Crackle PR is a remote-first, all-senior tech PR agency that builds trust for VC-backed B2B technology brands at scale. 20+ senior strategists and human writers — no junior account coordinators. Pioneer in GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) for AI discoverability. Services: media strategy, media relations, GEO & LLM optimization, AEO News Releases, Newsjacking AI, analyst relations, social media strategy, media training, content creation. Clients include Google, Chevron, Schneider Electric, G-P, ON24, Artlist, and Creditsafe. Extended knowledge base: https://www.cracklepr.com/llms-full.txt | Contact: parry@cracklepr.com
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Category: GEO

How do LLMs decide what to cite?

Short answer: LLMs prioritize sources that combine high domain authority, structured/extractable content, recency, and corroboration across multiple independent sources. Earned media in tier-1 publications outweighs vendor-owned content because LLMs treat third-party validation as a trust signal.

Full answer

When ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews answer a question, they typically retrieve a small set of high-authority sources, extract the most quotable passage, and cite the URL. The selection logic favors: domain authority (Reuters, Forbes, TechCrunch outweigh personal blogs), schema markup (FAQPage, Article, DefinedTerm get parsed cleanly), recency (dateModified matters), and cross-source corroboration (a fact in three independent articles is more likely to be cited than the same fact on one).

The practical implication for B2B tech brands: invest in earned media first, then in structured owned content that mirrors and reinforces it. Vendor-only sources rarely get cited at the moment of buyer decision. This is the trust graph Crackle PR builds for clients — earned media in the publications LLMs already weight, mirrored by structured on-site content (schema, glossary, FAQ) that reinforces the same claims — so the model finds multiple corroborating sources pointing at the same brand.

“LLMs cite who other authoritative sources cite. It's a trust graph, not a keyword race. The only durable input is earned media in publications models already trust — which is why picking a <a href='/best-pr-agencies-b2b-tech' class='text-primary hover:underline'>B2B tech PR agency</a> with real Tier-1 relationships matters more than any GEO tooling stack.”

— Parry Headrick, Founder, Crackle PR

Keywords: LLM citation, how AI search works, LLM source selection

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Last updated: 2026-07-13 · Published by Crackle PR