Measurement and maintenance · Branch M.C, AI visibility telemetry
M-06 Citation, Mention and Recommendation must be tracked as separate KPIs
A URL being cited, the brand being named in the answer body, and the brand being recommended for the user's scenario must be recorded as three different outcomes.
- Scope
- All public content
- Priority
- High priority.
- Quality bucket
- Measurement and experiment readiness
- Legacy coverage
- GEO-50
Why it matters
A URL can appear in the source list while the brand is never named in the answer, and a brand can be named without being recommended. Folding these into one number hides which of them is actually happening. Separate KPIs show whether the brand is being used as a source, noticed by name, or put forward to the user.
How to implement
- Label every prompt response for whether your URL is in the source list.
- Label whether the brand name appears in the answer body.
- Label whether the AI recommends the brand for the user's scenario.
- Report the three outcomes separately, broken down by topic and intent.
Checklist
- Citation: is the URL in the source list?
- Mention: is the brand name in the answer body?
- Recommendation: does the AI recommend the brand for the user's scenario?
- Measure all three separately by topic and intent.
How to audit
- Prompt-response labelling.
- Classification of citation URL, answer body and recommendation.
How UltimateSEO checks this automatically
This control needs human evidence: the reporting setup that tracks citation, mention and recommendation as separate KPIs.
States used: PASS, FAIL, UNKNOWN, NOT_APPLICABLE or BLOCKED. UNKNOWN is never shown as a pass. How states work.
Myth guards that reference this control
Sources
Part of The UltimateSEO Framework v4.1, revised 2026-10-07. Evidence states, control states and the publish gate are explained on the hub.