One of the most common questions I get: “Do I need to be a big brand to get cited by AI?”
The SEO community has long assumed that domain authority matters. More backlinks, higher authority, better rankings—that’s been the playbook for years.
But does it apply to AI citations?
We ran the numbers. The answer is no.
The Study
We analyzed citations from two AI answer engines:
Brave “Answer with AI”:
- 192 cited domains
- 729 organic (non-cited) domains
- Same query set
Google AI Overviews:
- 170 cited domains
- 386 organic (non-cited) domains
- Same query set
For domain authority, we used Tranco rankings—an aggregated popularity score combining CrUX, Cloudflare Radar, Cisco Umbrella, and Majestic data.
The Results
Statistical significance:
- Brave: p = 0.72 (NOT significant)
- Google: p = 0.70 (NOT significant)
Translation: There’s no meaningful difference in domain authority between cited and non-cited pages.
Citation rate by authority tier (Brave):
| Tier | Total Domains | Cited | Rate |
|---|
| Top 100 | 11 | 2 | 18% |
| Top 1k | 40 | 9 | 22% |
| Top 10k | 78 | 20 | 26% |
| Top 100k | 177 | 49 | 28% |
| Top 1M | 239 | 59 | 25% |
| Unranked | 184 | 53 | 29% |
The citation rate is essentially flat across all tiers. Being a top-100 domain doesn’t help you get cited more often.
Why This Matters
This finding has major implications:
-
Small sites can compete. You don’t need massive link equity to get cited by AI.
-
Content quality matters more. Instead of chasing backlinks, focus on freshness, structure, and authoritative sources.
-
The game has changed. Traditional SEO wisdom doesn’t always apply to AI answer engines.
One Critical Difference: Brave vs Google
We did find one important cross-engine difference:
Brave: 100% of cited domains also appeared in organic results. You must rank to be cited.
Google: 38% of citations came from domains NOT in organic results. Google’s AI pulls from a broader corpus.
This means:
- For Brave-style engines: Organic SEO still matters as a prerequisite
- For Google AI Overviews: You can get cited even without ranking organically
What Should You Focus On Instead?
Based on our research, these factors actually predict citation:
- Content freshness (3x fresher content wins)
- Authoritative outbound links (50x more .gov/.edu links)
- Clear structure (lists, FAQ format)
- AI bot accessibility (don’t block crawlers)
GetCited checks all of these automatically.
Try It Yourself
Install GetCited and see how your pages stack up—regardless of your domain’s size.
Data source: serp-collector runs 2026-01-06 and 2026-01-07. Query type: B2B SaaS comparisons. Results may vary for other verticals.
