Citation-Gap Triage Worksheet
A citation gap is a decision to investigate, not a score to inflate. Capture the exact answer, classify the gap, and route one bounded next action to one owner.
Start with the observation
Run a buyer-shaped prompt on the engine or surface you are reviewing. Save the exact prompt, access date and time, locale when relevant, answer text or permitted excerpt, named brands, and every cited URL. A single answer is an observation; it is not a market-share estimate or a permanent ranking.
Worksheet row
| Prompt | What would a real buyer ask? |
|---|---|
| Engine / surface | Which answer surface was reviewed? |
| Access date | When was the observation collected? |
| Brand status | Present, absent, substituted, or misframed? |
| Citation URL(s) | Which sources were cited, if any? |
| Gap type | Choose one primary classification below. |
| Next action | What single change is worth testing? |
| Owner / review date | Who will act, and when will you look again? |
Classify before you prescribe
Absence
The answer does not mention the brand where the product may be relevant. Check whether the prompt actually matches the brand’s audience and category before treating omission as a problem.
Substitution
Another vendor is named for the job the buyer described. Record the substitute, the wording that made it relevant, and whether your own product has a verifiable page covering that use case.
Misframing
The brand appears, but its category, audience, capability, or limitation is wrong. Separate a factual correction from a positioning change; the appropriate owner may be documentation, product marketing, or support.
Unsupported answer
The answer makes a material claim without a source you can inspect. Note the claim and the missing evidence. Do not “fix” it by asserting that your own page will be cited.
Source gap
A recurring third-party source frames the category, but its description is incomplete, outdated, or not relevant to the buyer’s question. The next action may be a source correction, an editorial contribution, or a clearer owned page.
A short triage sequence
- Confirm fit: Is this prompt inside the product’s real audience and use case?
- Preserve evidence: Save the prompt, access details, answer notes, and cited URLs.
- Pick one gap: Do not label every weak answer as every gap type.
- Find the owner: Route to content, documentation, product marketing, PR, partnerships, or a fact-checker.
- Define the test: Name the page, correction, outreach, or documentation change and a review date.
Example row (fictional)
Prompt: “What tools help a two-person SaaS team document customer questions?”
Observation: A competing vendor was named and cited; the product under review was absent.
Gap: Substitution, pending fit check.
Next action: Compare the product’s existing documentation with the buyer’s job and write one clear use-case page if the fit is real.
This is a format example, not a measured result or a claim about any brand.
What good triage does not claim
Do not convert a handful of prompts into a visibility score, traffic forecast, market-share statement, guaranteed citation rate, or promise of revenue. Engines, accounts, locations, models, prompts, and dates can change the result. Keep the raw notes so later reviews can distinguish a changed observation from a changed conclusion.
Use the worksheet or ask for a scoped brief
Start with the CiteMap v4 overview and the free AI Citation-Gap Triage Checklist. If you want a defined, async read, the Snapshot is the smaller starting point; the GEO/AEO Map is for a broader competitor and source view. Agencies can review the white-label Agency Pack.