When an engine recommends a vendor, it is often summarising what other websites say. In most categories a small set of review sites, listicles, directories and community threads does a lot of that work. Being present and accurately described on those sources is one of the strongest levers you have.
Step 1: collect the sources
Run your commercial prompts (see our Share of Answer study method) in engines that show citations, such as Perplexity, ChatGPT with search and Google AI Overviews. Copy every cited URL into a sheet next to the prompt that produced it.
Step 2: count and classify
Group the URLs by domain and count how often each appears. Then label each domain:
- Review platforms and software directories
- Editorial listicles ("best X for Y in 2026")
- Community threads on forums and Reddit
- Competitor pages such as comparison and pricing pages
- Your own pages
Step 3: check your presence on each
For the top sources, ask three questions. Are you listed? Is the description accurate and current? Are you positioned for the use cases you want to win?
Step 4: prioritise
Start with sources that appear across several prompts and several engines. Then work through the realistic routes in: updating profiles, pitching listicle authors with useful data, contributing genuinely in communities, and partner pages.
What not to do
Don't flood forums or buy placements that disclose nothing. Engines and their users are getting better at discounting obvious manipulation, and it can damage the trust you are trying to build.
The AI Visibility Audit includes this source map for your category, ranked by how often each source is cited.
