What counts as an AI citation, and what does not

The KailxLabs 45-day citation guarantee depends on a precise definition of what counts as a citation. Ambiguity in the definition makes the guarantee unenforceable. This guide documents the exact threshold.

What counts as cited

Short answer. A query counts as cited when all four conditions hold: (1) the AI engine names the client business in the answer paragraph, (2) the client is listed in the top 3 results, (3) the response is the first response with no clarifying follow-up question from the user, and (4) the response is captured by the automated daily scrape with timestamp and full response text.

Condition 1 (named in answer paragraph) means the business name appears in the synthesized answer text the AI returns. Mentions in adjacent sources, citations, or "you might also want to know" follow-up sections do not count.

Condition 2 (top 3 results) means the business is among the first three businesses mentioned by name in the answer. A response naming 5 businesses where the client is the 4th does not count.

Condition 3 (first response no clarifier) means the AI returned the response to the original query without requesting clarification. Responses that come after the AI asked "did you mean X or Y?" do not count because the clarifier represents the AI seeking more information rather than answering the original query.

Condition 4 (automated scrape) means the response is captured by KailxLabs' daily automated scraping infrastructure with timestamp, engine identifier, full response text, and source URLs. Manual screenshots do not count.

What does not count

Short answer. Listings only in the sources panel. Post-clarifier mentions. "See also" or footnote-style references. Paid placement or sponsored content. Responses where the business name is implied but not explicitly stated. Responses that require user follow-up to surface the business. These are excluded from the citation count.

The sources panel exclusion matters most. Many AI engines list 5-15 source URLs adjacent to the answer paragraph. A business that appears in the sources panel but not in the answer text is not cited under the KailxLabs definition because the prospect typically does not read the sources panel before forming an opinion or clicking through.

The refund threshold

The 45-day citation guarantee threshold: cited in at least 2 of the 4 major AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews) on at least 1 of the agreed query set by day 45. If the threshold is hit, the engagement closes successfully. If not, full refund within 7 days and the client keeps the site.

The threshold is intentionally conservative. Most KailxLabs engagements cite at 4-12 queries across multiple engines by day 45. The 2/4 + 1 query floor is the binary commitment that anchors the guarantee.

The query set locking

The 17-25 query set is locked in writing during the engagement contract before the build begins. The locked query set is the measurement target for the entire 45-day window. The client cannot modify the queries mid-engagement and KailxLabs cannot modify them either.

The locking is what makes the guarantee enforceable. A floating query set would make the guarantee ambiguous in a way no party benefits from.

How daily scraping works

KailxLabs operates automated scraping infrastructure that runs the locked query set against ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews once per 24-hour cycle. The full response text, source URLs, timestamp, and engine version are captured per query per engine. Cumulative scrape data builds across 45 days.

At day 45, the raw scrape logs are delivered to the client in JSON. The client can audit any individual query response against the underlying scrape evidence. The audit trail is what makes the binary threshold defensible.

Why the definition is conservative

The KailxLabs definition is intentionally conservative because the 45-day refund guarantee creates incentives for ambiguity to favor the agency. If the definition were loose, KailxLabs would benefit (more responses count as "cited"). The conservative definition protects the client by ensuring that "cited" means what a clinic owner reasonably interprets it to mean: named in the answer paragraph at the top of the response.

The conservative threshold also makes the guarantee meaningful. A guarantee that counts sources panel listings would be trivially easy to hit and would not represent real prospect-acquisition outcome. The stricter definition aligns the guarantee with actual revenue impact.