There are only a few reasons Gemini names someone else, and they are separable. Gemini is grounded in Google Search, so its source pool overlaps heavily with what already ranks. Of the six, it is the one where classic SEO work transfers most directly: a page that moves from position 30 to position 5 changes its odds here in a way it does not on ChatGPT.. Gemini is grounded in Google Search, so its source pool overlaps heavily with what already ranks. Of the six, it is the one where classic SEO work transfers most directly: a page that moves from position 30 to position 5 changes its odds here in a way it does not on ChatGPT.
How Gemini actually decides
Gemini is grounded in Google Search, so its source pool overlaps heavily with what already ranks. Of the six, it is the one where classic SEO work transfers most directly: a page that moves from position 30 to position 5 changes its odds here in a way it does not on ChatGPT.
Its citations skew toward pages that already rank in Google Search for the same query, plus Google’s own properties. In practice that means the surfaces worth auditing first are top-ranking organic results, YouTube, Google Business Profiles for local queries, structured data.
The method, in order
Rule out reachability first. If Google-Extended (controls Gemini training use; Googlebot still crawls for Search) cannot fetch your pages, nothing else on this list matters.
Check whether you are absent or merely outranked. Being unmentioned is a different problem from being mentioned third, and the fixes do not overlap.
Look at what it cites instead. Gemini favours pages that already rank in Google Search for the same query, plus Google’s own properties: if your competitors are present in top-ranking organic results and you are not, that is usually the whole answer.
Check your claims are verifiable somewhere other than your own marketing. Engines corroborate; a claim that appears only on your homepage rarely survives into an answer.
Then fix the cheapest thing that moves: improve the organic ranking of the page you want quoted, since grounding follows the SERP.
The honest caveat
Blocking Google-Extended stops your content training Gemini but does not remove you from grounded answers: the two are separate controls and are widely confused.
Cituna checks Gemini daily alongside the other five engines, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok and Google AI Overviews, on the $39 Starter, and pairs the result with Google Search Console so a change here can be tied to real clicks. We do not track Microsoft Copilot.
Drafted with AI assistance from our own research and Search Console data, and reviewed by Rahul A before publishing. Rules and prices change; check the linked official source before you act.