# Wrong page citation review worksheet

Compare the exact owned URL cited in an answer with the page registered to answer that buyer question. Preserve useful alternate pages and collection gaps, then choose one supported next check.

Worksheet version 1.0 · 25 September 2026. Complete and repeat records as needed. Blank fields request your evidence; these manual files do not collect answers, publish changes or calculate RankEcho product metrics.

Complete guide: https://rankecho.io/resources/find/issues/wrong-page-cited

## 1 Register the intended page

Set the page owner before inspecting the answer. If ownership is unresolved, retain the competing candidates and stop the mismatch verdict.

**Question and registration** — Record exact prompt, prompt ID, decision, owner map version, registration time and reviewer. Link the record showing registration before answer classification.

[Enter your response]

**Intended page and supporting roles** — Record the intended page ID, exact URL, user job and saved version. List hub, checklist, documentation and other candidates with their separate roles and ownership evidence.

[Enter your response]

**Collection and URL rules** — Freeze service, surface, locale, account state, model label, source role rule and URL normalization rule. Name permitted aliases, redirect handling and tracking parameters; preserve path identity.

[Enter your response]

## 2 Preserve each answer and URL event

Copy these records for every planned cell and visible URL. Several links in one answer remain one cell. Failed collection creates no citation event.

**Cell state and evidence** — Record cell ID, prompt ID, context ID, window and UTC capture time. Retain observed, observed unclassifiable, unavailable or failed state, reason and raw answer or failure pointer.

[Enter your response]

**Exact URL event** — For each source, record event ID, cell ID, original URL, redirect chain, resolved and normalized URL, UI role, capture pointer and qualification decision. Keep unresolved URLs unresolved.

[Enter your response]

**Page role and deduplication** — Match each qualifying owned URL to the registered page ID and role. Deduplicate only under the frozen within-cell rule. Retain all alternate citations and excluded source roles.

[Enter your response]

## 3 Reconcile the classification

The fictional Alderwave example has six planned cells, five classifiable answers and one failed collection. C03 cites T01 and S01, so the intended owner is present.

**Cell by cell verdict** — Assign owner present, non-owner only, no owned citation or unclassifiable from saved events. Preserve missing states separately. Stop when the intended owner was chosen after capture.

[Enter your response]

**Counts and event totals** — Reconcile planned and classifiable cells, missing states, class totals and deduplicated URL events. A zero classifiable denominator is insufficient evidence, never 0%.

[Enter your response]

**Independent review** — Ask a reviewer to reproduce the owner verdict from the frozen map, exact URLs and captures. Record disagreements and corrections without changing the contract to fit the result.

[Enter your response]

| Fictional page | Owned URL events | Registered role |
| --- | --- | --- |
| T01 | 1 | Intended owner |
| W01 | 3 | Checklist |
| S01 | 3 | Documentation |
| H01 | 1 | Ancestor hub |

## 4 Select the next check

A mismatch describes the operator's page map and the captured answer. It does not establish why a provider chose that URL or that another page is inaccurate.

**Bounded finding** — State which exact intended owner was absent and which pages appeared. Keep owner present with alternates, no owned link, missing captures and unresolved ownership distinct.

[Enter your response]

**Defect evidence and alternatives** — Choose one page or delivery check that could support or challenge a repair. An internal-link proposal needs directly observed missing relevant links, not the citation mismatch alone.

[Enter your response]

**Owner and handoff** — Record the receiving owner, due date, evidence locations and decision. Link any approved repair ticket. Preserve distinct pages and self-canonicals unless a separate consolidation review justifies change.

[Enter your response]

## Complete guide

A wrong-page-cited diagnosis starts with a qualifying target-owned source link and compares its resolved URL with the page predeclared before capture to own that prompt's user job. “Wrong” means mismatched with the operator's frozen, resolved page-owner contract; it does not mean the cited page is inaccurate, that the provider made an error, or that the mismatch reveals a private selection cause. Preserve original and resolved URLs, alternate citations, page roles, answer states, and raw evidence. Site traffic is a separate outcome and is not required.

Original guide update: 2026-09-07. Worksheet prepared 25 September 2026. The original guide and its evidence records retain their dates. This manual review record complements the original guide and retains its separate method and product boundaries.

## What is the scope of a wrong-page-cited diagnosis?

Use this method when an answer contains a qualifying citation or supporting-source link to the target site, but the operator needs to know whether the exact cited URL owns the registered prompt job. The unit is one prompt-surface cell plus its deduplicated normalized owned-URL events.

