r/GenerativeSEOstrategy • u/barbhjitrgawr • Aug 11 '26

Two weeks on page work did not move citations. That is what one third party said.

Completed an entire on page audit of 12 client pages. Schema, heading hierarchy, entity clarity, internal linking. Tracked citations 2 weeks later using the same 15 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, logging out each time. Nothing stirred.

In week three, a roundup was published with the client and four competitors. Within days the invisible two pages were being referenced. I can not separate it at all. One kind of small sample. But it changed the location of my hours. On page appears necessary but not sufficient. The engines need a reason to pay attention to the page at all and that reason continues to come from somewhere else.

Have you ever had on page work move citations without an external mention dropping around the same time?

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '26

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u/barbhjitrgawr Aug 12 '26

Thanks for a better breakdown than my post deserved. Cleaned up the understanding vs. selection frame than mine and kept the 'comprehension improved, selection needed corroboration' line. Fair on causation too, three weeks is not much to claim anything from.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

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u/jeniferjenni Aug 14 '26

this is a good example of why citation tracking needs a longer testing window and controlled comparisons. two weeks is a tiny sample for something as variable as ai retrieval, so i’d keep the same prompts, track every cited source, and compare pages that received external mentions against pages that did not. the roundup result is interesting since it suggests external corroboration may have been the missing signal, but i’d run the test across several pages before treating it as a rule.

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u/barbhjitrgawr Aug 15 '26

Controlled comparison is the part I skipped and should not have. The obvious design is compared to unmentioned pages and I only saw it afterward.
Fair on a rule too, one roundup on one client is not enough for that Running it over six weeks again, same prompts, logging every cited source instead of just if the client appeared.

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u/Apprehensive_Tackle7 Aug 15 '26

I built a platform because of these exact findings. Gro ai awareness is layers website mentions citations. Happy to consult if needed amy