For a buyer, the mention is what counts: it is the name they read in the answer and may search for next. A mention can come with a citation of your own site, a citation of someone else’s page, or no link at all.
Counting mentions sounds simple and isn’t. A brand may appear under several names: a full company name, a short name, a product name, a spelling with or without ”&”. If the search for your name misses one of them, the count comes out too low, in the direction that makes the result look worse than it is. That is why Citationly asks for every name your brand goes by, matches whole words only (so a short name doesn’t match inside a longer one), and describes results as “not named in any of these answers” rather than claiming a brand is absent.
Mentions also need context. Being named as the top pick and being named with a caution are both mentions; a useful report shows which is which. Read how to measure AI visibility without a made-up score.