The role of citations in AEO: Why citations matter more than backlinks for AI visibility (opens in new tab)

For years, the SEO playbook was straightforward: earn backlinks, climb rankings, capture clicks. But as , a different mechanism is determining which content gets seen — and it’s not backlinks. It’s citations. The role of citations in AEO is fundamentally different from link-building: instead of other publishers vouching for your page, AI answer engines are selecting your content as the direct source behind their generated answers.