LLM Citation
An LLM citation is when a large language model names or links to your business as a source or recommendation inside the answer it generates for a user.
What it means
When you ask Perplexity or ChatGPT a question, the answer often references specific businesses, sometimes with a link, sometimes just by name. Each of those references is a citation. Being cited is the AI-era equivalent of showing up on page one, except there is no page two to fall back to.
Models decide who to cite based on a blend of signals: how clearly your business is described, whether your claims are corroborated elsewhere, how well your content matches the question, and whether your site is structured so the model can extract facts confidently.
Citations are also where accuracy lives or dies. A model might cite you but describe you wrong. Tracking not just whether you're cited but how you're characterized is part of managing your presence in AI answers.
Why it matters for owner-operated businesses
A citation is a recommendation from a source the buyer already trusts. When an assistant volunteers your name, the buyer arrives warmer than any ad could make them.
Because most owners never see the answers AI gives about their category, uncited businesses have no idea how often they're being left out of the conversation entirely.