Get included in third-party 'best X' lists and comparison pages
'Best X' listicles are the most common page type ChatGPT cites for recommendation prompts, so inclusion in other sites' lists is a major lever. The evidence is descriptive (what gets cited), not a test of getting listed.
Best study is at least large-n observational or controlled, with some replication. Outcome data is still mostly correlational.
Outcome studies are still mostly correlational unless the write-up says otherwise.
Guidance only
- Off-site. Free check can detect whether the brand's own site has comparison/alternatives pages (URL/title patterns 'vs', 'alternatives', 'best'); third-party list inclusion needs an off-site review.
Caveats
- — Correlational studies dominate this field. AI citations churn: a small 15-prompt preprint (arXiv 2609.22655; the author sells AI-visibility tooling) saw each engine's cited URL set change by about 67% on average from one day to the next, with under 1% URL overlap across engines. Toronto (2610.15033) found only about 40% of the within-site pattern of ChatGPT citations still held two weeks later, and 14% after ten weeks. Re-verify yearly.
- — Off-site / not measurable from a single page fetch. Guidance only: not graded in the free check.
Studies and docs
2025
'Best X' blog lists were 43.8% of page types ChatGPT cited across 750 recommendation prompts (software, products, agencies).
2025
Rankscale data, ~8,000 citations from 57 queries: ChatGPT citations skewed to Wikipedia (~27%), news, blogs and comparison portals; vendor pages were under ~3% of ChatGPT citations. Vendor data, small query set.
2025
AI search engines show a systematic bias toward earned (third-party) media over brand-owned and social content, unlike Google's balanced mix.
This one happens off your site
A page check can't measure it. Uncanny Labs helps teams plan and test off-site work like this, with the evidence shown.
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