What counts as an own-domain citation in an AI answer?
In the September Index, an own-domain citation requires both a matched vendor name and a cited URL on one of that vendor's recorded domains or product hosts. Housecall Pro met those conditions in 43 of 150 valid answers captured on 22 September 2026, or 28.7%. A third-party link about the company does not meet this particular definition.
What we measured
Measured. The September release and scoring rules compare cited hosts with the vendor's canonical domain, recorded alias domains and product hosts. A matching host can be the domain itself or a subdomain. The answer must also pass the vendor-name matching rule; a vendor-domain link without a matched name does not enter this release's own-domain citation count.
The field-service category supplied ten questions, three scheduled runs and five engines, for 150 valid answers. Housecall Pro's 43 qualifying answers have a descriptive 95% Wilson interval of 22.0% to 36.4%. Its 108 named answers, 72.0% with an interval of 64.3% to 78.6%, are a separate event with the same base.
Several supported links in one answer still count as one qualifying answer for the vendor. Reasoned. This makes the event reproducible, but does not prove that a linked passage supports every product claim in the answer. A citation count measures the defined link-and-name event, while factual support requires reading the destination.
Every figure comes from the published method, v1.1.
What this means for you
Read the supplier's definition before comparing citation percentages. Some measures count any source about a company; others count its own domain, and some require a name as this release does. Similar labels can conceal different events.
Check the domain list for the product being measured. A parent-company site, alias or product-host arrangement needs an explicit recorded rule rather than a guess from the URL's appearance.
Keep citation presence separate from citation support. Follow the link to the actual page, identify the relevant passage and date it. If the page cannot be read, the link remains observed while its support for a claim remains unverified.
Also asked as
What counts as an own-domain citation in an AI answer?
Related
- Housecall Pro citation record
- Reading a valid measurement
- The brand-mention definition
- A cited host and its limits
- Migrating between citation metrics
Next step
With Free 10-question check (one engine), distinguish a link to the vendor from a link merely discussing it, then read the supporting page. No email is needed; runs are limited per network and per day, and by the site's daily allowance.
If that source carries a specific incorrect product fact, Fix one answer, $490 can address one answer with the relevant evidence. The citation percentage alone does not establish an error.
Claiming or correcting a vendor record is free and never depends on a purchase.
Prepared by the Broadcastwell team.
Page owner: Vikram Patel, AI Architect. Corrections: hello@broadcastwell.com