A topical blog post, documentation page, and product page can all be useful without owning the same question. Record their roles rather than treating every non-target URL as bad content or a duplicate.


## Which page-owner contract is frozen first?

Register the exact prompt and intended owner before inspecting the answer. The owner is an editorial and information-architecture decision supported by the page's user job, not a provider-supplied label.

The fictional P01–P03 prompts all belong to T01. H01 orients across modules, W01 is a checklist, and S01 documents fields; their narrower roles remain useful.

If duplicate pages or unresolved ownership leave more than one plausible owner, report ownership as indeterminate and resolve that problem before applying a wrong-page verdict.

| Prompt | Declared owner | Why this page owns the job |
| --- | --- | --- |
| P01 · What supplier-risk signals does Alderwave Relay monitor? | T01 · /platform/supplier-risk | The product page owns the product-scope question; the checklist and documentation support narrower tasks. |
| P02 · How does Alderwave Relay document a supplier-risk review? | T01 · /platform/supplier-risk | The product page owns the workflow overview and links to field-level documentation. |
| P03 · What is included in Alderwave Relay supplier-risk monitoring? | T01 · /platform/supplier-risk | The product page owns the included-capabilities question; the hub remains broader. |


## Which collection and classification states remain separate?

Classify answer availability first and URL ownership second. A failed or unavailable request cannot be converted into a non-owner citation.

| State | Meaning | Treatment |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner present | Eligible answer cites the exact normalized intended-owner URL | Retain other cited URLs too |
| Non-owner only | Eligible answer cites owned pages, but not the declared owner | Inspect page roles; do not assign provider cause |
| No owned citation | Eligible answer contains no qualifying owned URL | Different diagnosis; no URL mismatch event |
| Observed unclassifiable | Answer exists, but source role or URL cannot be classified under the frozen rule | Exclude from classifiable count and retain capture |
| Unavailable or failed | No eligible answer was preserved | Exclude from classifiable count and retain reason |
| Duplicate or unresolved ownership | The operator cannot name one supported owner before capture | Indeterminate; do not issue a wrong-page verdict |


## What does the worked synthetic cell ledger show?

SYNTHETIC EXAMPLE — Alderwave Relay, its pages, prompts, surfaces, citations, links, and observations are fictional; this is not RankEcho data, customer data, provider evidence, or a benchmark.

Six stable cells combine three registered prompts with two generic surfaces. Five answers are classifiable and one collection fails. C03 contains T01 plus S01 and is not a target miss; C01, C02, C04, and C05 contain only non-owner pages.

| Cell | Prompt and surface | State | Qualifying owned URLs | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| C01 | P01 · Surface A | Observed · non-owner pages only | W01 /blog/supplier-risk-checklist; S01 /docs/review-evidence | synthetic-evidence/baseline/C01-answer |
| C02 | P01 · Surface B | Observed · non-owner pages only | W01 /blog/supplier-risk-checklist | synthetic-evidence/baseline/C02-answer |
| C03 | P02 · Surface A | Observed · intended owner present | T01 /platform/supplier-risk; S01 /docs/review-evidence | synthetic-evidence/baseline/C03-answer |
| C04 | P02 · Surface B | Observed · non-owner pages only | S01 /docs/review-evidence | synthetic-evidence/baseline/C04-answer |
| C05 | P03 · Surface A | Observed · non-owner pages only | H01 /platform; W01 /blog/supplier-risk-checklist | synthetic-evidence/baseline/C05-answer |
| C06 | P03 · Surface B | Failed | None | synthetic-evidence/baseline/C06-failure |


## Which exact URL events produce the diagnosis?

The five observed cells contain eight qualifying target-owned URL events after within-cell normalization: T01 appears once, W01 three times, S01 three times, and H01 once. C06 contributes no event because it failed before an eligible answer was captured.

