I think "the model cited a real source" is the wrong pass or fail test for GEO

I keep seeing GEO audits stop at one question: did the answer cite a real source?

That is not enough.

A response can retrieve a real company page, review or product fact and still attach it to the wrong business when names, domains or profiles look similar. The retrieval worked. The entity resolution did not.

The annoying part is that a basic citation check can mark this as a success.

For Shopify stores, I now follow with three questions:

1. Which company owns the brand?

2. Which reviews belong to that exact company?

3. Which source supports each answer?

Then I compare the answer with the official domain, catalogue, structured data, review profiles and business listings.

I am building in Shopify GEO, so I am biased toward treating attribution as a first-class failure rather than a footnote. No product link here.

Do your evaluations score retrieval and attribution separately, or is a grounded citation still enough to pass?