[IN THE NEWS]
AI
•
AUGUST 10, 2026 — In a new Forbes article that discusses why AI platforms avoid citing branded content, the author highlights original Seer research on ghost citations. A ghost citation occurs when AI sources your content but doesn't mention your brand.
What We Found
We analyzed half a million LLM responses across 20 brands and found that brands in industries like Hospitality & Travel had citation gaps of up to 20 percentage points. Despite having two equally established brands, only one consistently surfaced in recommendation contexts.
The Bigger Picture
An Semrush study corroborated our findings: they found 62% of AI citations included a site referral link but no brand mention. Per their study, only 13% of citations included both a source link and brand mention in the AI response.
Our Take: What This Means for Marketers
Ghost citations are a brand entity recognition problem. Adding more content could make things even worse. Start tracking your ghost citation rate as a GEO brand health KPI: competitive ghost citations as a percentage of total brand citations, tracked monthly, segmented by platform and funnel stage.
We also recommend these 3 steps to help solve a ghost citation problem (you can find more detail in our ghost citation study):
1. Make your brand name inseparable from your key claims
2. Build AI-readable signals to connect your brand to your category expertise (schema, Wikidata and Wikipedia entries, etc.)
3. Earn third-party mentions that recommend your brand
Resources
Check out our research on ghost citations: LLM Ghost Citations: Why Your Content Is Working and Your Brand Isn't
Read the Forbes article: Why AI Search Doesn't Trust Your Branded Content