W01 appears in three owner-mismatch cells and overlaps the product question most directly. That makes its relationship with T01 a bounded site-architecture check; it does not explain why an answer system cited W01.

| Event | Cell | Resolved owned URL | Page role | UI role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| U01 | C01 | W01 · https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist | competing-page | citation |
| U02 | C01 | S01 · https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence | supporting-spoke | supporting-source |
| U03 | C02 | W01 · https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist | competing-page | citation |
| U04 | C03 | T01 · https://alderwave.example/platform/supplier-risk | intended-owner | citation |
| U05 | C03 | S01 · https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence | supporting-spoke | supporting-source |
| U06 | C04 | S01 · https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence | supporting-spoke | supporting-source |
| U07 | C05 | H01 · https://alderwave.example/platform | ancestor-hub | citation |
| U08 | C05 | W01 · https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist | competing-page | citation |


## How does this differ from adjacent measurements?

This diagnostic preserves exact URL identity and page ownership. It does not calculate RankEcho's Citation rate or the separate manual owned-link rate.

| Method | Unit and question |
| --- | --- |
| Wrong-page diagnosis | Does a qualifying owned URL match the predeclared owner for this exact prompt cell? |
| Citation rate | What share of eligible cells meets a declared citation rule within one window? |
| Answer volatility | How often do unordered repeat pairs disagree on a predeclared feature signature? |
| Fixed-prompt retest | What changed between a registered baseline and a later matched observation? |
| Citation persistence | After an exact-target citation creates an inception cohort, which cells remain continuously confirmed through ordered later windows? |


## Which false positives should stop the handoff?

Stop when the intended owner was declared after seeing the answer, no qualifying target-owned source was captured, the target appears alongside an alternate page, the visible URL was merely related rather than a qualifying citation, redirect resolution is missing, or ownership is unresolved.

Google's canonical methods apply to duplicate or very similar pages. Do not point distinct hubs, checklists, and documentation pages at the product page with rel=canonical merely because their topics overlap.


## What deterministic validation completes Find?

Find is complete when another person can reproduce the owner classification from the registered cells and captures. A later citation, rank, referral, or traffic result is not an acceptance condition.

| Check | Pass condition | Evidence retained |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner registration | Prompt text, intended URL, page job, and version predate classification | P01–P03 owner records |
| Context | Surface, locale, session, role rule, and normalization rule are frozen | CTX-A and CTX-B |
| Availability | Observed, unclassifiable, unavailable, and failed never collapse | Six-cell state ledger |
| URL identity | Original URL, resolved URL, UI role, page role, and capture pointer are present | Eight URL-event records |
| Arithmetic | Five classifiable cells, one failure, and T01/W01/S01/H01 counts of 1/3/3/1 recompute | Machine projection |
| Zero denominator | No classifiable observed cells renders insufficient rather than 0% | Display-state test |


## How does Find hand off to the bounded fix and proof?

Inspect the cited page set in Source Intelligence, then carry the manual owner map and URL-event ledger alongside the product record. RankEcho does not currently enforce this companion prompt-owner contract or compute this exact event-role projection.

Page Intelligence high flags compare a page-audit target path with a different cited owned path. Its sitewide review flags use pricing and comparison URL-prefix heuristics. Both are leads for inspection, not this manual pre-capture, resolved-owner verdict.

The next page validates a five-edge internal-link cluster. All later outcome connections terminate at the citation-persistence method, which keeps exact-target continuity separate from the deployment check.

- [Inspect the cited page set](https://rankecho.io/product/source-intelligence)
- [Build the internal-link cluster](https://rankecho.io/resources/fix/internal-link-cluster)
- [Measure exact-target citation persistence](https://rankecho.io/resources/prove/citation-persistence)

## Who maintains this guide?

Written and maintained by Abiot Y. Derbie. Published 2026-09-07; sources checked 2026-09-07; last updated 2026-09-07. The worked ledger is synthetic.

Recheck provider source labels, URL behavior, and page ownership before applying the method. Send material corrections through the contact page.

- [Send a correction](https://rankecho.io/contact)
- [Review measurement definitions](https://rankecho.io/methodology)

## What makes a cited page the wrong page?

Only a mismatch with a page-owner contract registered before classification. The label does not mean the page is false, useless, or selected by mistake.

## Does any citation to my domain count as the intended page?

No. Resolve and normalize the displayed URL, then compare its exact page identity with the registered owner while retaining other page roles.

## Should a failed answer count as a wrong-page citation?

No. A failed or unavailable cell has no eligible citation classification and remains outside the classifiable count.

## Does this diagnosis reveal why an AI system chose a URL?

No. It documents which owned URL appeared and how that URL relates to the operator's page map; selection causes remain unknown.

## Is this an AI citation-rate calculation?

No. It is an exact-URL ownership classification. Citation rate uses a separately declared positive event and eligible-cell denominator.

