Grounding

Grounding is the process of anchoring an AI model's answer in retrieved source documents rather than letting the model generate purely from memory. A grounded answer can point to the specific pages that support each claim, which is what produces citations.

How it works

The engine retrieves relevant documents, passes them to the model with the user's question, and instructs the model to base its answer on that evidence. Claims the sources support make it into the answer with attribution; claims they do not support are meant to be dropped. Content written with clear, factual, verifiable statements is easier to ground against and therefore easier to cite.

Why it matters

Engines prefer sources that make grounding easy. Pages full of vague claims and marketing language give the model nothing solid to anchor on. Pages with specific facts, figures, and plainly stated answers become the evidence layer of AI responses, and earn the citations that come with it. Learn more about our AI SEO agency.