What is citation lift?

Definition

Citation lift is the change in how often major LLMs cite your brand on the same shopper query when you add structured store context (llms.txt, MCP tools, schema improvements).

We express it as:

• Raw counts (e.g. 3/12 → 9/12 queries cited)
• Percentage delta (+150% lift)
• Per-model breakdown (ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Perplexity)

Why before/after matters

Single-shot visibility checks are noisy. A controlled lab audit holds prompts, models, and competitor sets constant so the only variable is your store's legibility.

How Agentic Shelf calculates it

1. Select representative shopper queries (category bank or custom list)
2. Run each query across four LLMs without merchant context
3. Re-run with llms.txt + MCP context injected
4. Score citations, link-outs, and competitor co-mentions
5. Export Markdown / JSON for stakeholders

What good looks like

Lift varies by category and catalog quality. The goal is a repeatable upward trend in saved audit history — not a one-time vanity score.