## Preserved dated evidence

- [Bing Webmaster Blog: AI Performance](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/February-2026/Introducing-AI-Performance-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Public-Preview) — checked 2026-09-07. Bing's public-preview AI Performance report exposes citation counts, cited pages, trends, and sampled grounding-query phrases while warning that citation count does not indicate placement, ranking, authority, or page importance. Public preview announced February 10, 2026 Primary-source documentation check; Bing reports provider aggregates, not this guide's prompt-level owner classification or exact-URL persistence cohort. Confidence: High

- [Google Search: canonical URL methods](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls) — checked 2026-09-07. Google documents redirects, rel=canonical, and sitemap inclusion as canonicalization signals for duplicate or very similar pages and says these methods can stack. Current Google Search canonicalization documentation Primary-source documentation check; canonicalization applies to duplicate or very similar pages. It is not a way to declare every topical page subordinate, expose an AI answer system's chosen owner, or cause a citation. Confidence: High

- [OpenAI Help: searching the web with ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-searching-the-web-with-chatgpt) — checked 2026-09-07. OpenAI says ChatGPT Search may rewrite a question into targeted search queries and provides inline citations and a Sources panel for web-search responses; it also warns that cited information can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect. Current consumer ChatGPT Search guidance Primary-source documentation check; the page does not define a site owner's prompt-to-page ownership contract, reveal why one URL appeared, or define cross-provider citation persistence. Confidence: High

