Advice and answers from the Advanced Web Ranking Team
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AIO Citation Rank: See Who Gets the Front Row in AI Overviews
Meet AIO Citation Rank in Advanced Web Ranking, a new metric that shows exactly where cited sources are positioned inside Google’s AI Overviews.
As you have probably noticed, AI Overviews results are quickly becoming the new stage where businesses compete for citations and visibility. But not all citations are created equal: some land in the spotlight, while others stay hidden behind the “Show more” curtain.
That’s where AWR’s new AIO Citation Rank metric steps in, helping you measure not just whether you or a competitor get cited as sources, but how visible those citations really are.
Key Takeaways
The AIO Citation Rank metric helps you:
See exactly where sources appear inside AI Overviews, ranked by order of appearance.
Spot Top AIO Sources, the sidebar citations users see right away without clicking “Show more”. These placements give a site the highest visibility and the best chance of clicks.
Track progress with ease by adding this metric as a column in Keyword Ranking and Top Sites reports.
Focus on what matters using filters to zoom in on rank ranges or Top Sources.
Measure performance for both Google Universal and Google Search + AIO engines.
How AIO Citation Rank works in AWR
When Google generates an AI Overview search result, it cites the sources used in his response. The citations are split into two groups:
Visible sidebar sources: shown on the right-hand side of the AI Overview box. These are the most prominent citations and are always counted first.
Snippet sources: shown inside the response snippet of the AI Overview. These are counted next, after the Top Sources.
The AIO Citation Rank metric in AWR assigns each URL a position based on this order of appearance, from top to bottom, right to left.
The first top-right source is rank 1, the second rank 2, and so on.
After all sidebar sources are counted, the snippet citations continue the ranking (rank 4, rank 5, etc.).
If a URL is immediately visible in the sidebar sources section (without users needing to click “Show more”), it’s flagged in AWR as a Top AIO Source to highlight that it gets maximum visibility.
Where to access AIO Citation Rank in AWR
The AIO Citation Rank metric is available as an additional column in both the Keyword Ranking and Top Sites reports.
In the Keyword Ranking report you can check the citation rank for each of your tracked keywords. This helps you quickly spot if your or a competitor’s pages are referenced inside AI Overviews and how prominently they appear. Top AIO Sources are marked with a star icon, showing that users can see them without expanding the overview.
The Top Sites report shows all the citation URLs that appear in AI Overviews for your tracked keywords. Alongside the AIO Citation Rank column, you’ll also see metrics like Pixel Position, Pixel Height, and Click Share, which help you understand both visibility and potential traffic. Top AIO Sources are highlighted here as well, so you can compare your placement against competitors at a glance.
How to identify your top and low AIO Citation Ranks
In AWR, you can use the AIO Citation Rank filter to zoom in on the citations that matter most.
For example, you can set a rank range such as 5 to 10 to see if your URLs consistently land in the lower part of the AI Overview. You can also apply the Top AIO Source option to view only the citations that are visible in the sidebar without users clicking “Show more”. These are the placements with the highest visibility, making it easy to distinguish when your site is in the spotlight versus when it is buried deeper in the AI Overview snippet.
Feature availability
The AIO Citation Rank metric is included in all AWR plans and can be used in projects that track either the Google Universal or the Google Search + AIO search engine.
While both search engine versions are built to report all types of web search results (organic, AI Overviews, and SERP features but excluding Ads), the Google AIO search engine offers enhanced support for AI-generated content. It’s specifically optimized to detect and report websites featured in AI Overview results, even in cases where source URLs might be missing or incomplete. For more details, see our guide on accurate AI Overviews tracking.
Do you have any further questions or need more information about this product update? Don't hesitate to get in touch with our dedicated support team.
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