Map which kinds of pages ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews cite for your buyers' questions
A PR agency founder asked four AI assistants 15 buyer questions in three B2B categories, logged all 523 cited sources and sorted them by type, finding each assistant and question type leans on different pages.
Evidence: The source shows its work: steps, screenshots, code or data you can inspect.
The business problem
Buyers increasingly ask AI assistants which vendor to choose. Founders need to know whether to invest in list articles, review sites or their own pages to be named in those answers.
What was tried
1. Write buyer questions for your category in five types: broad, industry-specific, specific need, head-to-head comparison and name check. 2. Ask each question in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini. 3. After each answer, ask the assistant for the full URL of every source it used, and log them. 4. Sort every URL into a type (list article, vendor page, review site or article, forum or video) by its URL pattern. 5. Compare the mix by question type and by assistant, then decide which pages to create or pursue. For example, a vendor page that answers one specific buyer question directly. 6. Re-run the questions later to see whether a new page starts being cited.
What was reported (mixed)
55 answers and 523 sources logged. Broad questions mostly cited list articles and vendor pages (roughly half each); specific questions mostly cited the vendor's own page answering that exact question (about 78%); comparisons mostly cited comparison and list articles. ChatGPT leaned heavily on vendor pages and Perplexity on list articles. The author's agency was named and cited for one specific question a week after it published a page answering it, when ChatGPT had not named it before.
Limitations
The author runs a PR agency that sells AI-search visibility work, so it is labelled vendor. Source types were sorted by URL pattern, so percentages are approximate. Gemini answered only 10 of the 15 questions and Google's bot check blocked one category. ChatGPT adds a homepage link for each company it names, which inflates its vendor share. The citation win is one case for the author's own agency. B2B categories only, one snapshot in time.
What you need
Access to the four assistants and a spreadsheet to log sources.
A prompt to try
For the answer you just gave, list the full URL of every source you used, one per line, with no summaries.
Sources
- DEV Community (Joseph Tannous, Jamco PR) ↗ Vendor case study, published October 16, 2026
Source published: October 16, 2026. Last reviewed here: October 21, 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Tools in this workflow
- ChatGPT: Assistant testedTry ChatGPT
- Gemini: Assistant testedTry Gemini
- Perplexity: Assistant testedTry Perplexity
Get new workflows like this by email
A short selection of the most useful new workflows, including the ones that did not work. Free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Related workflows
Get a weekly Claude Code report that links shipped pull requests to KPI changes and scores the likely impact
A product lead connects Claude Code to Metabase and GitHub so each week it compares 5 to 10 KPIs with last week, maps the week's pull requests to them with a confidence score, and recommends next steps.
Audit client ad accounts with Claude Code, separate context folders and twice-weekly API checks
An ads operator describes combining client folders, n8n-fed context and advertising APIs so Claude Code can analyse accounts and run recurring audits, while the operator retains oversight.
Extract subscription receipts with AI and flag cost increases using a rolling three-invoice baseline
An easybits author describes two n8n workflows for a content business: seed a receipt ledger, then use AI extraction and deterministic arithmetic to flag subscription cost increases.
Run a one-person company with a team of AI agent departments that share a memory graph
A solo founder of five small SaaS products describes role-based AI agents (CEO, CFO, marketing, legal, accountant) that share one memory and run daily standups.