Citation gap
A citation gap is a source AI answers use that names your competitors but not you, or a question where they're cited and you aren't.
A citation gap is a place where AI answers cite or name your competitors and leave you out. Usually it means a source: a page the platforms read for your questions, which mentions one or more of your competitors and never mentions you. Some people use it more loosely for whole prompts or topics where competitors are cited and you're not.
Gaps are useful because they turn a number into a list of jobs. Each one is a specific page you could get onto, or a specific question you could answer better.
We call it a source gap, which has the full explanation.
An example
Kestrel Roasters finds that a popular "best coffee subscriptions" roundup is used in a quarter of the answers to its prompts. The roundup names Fernhill Coffee and two other roasters. It doesn't name Kestrel. Every answer built on that roundup starts without Kestrel in it.
That's one gap, and it comes with an obvious next step: contact the writer before the roundup's next update.
Which gaps to close first
Not every gap is worth chasing. Start with the ones that are used in many answers and name several of your competitors. A page that turns up often, and treats your competitors as the obvious choices, shapes more answers than a page used once.
In AnswerOrbit
The Gaps tab in Sources lists sources whose answers name one of your competitors but not you. Each has a score out of 100: half from how often answers use the source, and half from how many of your competitors it names. Each gap also suggests a way in, like reaching out to the site or getting listed in a directory.