metrics
Cite rate
Percentage of generated answers (per query) that include a citation to your site — the AEO equivalent of SERP CTR.
Definition
Cite rate is the share of AI-generated answers that include at least one citation to your domain. Equivalent to SEO's click-through rate but measured against the answer-engine surface: for each tracked query, what fraction of generated answers cite you? Cite rate × answer rate × query volume = effective AEO traffic share.
Example
Query 'best CRM' fires AI Overview 80% of the time (answer rate). Of those AI Overviews, 12% cite your site. Cite rate = 12%, effective coverage = 9.6% of query volume.How to optimize
Track cite rate per target query weekly. Low cite rate on high-volume queries = highest-leverage optimization target. Use the rubric to diagnose why competitors are cited and you aren't.