Inline domain
An inline domain is the website behind a link placed inside an AI answer's text, as opposed to one only listed among its sources.
An inline domain is the website behind a link that sits inside the text of an AI answer. If an answer links "rated 4.8 by its customers" to a page on trustpilot.com, then trustpilot.com is an inline domain for that answer.
Looking at domains this way tells you which sites a platform trusts enough to point to at the exact point it makes a claim.
Inline domains and the rest
An answer can use a site in three ways. It can read a page and say nothing about it. It can list the page in a block of sources at the end. Or it can link the page right in its text. The third is the strongest sign that the site shaped what was said.
For example, say a platform answers 20 questions about home espresso this week. A review site shows up as a source in 15 of them, and is linked inline in 4. A specialist forum shows up as a source in only 6, but is linked inline in 5. The forum is used less, but when it's used, the platform leans on it.
What to do with them
The sites that keep coming up inline in your category are the ones worth getting onto. Being named on a page the platform quotes from is closer to being in the answer than being on a page it only skims.
In AnswerOrbit
The Domains tab in Sources lists every website the answers used, with how many answers used it and how many times it was linked. Sites with lots of links are the ones the platforms point to.