Co-citation
When two pages or brands are cited by the same source, which ties them together in the eyes of search engines and AI.
Co-citation is when two pages, or two brands, are cited by the same source. In SEO it usually means two websites linked from the same page: if a review article links to both you and a competitor, you're co-cited. The more often two sites are cited together, the more a search engine reads them as being about the same thing.
Co-citation in AI answers
In AI search the idea shows up in two places.
First, answers cite pages together. A platform answering "Which coffee subscription is best for an office?" might use a buying guide, a review site and two roasters' own pages in the same answer. Pages that keep turning up side by side for the same questions form a set, and a platform that uses one of them is likely to use the others.
Second, brands are named together. If the pages the platforms read keep listing you next to the same three competitors, answers will tend to name you in that company too.
For example, if two review sites and a forum thread are used together in most answers about office coffee, and one of them names you, the other two are the next places to show up.
How it differs from co-occurrence
Co-occurrence is about names appearing in the same text, with no link or citation needed. Co-citation is about being cited, or linked, by the same source.
In AnswerOrbit
The Clusters tab in Sources shows the sources that answers use together, by topic and platform, and which of them name you. If one page in a cluster names you, the others in it are worth a look. See Sources.