Source ranking is the ordering logic a search system uses to decide which documents, websites, or citations appear first, most visibly, or as the default answer source. It can be based on relevance signals, freshness, authority, location, personalization, or learned model scores. In AI search, source ranking does more than sort links: it shapes which evidence is retrieved, summarized, and trusted by the user.
This matters in cyber security because ranking can be attacked or defended. Adversaries may try SEO poisoning, content farms, or malicious pages to push harmful sources higher, making phishing, malware delivery, or false information easier to discover. Defenders inspect ranking pipelines to detect bias, spam, and manipulation, and they use provenance, reputation scoring, and audit logs to explain why a source was chosen. In short, source ranking is a control point: whoever influences it can influence what users see first.