AI answer sources are pages, domains, and materials that AI models can use when generating answers to users’ questions.
In Semly, sources help you understand where AI models get information about the brand, competition, products, services, and the whole market category from. Thanks to them, you can check why one brand shows up more often in AI answers and another one gets skipped.
AI models don’t answer in a vacuum. When creating an answer, they use information available in different places on the Internet and data they already know or can fetch while generating the answer.
Sources can affect:
does AI know your brand
how AI describes your brand
whether AI recommends your brand
which competitors AI compares it with
what advantages or limitations it points out
whether the information about the brand is up to date
whether the brand is visible for important prompts
The source can be any page or material that provides information useful for the AI model.
Examples of sources:
brand home page
category pages
product pages
blog articles
guides
rankings
comparisons
business directories
marketplaces
reviews
internet forums
industry media
partner pages
manufacturer pages
knowledge bases
documentations
FAQ pages
In practice, the source can be both your own website and an external service that describes your brand, competition, or product category.
In the analysis, it’s worth distinguishing between two types of sources.
These are websites you have control over.
Examples:
brand website
blog
knowledge base
FAQ
category pages
product pages
landing pages
documentation
guide subpages
Your own sources are important because you can improve, update, and expand them.
These are sites you don’t have direct control over, but that can affect AI answers.
Examples:
rankings
reviews
catalogs
industry articles
forums
marketplaces
media
comparison sites
partner websites
External sources are important because they can build brand credibility or boost the visibility of your competition.
To go to the sources:
Log in to the Semly panel
Go to the Sources section
Check the list of domains and URLs
Click a selected source to see the details
In the Sources section you can see among other things:
a list of sources detected in AI answers
source share, i.e. SOV
the number of answers related to the source
the number of source occurrences
occurrences of your brand for a given source
sources that appear together with the analyzed source
prompts related to the source
If a source appears in Semly, it means that it has been linked to the AI answers analyzed in the project.
This can mean that:
the AI model used a given page as the context for an answer
a given domain was indicated as a source
content from this domain is linked to the analyzed prompt
the source appears together with your brand or competitors
a given page supports answers about a specific category
A source doesn’t always have to mean that the model directly quoted a given page in the answer. Depending on the AI model and the way answers are generated, the source can be visible as a quotation, a link, a domain, or context used in the analysis.
Sources can either boost or limit a brand’s visibility in AI.
If many reliable sources describe your brand in a specific context, AI models can more easily connect it with users’ questions.
Example:
The user asks:
Which supplement store for athletes is worth choosing?
If your brand appears in rankings, guides, industry articles and has well-described product categories, AI may have more reasons to mention it.
On the other hand, if the competition appears in many sources and your brand doesn’t, the model may recommend the competition more often.
Sources help you understand why the competition might show up more often than your brand.
If a competitor has higher visibility, check:
which sources show up with its answers
whether the competitor appears in rankings
whether the competitor has better guides
whether the competitor is present in directories
whether the competitor has more reviews
whether the competitor has stronger category pages
whether the competitor is quoted more often by AI models
Example:
If AI often recommends a competitor based on rankings like “best online furniture stores,” and your brand doesn’t show up in those sources, that might be a specific visibility gap.
It’s worth analyzing sources in the context of specific prompts.
The same source can be very important for one question but irrelevant for another.
Example:
A source with a ranking of online stores can matter a lot for the prompt:
Which online furniture store is worth choosing?
But it may matter less for the prompt:
How to choose a bed with storage for a small bedroom?
So when you’re analyzing a source, check:
which prompts it appears for
whether it supports your brand
whether it supports the competition
whether it’s about the right category
whether it answers the user’s intent
whether it appears for purchase-focused prompts
SOV (Share of Voice) of a source shows the share of a given source in the analyzed AI responses.
In practice, it answers the question:
How much of the sources space is taken up by this domain or site?
If a source has a high SOV, it means it appears often in the responses or is often linked to the analyzed prompts.
A high SOV of a source can mean that:
the model often uses this domain
the source is important in a given category
the source supports competitors’ visibility
the source can influence how brands are described
it’s worth checking if your brand is present there
Not every source has the same value.
A valuable source usually:
shows up for important prompts
matches the right category
is up to date
contains specific information
describes brands in a comparative way
is related to the user’s intent
supports the purchase decision
is used by more than one AI model
appears together with competitors
can influence AI recommendations
Example of a valuable source:
A current ranking of online stores in a given category, where AI often finds competitors and which shows up for shopping prompts.
Example of a less valuable source:
An old subpage with general information that doesn’t answer any important user question.
You have the biggest influence on your own sources.
It’s especially worth developing:
category pages
product pages
shopping guides
articles that answer customer questions
product comparisons
FAQ
knowledge base
pages with delivery, returns and payment policy
pages describing the brand’s advantages
local content if the company operates locally
For external sources, it’s worth checking:
rankings
industry directories
review portals
industry media
partners’ websites
comparison sites
marketplaces
forums and communities
Sources are often the basis for recommendations generated in Semly.
If the system detects that your brand doesn’t show up next to an important source or that competitors have an edge on a given topic, it can suggest an action.
Recommendations can cover:
creating an article
expanding the knowledge base
improving brand data
filling in product descriptions
improving the category page
checking the robots.txt file
increasing presence in external sources
preparing content for a specific prompt
Example:
If AI often uses guides answering the question “how to choose a bed with storage”, and your brand doesn’t have this kind of content, Semly can suggest creating an article on this topic.
While analyzing sources, you might notice a few typical situations.
Possible reasons:
the content is too generic
the site doesn’t answer the prompts being analyzed
there’s no sitemap
AI bots have limited access
important pages aren’t well linked
the content isn’t up to date
Possible reasons:
competition shows up in rankings
competition has more reviews
competition has better guides
competition is present in directories
competition has stronger external content
Possible reasons:
old articles still show up in answers
information about the offer hasn’t been updated
external sites describe the brand imprecisely
AI uses archival or older data
If you don’t know where to start, use a simple framework.
See which domains show up most often in AI answers.
Identify the sources with the biggest share.
Check if your brand appears next to the most important sources.
See if the sources support your competitors more often.
Assess for which questions a given source matters.
Determine whether it’s a ranking, blog, forum, directory, product page, guide, or another type of content.
Based on the analysis, decide whether you need to improve your own content, create new content, verify a recommendation, or make sure you’re present in an external source.
The most common mistakes are:
analyzing only the list of domains without the context of the prompts
assuming that every source has the same impact
skipping competitors’ sources
ignoring outdated information
not checking the details of the source
focusing only on your own website
skipping rankings and directories
not moving from analysis to recommendations
After analyzing the sources, choose specific actions.
You can:
improve the content on your own site
expand category pages
improve product descriptions
create an article in the Content Generator
add content to the knowledge base
update the FAQ
check the robots.txt file
analyze competitors’ sources
plan PR activities or presence in directories
monitor visibility changes over time
How to read the Sources section
How to read Semly recommendations
How to analyze prompt details
How to interpret AI model responses
How to add competition
Key indicators
AI answer sources show where models can get information about your brand, competition, and category. Thanks to them, you can better understand why AI recommends specific companies and what affects your brand’s visibility.
The most important rules:
analyze sources together with prompts
check the SOV of the sources
compare your own and external sources
check which sources support the competition
look for gaps in important sources
develop content that answers customers’ questions
use sources to plan recommendations and actions
