TomHow / Notes / Citation gaps
Citation gaps need limits before they need a free tool
A gap report is useful when the panel, capture conditions and source availability are explicit. Absence records a finding, not a guaranteed repair.
Thomas HowcroftFounder of TomHow, Stevenage
01 / Practical checklist
Check it as you
read the note.
02 / The note in one picture
See it on
one page.
A worked example
03 / The detail
The detail,
when you want it.
Define the panel before reading the score
The panel is the set of questions, platforms and modes actually checked. It should reflect buyer decisions and keep branded questions separate from questions that do not name the business.
A result from five questions is a five-question observation. Do not describe it as the whole market or compare it with a larger panel without explaining the difference.
Work a small example correctly
Illustrative example only: 20 scheduled captures produce 16 completed answers. Twelve expose inspectable source lists. Four completed answers name the brand and two source-bearing answers cite its agreed domain.
Mention rate is 4/16, or 25%. Owned-domain source-citation rate is 2/12, or about 16.7%. Report four failed captures and four completed source-unavailable answers alongside the rates. They are not zero-citation observations.
Review what appeared instead
Preserve cited URLs and open the pages. Check whether they support the answer, which topic they cover and whether the intended business page answers the same question.
A competitor mention is distinct from a competitor-domain citation. A directory citation is distinct from a link to your own site. These differences change which source deserves review.
Choose the next action without inventing a cause
Independently check access, indexing where relevant, page relevance, current business facts and normal internal links. Fix a confirmed defect and rerun its technical check.
Treat unconfirmed content or profile explanations as experiments. Recheck comparable answers after the change, keep the original captures and state other changes that could affect the comparison. A citation-gap report does not guarantee rankings, leads or citations.
A mention, recommendation and citation are different
An answer can name a business without linking to it. It can recommend that business while citing a third-party article. It can also cite a page owned by the business without recommending its services. Record those outcomes separately.
For a hypothetical example, an answer might recommend Provider A and link to a guide written by Provider B. Provider A receives the recommendation; Provider B receives the source citation. Counting both as the same win would hide what happened.
Use a stable denominator for repeat checks
Report mention rate and source-citation rate separately for the same valid observations. Keep platform coverage visible and do not include failed checks as zero citations. Otherwise a change in access can look like a change in visibility.
Repeat the panel under comparable conditions and inspect the changed answers before explaining a trend. A new citation does not prove that a page edit caused it, and a crawler permission does not guarantee that a source will be selected.
Check the platform guidance.
About TomHow
Founder of TomHow and senior operator for SEO, GEO, AEO, and AI search evidence.
About the founder
Founder of TomHow, based in Stevenage. SEO and AI search consultancy.
Where this points next.
04 / Related reading