Discovery comes first
At scan time, five AI crawlers are checked against your robots.txt, and your llms.txt is checked too. If a crawler is blocked, start there.
Citation Gap TrueTrace keyword gap analysis
Find out why AI cites your rivals and skips you.
Citation Gap combines your own tracking data with a live robots.txt check to find the keywords where AI engines cite competitors instead of you. Each gap comes with a reason, a severity score and a recommended fix.
No credit card
Built from your tracking data
Live AI crawler checks
app.linkstonic.com/citation-gap
90-day
Keywords analyzed48
Gaps found11
Avg AI mention34%
Crawlers blocked1
AI crawler accesslive
GPTBot✓
OAI-SearchBot✕
ClaudeBot✓
PerplexityBot✓
Google-Extended✓
llms.txt!
crm pricing comparisonCritical · 82
Unblock OAI-SearchBot in robots.txtQuick
crm for small teamsHigh · 61
Cover team-size questions directlyMedium
Sample gap analysis for illustration
Gaps come from your own tracking on the four major engines
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
Perplexity
Why Citation Gap
Knowing you're not cited doesn't fix anything.
Knowing you're not cited doesn't fix anything.
Knowing why does.
Every gap is built from your own tracked mention rates and a live check of your site. No invented metrics. You see the cause before you pick a fix.
Every gap has a reason
Each gap is coded Discovery, Authority, Content or Coverage. The code tells you who owns the fix: a developer, a writer or your PR team.
Work the list top to bottom
Gaps are sorted Critical, High, Medium and Low, and each fix is tagged Quick, Medium or Project effort. Start at the top.
Reason codes
Four reasons AI skips you,
Four reasons AI skips you,
each with its own fix list.
Each gap card has one reason code and the fixes that go with it, tagged by effort so you can plan the sprint.
Discovery
AI crawlers are blocked, so engines can't read the page, never mind cite it. These are usually the fastest gaps to close.
Typical effortQuickConfig changes, often same day
- Quick
Unblock GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ClaudeBot
Update the robots.txt rules that disallow them
- Quick
Check PerplexityBot and Google-Extended
Make sure the other AI crawlers are allowed too
- Quick
Publish an llms.txt file
Point AI engines to the pages that matter most
- Quick
Submit your sitemap
Help crawlers find new and updated pages
Authority
Engines can read your page but trust a competitor's more. You need stronger signals that you're a source worth citing.
Typical effortMediumEditorial and outreach work
- Medium
Add named authors with credentials
Show who wrote the page and why they know the topic
- Quick
Cite primary sources
Back claims with links to reputable references
- Medium
Keep brand details consistent
Same name, category and facts wherever you appear
- Project
Earn mentions on trusted sites
Get referenced where engines already look
Content
Your pages answer the query less fully, or less directly, than the pages that get cited. Better coverage of the topic closes it.
Typical effortMediumWriting and page updates
- Medium
Answer the query directly
Put a clear answer near the top of the page
- Medium
Cover the related questions
Add the sub-topics buyers ask about next
- Quick
Add an FAQ block
Short, quotable answers engines can reuse
- Project
Publish a dedicated page
When no page on your site targets the topic at all
Coverage
Some engines mention you and others don't. It's measured as platforms tested against the platforms that mentioned you.
Typical effortVariesDepends on the lagging engine
- Quick
Find the engines that miss you
Compare mentions by platform for the keyword
- Quick
Audit the page in TrueTrace
See per-engine scores and where they diverge
- Medium
Strengthen the weak signals
Work on the factors the lagging engine scores low
- Quick
Re-track and refresh
Confirm the gap closes on the next lookback
If any crawler is blocked, fix Discovery gaps first. Nothing else helps until engines can read the page.
Severity scoring
A score from 0 to 100 for every gap.
Three inputs from your tracking data set how serious each gap is. 75 or above is Critical, 55 or above is High.
What counts as a gap
AI mention rate of 50% or lower, or a blocked crawler with a mention rate under 100%.
Wins, too
Keywords where your AI mention rate is already strong are listed too, so you know what not to touch.
Confidence note
The summary tiles carry a confidence note based on how your citation feedback has been calibrated.
crm pricing comparison
SampleAI mention rateFrom tracking, 0 to 10.22
Platforms mentionedVersus platforms tested1 / 4
Competitor citation densityHow often rivals are citedHigh
combine
82
Critical
05575100
Lookback: 30 / 90 / 180 days
Getting started
From tracking data to a fix list.
STEP 01Data
Track keywords first
Citation Gap runs on tracked keyword data. Add a brand and run a few tracking sessions so there are real mention rates to work with.
STEP 02Scope
Pick brand and lookback
Open Citation Gap and choose your brand and a 30, 90 or 180 day window. Look at the summary tiles and the crawler panel first.
STEP 03Fix
Fix discovery, then work the list
If crawlers are blocked, sort out robots.txt and llms.txt first. Then go through the Critical and High gap cards with the recommended fixes.
Refresh any time to catch regressionsFind your first gaps →
Real scenario
After a site migration, mentions start slipping.
After a move to a new CMS, AI mention rates start to slide. Open Citation Gap on a 30-day lookback and check the crawler panel first: the new robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot and llms.txt didn't survive the move. Hand that Discovery gap to whoever owns robots.txt, work the other Critical cards like crm pricing, and refresh after the next tracking run.
- Use the 30-day window when you're chasing a recent chang
- Read the crawler panel before you open any gap car
- Refresh after the next tracking run to confirm the gaps close
Works better together
Citation Gap finds the keyword. TrueTrace fixes the page.
FAQ
Questions we get a lot.
How Citation Gap finds the keywords you're missing, and how it scores them.
Still have questions?
Check which plan includes Citation Gap and how it sits next to TrueTrace.
Compare plans →Do I need tracked keywords before using Citation Gap?
Yes. Citation Gap works from the AI mention rates in your tracking results, so without them there is nothing to analyze. Run Track Keywords for your brand first, then come back for the gap analysis.
What AI crawlers does it check?
It checks GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended, the bots AI engines use to index content. It also looks for an llms.txt file on your site.
What counts as a gap?
A keyword counts as a gap when your AI mention rate is 50% or lower. It also counts when an AI crawler is blocked and your mention rate is anything below 100%.
How is gap severity calculated?
Three inputs make up a severity score from 0 to 100: your AI mention rate (0 to 1), the platforms tested versus the platforms that mentioned you, and competitor citation density. 75 or above is Critical and 55 or above is High.
Which lookback windows can I use?
You can pick 30, 90 or 180 days. A short window shows recent changes, a long one shows the pattern. You can refresh the analysis at any time to catch regressions.
What's the difference between Citation Gap and TrueTrace URL audit?
They work at different levels. TrueTrace audits one URL for AI citability factors. Citation Gap works at the keyword level, going through your tracked keywords to find where competitors win AI citations that you don't.
How do I fix 'Discovery' gaps?
Update robots.txt to unblock GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ClaudeBot, publish an llms.txt file and submit your sitemap. A Discovery gap means AI crawlers can't reach your content, and these are the fastest fixes on the list.
Stop guessing why AI skips you. Get the reason and the fix.
Start free, track your keywords, and Citation Gap will turn the results into a ranked list of fixes.
Live crawler checks
Reason-coded gaps
Fixes ranked by severity