Perplexity has one massive advantage over every other AI tool: it shows its sources.
Every answer comes with citations. Clickable links, right there in the response. That means when Perplexity mentions your brand, there's a trail. When it doesn't, you can see exactly who got the nod instead.
This makes tracking feel like it should be easy. And compared to ChatGPT or Claude, it is easier. But "easier" doesn't mean "effortless." There are still real challenges to solving this well.
Why Perplexity citations matter more than you think
Perplexity is growing fast among professionals who want AI-powered answers backed by real sources. Unlike ChatGPT, where recommendations feel like opinions, Perplexity's cited answers feel like research. Users trust those links.
When Perplexity cites your site, two things happen:
Direct traffic. People click through. Perplexity referral traffic has become a measurable channel for many businesses.
Credibility by association. Being cited alongside authoritative sources positions you as part of the trusted answer. It's like being quoted in a well-sourced article.
When Perplexity cites your competitor instead? You've lost both the traffic and the implied endorsement.
What makes Perplexity tracking different
Compared to other AI tools, Perplexity has specific characteristics that affect how you track it.
The citation advantage
Every response includes numbered citations linking to actual URLs. You can literally see if your domain appears. With ChatGPT, you have to read through generated text and guess whether a recommendation came from your content. Perplexity shows you the receipts.
The freshness factor
Perplexity pulls from the live web more aggressively than other LLMs. This means your visibility can change faster. New content can appear in citations within days, not months. But it also means your position isn't as stable. You might be cited Monday and gone by Thursday if fresher content appears.
Query variation still matters
Ask Perplexity "best CRM for consultants" and "CRM recommendations for solo consultants." You'll likely get different citations. The core challenge of AI tracking, that small prompt differences produce different results, still applies here.
Focus mode changes results
Perplexity has different search modes (All, Academic, Writing, etc.). Each mode can produce different citations for the same query. Your visibility might differ across modes.
The manual approach
You can start tracking Perplexity mentions right now, with nothing more than a browser and a spreadsheet.
Step 1: Build your prompt list
Write the relevant queries your potential customers would ask. These are the ones that matter most:
- "What's the best [your category] for [your audience]?"
- "Compare [your product] vs [competitor]"
- "[your category] recommendations for [use case]"
- "Which [product type] is worth paying for?"
Aim for 20-30 prompts to start.
Step 2: Run queries and record citations
For each prompt, run the query on Perplexity and record:
- Your domain cited? (Yes/No)
- Citation position (1st source, 3rd source, etc.)
- Page cited (which specific URL from your site)
- Competitors cited (which domains appear)
- Answer context (how does the text around the citation describe you)
- Date checked
Step 3: Check different Perplexity modes
Run at least your top 10 prompts in both the default mode and any other relevant focus modes. Note if your visibility changes between them.
Step 4: Repeat weekly
Consistency matters. Same prompts, same spreadsheet, same day each week. Over a month, you'll see patterns that a single check would miss.
Where manual tracking falls short
This approach works for a quick snapshot. But it has real limits:
Time. Running 30 prompts manually, reading each response, recording citation data... that's an hour of work, minimum. Every single week.
Inconsistency. Are you phrasing prompts identically each time? Using the same Perplexity account settings? Small differences compound over weeks.
No historical comparison. A spreadsheet gives you rows of data. It doesn't automatically flag when you've lost a citation you used to have, or when a competitor just appeared.
Single-platform blind spot. Tracking Perplexity alone ignores ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. Your customers use all of them.
No alerts. If you lose a key citation on Tuesday, you won't know until your next manual check.
Automated tracking
Automated tools remove these limitations. With Mentionable, you set up tracking once and get ongoing visibility data across Perplexity and four other LLMs.
How it works
- Enter your website URL
- Mentionable generates relevant prompts based on your site content
- Select which prompts to track (or add your own)
- Automated queries run on a regular schedule across all five LLMs
- Results populate your dashboard with trends, alerts, and competitive data
For Perplexity specifically, this means you see which queries cite your domain, how citation positions change over time, and which competitors are capturing citations you're missing.
What automated tracking captures
- Citation frequency per prompt
- Citation position trends
- Specific URLs being cited (and whether they change)
- Competitor citation analysis
- Cross-platform comparison (are you visible on Perplexity but invisible on ChatGPT?)
How to interpret your Perplexity data
Raw data isn't useful. Here's how to turn Perplexity tracking into action.
Look at citation position, not just presence
Being cited as the 7th source in a long list is different from being the 1st or 2nd citation. Perplexity users scan the top sources first. Track your average citation position over time, not just whether you appear.
Compare against competitors
If your competitor is cited in 80% of your target prompts and you're at 20%, that gap tells you something. Look at their cited pages. What content are they producing that earns those citations? What signals are they sending that you aren't?
Watch for page-level patterns
Perplexity cites specific pages, not just domains. If the same blog post keeps getting cited, that's a content asset worth updating and expanding. If a key page never gets cited, it might need restructuring.
Cross-reference with traffic data
Check your analytics for Perplexity referral traffic. Does citation tracking data correlate with actual visits? Some citations drive clicks. Others don't. Knowing the difference helps you prioritize.
Track freshness sensitivity
Run your queries twice over two weeks. If citations change dramatically, Perplexity is weighting recency heavily for those topics. This means frequent content updates could improve your visibility.
Action plan based on your data
If you're cited frequently
Protect your position. Keep cited content updated and comprehensive. Expand into adjacent prompts. Monitor competitors who might overtake you.
If you're rarely cited
Audit your content against what Perplexity is citing. Create comprehensive, well-structured pages targeting the queries where you're absent. Focus on the queries with the highest business value first.
If your citations are declining
Something shifted. Check if Perplexity's algorithm changed, if competitors published better content, or if your content became outdated. Act fast, because Perplexity's recency bias means you can recover quickly too.
If you're cited on Perplexity but not other LLMs
Your content is good enough for citation-based systems but may lack the authority signals that ChatGPT and Claude weigh. This points to a gap in overall brand authority rather than content quality.
Start tracking today
The simplest starting point: pick your five most important customer queries. Run them on Perplexity right now. Record the results.
If you want ongoing, automated monitoring across Perplexity and four other LLMs, Mentionable's 7-day free trial gives you a complete picture without the manual effort. You'll know within a week where you stand and what to fix.
