Pages versus domains
Counting sources by domain shows which websites AI platforms rely on. Counting by page shows the exact articles to work on.
Pages versus domains is a choice you make whenever you count the sources behind AI answers. You can add up the uses by domain, the whole website, or by page, the single address the answer actually read. The two views answer different questions, and it helps to read both.
What each view shows
The domain view tells you which websites the platforms trust for your subject. It's the view for planning: which publications to build relationships with, which review sites to get listed on, which forums your customers use.
The page view tells you which articles the platforms keep coming back to. It's the view for doing: the exact list article to get onto, the exact review to answer, the exact page on your own site to fix.
Where the domain view misleads
Big sites with lots of pages look strong when you count by domain, because many small uses add up. A large publisher may be used 80 times across 40 different articles, each used twice. A small blog may be used 30 times, all on one guide.
For example, Fernhill Coffee sees that bigpublisher.example is its top domain, used 80 times. That's hard to act on. In the page view, the top page is a single guide on smallroasterblog.example, used 30 times, that names Kestrel Roasters and not Fernhill. One email to that blogger could matter more than months of pitching the big publisher.
The page view has its own trap. A domain spread across many pages can still be the place your customers read most, even if no single page stands out. So start with domains to see where the weight is, then open the pages to see what to do.
In AnswerOrbit
Sources has both. The Domains tab lists every website the answers used, with how many answers used it and how many times it was linked. The Pages tab shows the same for single pages, with each page's type. You can also group domains and pages to follow them as one, and tick Include the pages under it to take in a whole section of a site.