## Complete fictional source records

These are the original fictional Alderwave Relay records, not real captures, customer observations or deployment receipts. Evidence pointers label the teaching records; replace them with your retained evidence before use.

```json
{
  "pages": [
    {
      "id": "T01",
      "url": "https://alderwave.example/platform/supplier-risk",
      "path": "/platform/supplier-risk",
      "role": "intended-owner",
      "userJob": "Explain the fictional Alderwave Relay supplier-risk monitoring product.",
      "version": "synthetic-target-v4",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/pages/T01-v4"
    },
    {
      "id": "H01",
      "url": "https://alderwave.example/platform",
      "path": "/platform",
      "role": "ancestor-hub",
      "userJob": "Orient readers across the fictional platform modules.",
      "version": "synthetic-hub-v3",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/pages/H01-v3"
    },
    {
      "id": "W01",
      "url": "https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist",
      "path": "/blog/supplier-risk-checklist",
      "role": "competing-page",
      "userJob": "Provide a fictional supplier-risk checklist rather than own the product prompts.",
      "version": "synthetic-checklist-v6",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/pages/W01-v6"
    },
    {
      "id": "S01",
      "url": "https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence",
      "path": "/docs/review-evidence",
      "role": "supporting-spoke",
      "userJob": "Document fictional review-evidence fields used by the product workflow.",
      "version": "synthetic-docs-v2",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/pages/S01-v2"
    }
  ],
  "promptOwners": [
    {
      "id": "P01",
      "prompt": "What supplier-risk signals does Alderwave Relay monitor?",
      "intendedOwnerId": "T01",
      "ownershipState": "resolved",
      "ownerReason": "The product page owns the product-scope question; the checklist and documentation support narrower tasks.",
      "registrationVersion": "synthetic-owner-map-v1",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/owners/P01"
    },
    {
      "id": "P02",
      "prompt": "How does Alderwave Relay document a supplier-risk review?",
      "intendedOwnerId": "T01",
      "ownershipState": "resolved",
      "ownerReason": "The product page owns the workflow overview and links to field-level documentation.",
      "registrationVersion": "synthetic-owner-map-v1",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/owners/P02"
    },
    {
      "id": "P03",
      "prompt": "What is included in Alderwave Relay supplier-risk monitoring?",
      "intendedOwnerId": "T01",
      "ownershipState": "resolved",
      "ownerReason": "The product page owns the included-capabilities question; the hub remains broader.",
      "registrationVersion": "synthetic-owner-map-v1",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/owners/P03"
    }
  ],
  "contexts": [
    {
      "id": "CTX-A",
      "surface": "Surface A",
      "serviceLabel": "Fictional answer surface A",
      "locale": "en-US",
      "accountState": "signed-out synthetic session",
      "modelLabel": "not exposed",
      "citationRoleRule": "Count only links the fictional interface marks as citations or supporting sources; exclude related and suggested links.",
      "urlNormalizationRule": "Resolve redirects, remove fragments and declared tracking parameters, lowercase the host, preserve the path, and compare the resulting exact URL.",
      "collectionMode": "One scheduled manual capture per prompt and window."
    },
    {
      "id": "CTX-B",
      "surface": "Surface B",
      "serviceLabel": "Fictional answer surface B",
      "locale": "en-US",
      "accountState": "signed-out synthetic session",
      "modelLabel": "not exposed",
      "citationRoleRule": "Count only links the fictional interface marks as citations or supporting sources; exclude related and suggested links.",
      "urlNormalizationRule": "Resolve redirects, remove fragments and declared tracking parameters, lowercase the host, preserve the path, and compare the resulting exact URL.",
      "collectionMode": "One scheduled manual capture per prompt and window."
    }
  ],
  "cells": [
    {
      "id": "C01",
      "promptId": "P01",
      "contextId": "CTX-A",
      "surface": "Surface A",
      "state": "observed",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C01-answer",
      "stateReason": "Eligible answer and all qualifying source locations captured."
    },
    {
      "id": "C02",
      "promptId": "P01",
      "contextId": "CTX-B",
      "surface": "Surface B",
      "state": "observed",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C02-answer",
      "stateReason": "Eligible answer and all qualifying source locations captured."
    },
    {
      "id": "C03",
      "promptId": "P02",
      "contextId": "CTX-A",
      "surface": "Surface A",
      "state": "observed",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C03-answer",
      "stateReason": "Eligible answer and all qualifying source locations captured."
    },
    {
      "id": "C04",
      "promptId": "P02",
      "contextId": "CTX-B",
      "surface": "Surface B",
      "state": "observed",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C04-answer",
      "stateReason": "Eligible answer and all qualifying source locations captured."
    },
    {
      "id": "C05",
      "promptId": "P03",
      "contextId": "CTX-A",
      "surface": "Surface A",
      "state": "observed",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C05-answer",
      "stateReason": "Eligible answer and all qualifying source locations captured."
    },
    {
      "id": "C06",
      "promptId": "P03",
      "contextId": "CTX-B",
      "surface": "Surface B",
      "state": "failed",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C06-failure",
      "stateReason": "Synthetic collection failure before an eligible answer was preserved."
    }
  ],
  "urlEvents": [
    {
      "id": "U01",
      "cellId": "C01",
      "pageId": "W01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist?ref=answer",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist",
      "uiRole": "citation",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C01-source-1"
    },
    {
      "id": "U02",
      "cellId": "C01",
      "pageId": "S01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence",
      "uiRole": "supporting-source",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C01-source-2"
    },
    {
      "id": "U03",
      "cellId": "C02",
      "pageId": "W01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist",
      "uiRole": "citation",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C02-source-1"
    },
    {
      "id": "U04",
      "cellId": "C03",
      "pageId": "T01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/platform/supplier-risk",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/platform/supplier-risk",
      "uiRole": "citation",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C03-source-1"
    },
    {
      "id": "U05",
      "cellId": "C03",
      "pageId": "S01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence#fields",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence",
      "uiRole": "supporting-source",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C03-source-2"
    },
    {
      "id": "U06",
      "cellId": "C04",
      "pageId": "S01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/docs/review-evidence",
      "uiRole": "supporting-source",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C04-source-1"
    },
    {
      "id": "U07",
      "cellId": "C05",
      "pageId": "H01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/platform",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/platform",
      "uiRole": "citation",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C05-source-1"
    },
    {
      "id": "U08",
      "cellId": "C05",
      "pageId": "W01",
      "originalUrl": "https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist",
      "resolvedUrl": "https://alderwave.example/blog/supplier-risk-checklist",
      "uiRole": "citation",
      "evidencePointer": "synthetic-evidence/baseline/C05-source-2"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Related reading

- [Find resource selector](https://rankecho.io/resources/find)
- [Internal-link cluster](https://rankecho.io/resources/fix/internal-link-cluster)
- [Citation persistence](https://rankecho.io/resources/prove/citation-persistence)
- [Prompt gap analysis](https://rankecho.io/resources/find/prompt-gap-analysis)

## Product next step

Inspect the cited page set in Source Intelligence and keep this manual owner record with the evidence. Its exact URL classification is separate from product page flags and citation metrics. https://rankecho.io/product/source-intelligence