Cyrus Shepard is back on the BuzzStream Podcast to break down his AI Citation Ranking Factors study, a deep dive into dozens of research papers on what actually gets a brand cited by AI.

We talk through why URL accessibility still trips people up, why domain authority barely correlates with AI citations, why llms.txt has zero evidence behind it (yet), and why your "About Us" page might be more important than ever.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 – Intro

2:06 – Citations vs. mentions: which one actually matters?

7:03 – Ranking factor #1: URL accessibility

9:00 – Search rank and "fan-out" rank explained

11:15 – Query answer match and intent format match

13:00 – The truth about llms.txt

16:29 – Writing for AI vs. writing for people

19:46 – The "skyscraper" reversal and Gemini's citation budget

22:07 – Why your About Us page matters more than ever

25:16 – Domain authority barely correlates with AI citations

27:41 – Will Google crack down on mention spam?

29:30 – Trust as the new SEO currency

32:42 – Cyrus's elevator pitch for showing up in AI

🔗 LINKS:

• Read Cyrus's full study on Zyppy Signal: https://signal.zyppy.com/p/ai-citation-ranking-factors

• Check out ListIQ, BuzzStream's media list building tool: https://www.buzzstream.com/listiq

• Connect with Cyrus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyrusshepard/

• See the full post: https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/ai-citation-ranking-factors-podcast/

If you found this useful, subscribe for more conversations on SEO, digital PR, and AI search — and drop any questions for Cyrus in the comments; we'll get them answered.