers," "where should content effort go for AI visibility." Three-level investigation: cited domains → the specific URLs driving citations → the full AI answers, ending in a ranked content hit-list.
Use when citation data needs to become a content strategy. Produces a ranked list of the domains, pages, and content patterns that drive AI answers in the category — and where the brand can plausibly earn a mention. Work top-down; never stop at the domain level.
Level 1 — domains
Pull the domains that co-occur with the brand in AI answers, with citation counts and type (review site, competitor, news, community). This gives the shape: "a review platform appeared in 38 citations across answers mentioning the brand last week" tells you which kind of property owns the category's answers.
Level 2 — URLs
Drill into each heavyweight domain for the specific pages driving its citations. Concentration is the finding: one competitor comparison post out-citing every other page on its domain 14-to-1 means that single page — not the domain — owns the answer. Capture the scan identifiers for level 3.
Level 3 — full answers
Open the complete AI responses behind the key citations: answer text, engine, brand sentiment, and how the citation is actually used. This is where you learn whether a cited page is quoted for its comparison table, its pricing, or its one-line verdict — which dictates what a competing page must contain.
Turn it into strategy
- competitor intelligence — heavily-cited competitor content reveals the structure AI engines prefer; reverse-engineer the format, not just the topic
- content targets — high-citation third-party properties (review sites, community threads) are where presence is earned; rank them by citation count × plausibility of getting the brand added
- reputation watch — new domains entering the citation mix signal category coverage shifting before any score moves
Deliver a hit-list: 5–10 URLs with citation counts, what each is cited for, and the concrete action per URL (earn a listing, update the thread, build the missing comparison).
What good looks like
A great drill-down ends in actions per URL, grounded in what the full answers actually quote. The overlooked failure: stopping at domain aggregates — "review sites matter" isn't actionable; "this one comparison post drives 14× the citations" is. Success: content effort lands on pages that measurably enter the citation mix next period.
MUST drill to the URL level before recommending any content action. NEVER build strategy from domain aggregates alone.