Businesses' own sites take 50% of citations across 7 niches and 2 markets, and established vendors take 32%. Wedding photography has its own study.
Niches and markets
9
Questions asked
38
First-party share
50%
Third-party share
5%
Entry bar range
15 to 100
Markets mostly third-party
2 of 2
| Niche | Depth | Citations | First-party | Third-party | Bar | Median site | Cited examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate catering | 4 questions, directional | 52 | 56% | 4% | 33 | 51 | figsandhoneycatering.com, thepartyhelpers.com, corporatecaterers.com, yelp.com |
| Industrial cleaning services | 4 questions, directional | 61 | 64% | 8% | 34 | 44 | anagocleaning.com, callawayindustrial.com, servicemasterclean.com, yellowpages.com |
| Pet boarding and kennels | 4 questions, directional | 51 | 65% | 6% | 44 | 43 | splootvets.com, karnik.us, reviews.birdeye.com, yelp.com |
| Physical therapy clinics | 4 questions, directional | 51 | 63% | 4% | 100 | 62 | bodyfulphysicaltherapy.com, jaywestpt.com, healthgrades.com, yelp.com |
| Landscape architects | 4 questions, directional | 60 | 42% | 7% | 39 | 71 | austinhomemag.com, ecologyartisans.com, houzz.com, yelp.com |
| Custom cabinetry makers | 4 questions, directional | 52 | 42% | 2% | 86 | 83 | georgecabinetry.com, xtrimcabinets.com, houzz.com, yelp.com |
| Long-distance moving companies | 4 questions, directional | 66 | 24% | 6% | 38 | 58 | crosscountrymoversgroup.com, americanationalmovers.com, unitedvanlines.com, yelp.com |
| Wedding photography | 30 questions, own study | 399 | 58% | 13% | 47 | 35 |
Each niche has 4 questions, so rows are directional. Wedding photography has its own study.
Businesses' own sites take 50% of citations. Established vendors and marketplaces take 32%, forums and social take 7%, and third-party sources take 5%.
houzz.com is among the vendors and marketplaces cited. yelp.com was cited on 12 of 38 questions as a review site. reddit.com and facebook.com are the forum and social domains.
| Type | Share of citations | Cited examples |
|---|---|---|
| Small providers' own sites | 50% | anagocleaning.com (3 of 28), austinhomemag.com (2 of 28), callawayindustrial.com (2 of 28), cleanteamclean.com (2 of 28), ecologyartisans.com (2 of 28) |
| Established vendors and marketplaces | 32% | houzz.com (7 of 28), threebestrated.com (4 of 28), thumbtack.com (4 of 28), unitedvanlines.com (3 of 28), movebuddha.com (3 of 28) |
| Directories | 1% | yellowpages.com (2 of 28) |
| Review sites | 3% | yelp.com (12 of 28) |
| Publishers and guides | 2% | realestate.usnews.com (3 of 28), architecturaldigest.com (2 of 28), elledecor.com (1 of 28) |
| Forums and social | 7% | reddit.com (10 of 28), facebook.com (8 of 28), youtube.com (6 of 28) |
Pooled, own-site share is 35% on general questions and 63% on specific ones. ChatGPT shows 30% against 67%, and Google shows 38% against 60%. The share is higher on specific questions than on general ones.
| Question type | Questions | Citations | First-party | Third-party | ChatGPT first-party | Google organic first-party |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | 14 | 182 | 35% | 10% | 30% | 38% |
| Specific | 14 | 211 | 63% | 1% | 67% | 60% |
| Both engines | 28 | 393 | 50% | 5% | 52% | 49% |
Own pages get cited here, so the next step is to score a page with the free AEO checker on how easily an engine can quote it.
Median site
41
Bar
29
Content share
85%
Tested site
8
Editorial verdict, as of 2026-10-02: Contested. The median cited site scores 41 and the bar is 29. Content share is 85%. A map pack sits above the answer, and the engines still quote documents below it.
Content share is the share of cited sources that were articles about the category (85% here), and a vendor's own page does not count. A tested site scored 8 against a bar of 29. It cleared the bar on 0 of 5 questions, and on 1 of 5 questions a site below the bar was cited anyway.
Local service guides and city-specific explainers are enough at this floor, alongside the review profiles the engines quote above them.
87 domains were cited across the 5 questions; these are the most-cited, each with one page the engines read.
Median site
32
Bar
15
Content share
88%
Tested site
8
Editorial verdict, as of 2026-10-02: Open. The median cited site scores 32 and the bar is 15. Both are low.
Content share is the share of cited sources that were articles about the category (88% here), and a vendor's own page does not count. A tested site scored 8 against a bar of 15. It cleared the bar on 0 of 5 questions, and on 2 of 5 questions a site below the bar was cited anyway.
Write the procedure and cost pages properly and get your Google, Yelp and Facebook profiles in order. At this floor that is enough.
103 domains were cited across the 5 questions; these are the most-cited, each with one page the engines read.
The free audit shows whether AI engines can find and recommend your business.