Skip to main content
Answer Engineered

A public ledger of how AI search engines pick, cite, and drop sources.

ENTRY 006 · FRESHNESS

The Freshness Illusion: Why AI Cites Edited Pages, Not New Ones

Seer Interactive dated 7,683 AI-cited pages: 72% look fresh by update date, but only 42% were published within the past year. What that gap actually means. · 6 MIN

ENTRY 005 · CTR

7.3%1.6%

The Position-1 CTR Collapse: From 7.3% to 1.6% in Two Years

7.3%1.6%DEC 2023DEC 2025

Ahrefs 300K-keyword data: position-1 CTR on AI Overview keywords fell from 7.3% to 1.6% between Dec 2023 and Dec 2025. The zero-click economics behind the drop. · 5 MIN

ENTRY 004 · LLMS-TXT

1 / 94,614

llms.txt Does Not Work: 1 Cited URL in 94,614

94,614 AI-CITED URLS · 1 MARK = 1,000THE 1 CITED URL: TOO SMALL TO DRAW HERE

One cited URL in 94,614 came from an llms.txt page. Why adoption never became usage, what Google says on the record, and what moves AI citations instead of it. · 5 MIN

The Monthly Index

SignalReadingEntry
AI citations pointing outside the organic top 10061.7%ENTRY 003
Previously cited domains dropped after the Gemini 3 takeover of AI Overviews42.4%ENTRY 002
AI Mode cited-domain replacement, week over week56%ENTRY 002
Position-1 CTR on AI Overview keywords, Dec 2023 to Dec 20257.3% to 1.6%ENTRY 005

The index, monthly. Who AI engines cite, who they dropped, every number sourced.

ENTRY 003 · GHOST-CITATIONS

61.7%

Ghost Citations: 61.7% of AI Citations Rank Outside the Organic Top 100

OUTSIDE ORGANIC TOP 100 - 61.7%INSIDE - 38.3%

61.7% of AI citations point to URLs outside the organic top 100 (Profound, 340M prompts). What ghost citations are, why they happen, what publishers should do. · 5 MIN

ENTRY 002 · AI-SEARCH

76%38%

AI Search Visibility Statistics 2026: Every Verified Number, Sourced

76%38%JUL 2025MAR 2026

Every verified AI search visibility statistic our desk holds in July 2026 — citation behavior, traffic impact, platform mechanics — each with a primary source. · 8 MIN

ENTRY 001 · AI-REFERRALS

15.9%vs1.76%

AI Referral Traffic Is Small — and Converts at 9x the Organic Rate

CHATGPT REFERRAL 15.9%ORGANIC SEARCH 1.76%

ChatGPT referrals convert at 15.9% versus 1.76% for organic search (Orbit Media). Why AI traffic is small but valuable, and why analytics miss most of it. · 5 MIN

Full ledger