---
title: Citation rank
description: Compare sources by citation count or share and understand what the
  table order represents.
canonical_url: https://orchestor.io/docs/en/sources/citation-rank
markdown_url: https://orchestor.io/docs/en/sources/citation-rank.md
contentType: explanation
---

# Citation rank

Citation rank is a way to compare which domains or URLs receive more citations through their order in a table. In Orchestor, sort by **Citation count** or **Citation share**, highest first.

## Order sources by citations

1. Open [Cited domains](https://orchestor.io/docs/sources/domains.md) to compare websites, or [Cited URLs](https://orchestor.io/docs/sources/urls.md) to compare individual pages.
2. Select consistent periods, AI models, and other conditions.
3. Sort **Citation share** in descending order. In Cited URLs, you can also sort by **Citation count**.
4. Compare citation count and share for the leading sources.

Cited URLs initially sorts by citation count descending. Cited domains initially sorts by retrieval count descending, so check the sorting before comparing citations.

## Read the order

The number beside a row is its position in the current table order. It changes when you change filters or sorting. It is not an independent citation-rank score, and equal metric values are not assigned a shared rank.

### Example

Suppose the same scope contains 1,000 citations.

| Domain | Citation count | Citation share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| example-a.com | 120 | 12% |
| example-b.com | 80 | 8% |
| example-c.com | 50 | 5% |

Sorting these three domains by citation share descending gives A, B, then C. In Orchestor, citation counts and shares have the same relative order within a scope because they use the same total citation count as their denominator.

## How it differs from average position

[Average position](https://orchestor.io/docs/visibility/position.md) describes the average order in which a brand appears within AI answers. Citation rank compares the order of sources after aggregating citations across answers.

A leading source is not necessarily the first citation in an individual answer. The table order also does not describe search-engine rankings or the order in which the AI retrieved sources.

## Investigate changes

Compare citation count and share for the same domain or URL across periods. Comparing row numbers alone can mistake a filter or displayed-source change for a performance change.

If a source moves up, check whether its citations increased or citations to other sources decreased. Then read [Answers](https://orchestor.io/docs/visibility/answers.md) to identify the prompts and content behind those citations.

## Related metrics

- [Citation share](https://orchestor.io/docs/sources/citation-share.md): understand the calculation and denominator
- [Main metrics](https://orchestor.io/docs/visibility/metrics-overview.md): distinguish mentions, answers, and citations

---

[Documentation index](https://orchestor.io/docs/llms.txt)