{"schemaVersion":"ready-scan.discovery-resource.v1","id":"urn:readyscan:discovery:source-influence","slug":"source-influence","kind":"guide","canonicalUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/source-influence","machineUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/discovery/resources/source-influence.json","title":"Source influence in AI visibility scorecards","description":"Source influence explains which domains and citations appeared in retained AI answers and how they support the scorecard evidence.","h1":"Sources are evidence, not magic authority.","summary":"When an AI answer cites sources or mentions source domains, marketers need to see them beside the answer outcome. Ready Scan keeps source context attached to the scored answer instead of treating it as a separate hidden ranking factor.","answer":{"question":"What is source influence in an AI visibility scorecard?","text":"Source influence is the retained source and citation context attached to AI answers. It can include owned pages, third-party pages, communities, publishers, marketplaces, documentation, video, and competitor domains. Ready Scan shows source evidence where it was returned by the selected answer surface, while keeping search-result-only observations separate from narrative recommendation scoring.","sourceIds":["ready-scan-report-guide","ready-scan-ai-visibility-guide"]},"sections":[{"title":"Source classes the report can show","body":"The source list helps a marketer understand where the answer drew support.","sourceIds":["ready-scan-report-guide","ready-scan-ai-visibility-guide"],"items":[{"title":"Owned pages","body":"Product, feature, comparison, pricing, documentation, and proof pages controlled by the brand."},{"title":"Third-party sources","body":"Review sites, marketplaces, customer stories, directories, publishers, and community discussions."},{"title":"Competitor sources","body":"Competitor-owned pages that appear in answers or citations."},{"title":"Unscored search observations","body":"Search-result checks can support context, but they do not become narrative recommendation score cells."}]}],"sources":[{"id":"ready-scan-report-guide","title":"Ready Scan report guide","publisher":"Ready Scan","url":"https://readyscan.ai/reports","accessedOn":"2026-07-27"},{"id":"ready-scan-ai-visibility-guide","title":"Ready Scan AI citation visibility guide","publisher":"Ready Scan","url":"https://readyscan.ai/ai-citation-visibility","accessedOn":"2026-07-27"}],"ownership":{"state":"ready_owned","publisher":{"name":"Ready Scan","url":"https://readyscan.ai"},"verificationMethod":"first_party_publication","verificationSource":"https://readyscan.ai/source-influence"},"datePublished":"2026-07-12","dateModified":"2026-07-27","related":[{"id":"urn:readyscan:discovery:reports","canonicalUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/reports","machineUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/discovery/resources/reports.json"},{"id":"urn:readyscan:discovery:ai-citation-visibility","canonicalUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/ai-citation-visibility","machineUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/discovery/resources/ai-citation-visibility.json"},{"id":"urn:readyscan:discovery:engines","canonicalUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/engines","machineUrl":null},{"id":"urn:readyscan:discovery:buyer-questions","canonicalUrl":"https://readyscan.ai/buyer-questions","machineUrl":null}],"structuredData":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Source influence in AI visibility scorecards","description":"Source influence explains which domains and citations appeared in retained AI answers and how they support the scorecard evidence.","mainEntityOfPage":"https://readyscan.ai/source-influence","datePublished":"2026-07-12","dateModified":"2026-07-27","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Ready Scan","url":"https://readyscan.ai"},"citation":["https://readyscan.ai/reports","https://readyscan.ai/ai-citation-visibility"]}}