The box that eats your clicks, measured

• Your Google position has not dropped, but your clicks have. The box on top answers before anyone reaches your link.
• You search your query, see the box, and cannot tell whether it always appears or whether your history triggered it.
• The two competitors Google cites up there are not in your rankings report.

Being first is no longer enough when first sits below the answer.

1. 1

   The search runs without a session

   No cookies, no history, with country and language fixed. What you see in your own browser is contaminated by yesterday's searches; this is not.

2. 2

   It is classified into four states

   Cited if your domain is among the sources. Mentioned if your brand appears in the text with no link. Absent if the box appeared without you. And no box if Google did not trigger one. All four are different information and are counted separately.

3. 3

   It is stored for comparison

   The box changes sources from one week to the next without warning. Storing every check lets you see the exact day you dropped out and who took your place.

• The state of each query on each day, colour coded, with no half measures.
• The list of domains Google does cite, with how many times each one appears.
• The box text stored, so you know exactly what it said and not what you remember it saying.

• Publishers and shops that have seen clicks fall without losing position.
• Anyone who needs to know whether their content effort makes it into the cited sources.
• Agencies reporting a figure their client can verify by searching.

Google AI summaries start at Pro, because they come from a search results provider and cost money per query. Agency widens the number of tracked queries and the frequency. They are not in the trial: we would rather not put something that costs money per check into a free trial.

See the full pricing

Is the box you measure the same one I see?

It is the same kind of box, fetched from the country and language you set, with no session and no history. Yours may differ because Google personalises, so your screenshot and our data may not match. The difference is not a bug in either: it is what Google does, and we say so rather than hide it.

What is the difference between cited and mentioned?

Cited means your domain is among the box's linked sources: traffic can reach you. Mentioned means your brand appears in the text with no link: there is awareness and no click. Many tools add both into one figure, and that sum hides exactly what you need to decide where to invest.

How often should I check?

For most cases weekly is enough: the box does not change sources daily, and checking more only multiplies cost. If you are mid-migration or have just published the piece you want Google to cite, daily checks for a fortnight make sense, and after that they do not.

Can I do anything to get cited?

You can improve the odds, not guarantee it, and anyone guaranteeing a citation in Google's box does not know what they are talking about. What is known: cited sources tend to answer the question directly, in an extractable paragraph, with dated data, without making the reader scroll three screens. That can be worked on and measured.