On this page
The short version
AI systems cited four businesses' own websites in 1,082 answers. In most of them, they still didn't recommend the business.
- 57% of those answers didn't name the business whose page they cited. In 22%, they named a competitor instead. (The numbers)
- Perplexity was the worst: after citing a business's own page, it named a competitor in 54% of those answers. ChatGPT did it in 12%. (By AI system)
- It clusters on certain pages: area pages for places a business barely covers, emergency pages and cost guides. (The pages)
- A business's own "top 10" list of competitors was cited by AI Overviews with the business named every time, and by Perplexity with the business named none of the times. (Who wins instead)
- Most of the fixes are on the page itself. (How to fix it)
What "cited but not named" means
The short answer: the AI uses your page as a source for its answer, links to it, and then recommends other businesses, or none at all.
It looks like a win in a tracking report: "our site was cited 40 times this month". But a customer reading that answer sees a competitor's name, not yours. Your page did the explaining. Someone else got the call.
We first noticed this on our demo account, an electrician whose emergency page AI Overviews kept citing for emergency questions while naming other firms. We touched on it in how to rank in AI Overviews and in why there's no rank #1 in ChatGPT. This article measures it properly.
How we measured it
The short answer: every answer from five AI systems that linked to a tracked business's own website, checked for whether it named that business, and who it named instead.
Our tool, LLM Visibility Lens, asks each business's buying questions every morning in ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, logged out. It stores every answer, every business named and every source link, with the full page address. This study covers 9 September to 12 October 2026 and four businesses whose own sites AI cites regularly:
- Kato Electrical, a Vancouver-area electrician and our public demo
- a Massachusetts roofer
- a Florida dental training institute
- an online mobility store
Only Kato is named. The others, and their competitors, stay anonymous.
A limit worth knowing. "Named" means the tool found the business's name in the answer. A business with a long name may be mentioned by a short form or by its web address. The tool matches common variants, but a few misses are possible, especially for long names. The method is on the how it works page.
I sell this tracker, so weigh that. The electrician's answers are all in the demo, so you can check them.
How often it happens
The short answer: more than half the time, and it varies hugely by AI system.
| AI system | Own site cited | Named the business | Named a competitor instead | Named nobody |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 148 | 70% | 12% | 18% |
| AI Overviews | 249 | 62% | 8% | 30% |
| Gemini | 179 | 40% | 7% | 53% |
| Google AI Mode | 176 | 24% | 5% | 71% |
| Perplexity | 330 | 27% | 54% | 19% |
| All five | 1,082 | 43% | 22% | 36% |
Three patterns stand out.
ChatGPT and AI Overviews mostly credit you. When they read your page, they usually name you. That matches what we found in which websites ChatGPT trusts: a business's own site is its strongest source.
Gemini and AI Mode use your page as a textbook. They cite it, explain the topic, and often recommend nobody. Your page informs the answer without selling you.
Perplexity uses your page and then hands out other names. Over half its answers that cited a business's own site named a competitor instead. Perplexity reads many sources per answer, about five times as many as ChatGPT in our Perplexity vs ChatGPT comparison, and builds long lists of businesses. Your page becomes one of twenty sources for a list that may not include you.
It also varied by business:
| Business | Own site cited | Named | A competitor named instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrician (Kato) | 200 | 72% | 17% |
| Roofer | 171 | 47% | 16% |
| Mobility store | 43 | 44% | 19% |
| Dental training institute | 668 | 32% | 25% |
The dental institute's site was cited the most and credited the least. That one also has a very long official name, so a few of its "not named" answers may be the short-name issue above. But it was mostly real: Perplexity cited its homepage 133 times and didn't name it in 114.
Which pages it happens on
The short answer: pages that explain a topic or cover a place without making the business the obvious answer.
Area pages for places the business barely covers. Kato's Surrey page was cited in 6 Perplexity answers and he was named in none. His Squamish page: not named in 5 of 6. Port Coquitlam: 4 of 5. Compare his Vancouver residential page, which AI Overviews cited 42 times, naming him in 33. The difference isn't the page template. It's how much else on the web connects him to that place. For Vancouver, list sites and directories back the page up. For Surrey, the page stands alone. We saw the same city effect in Google Business Profile and AI answers.
Emergency and how-to pages. The roofer's emergency roofing page was cited in 29 Gemini answers, and Gemini named the roofer in none. It used the page to explain what to do in a roofing emergency and stopped there. Kato's panel upgrade page: cited in 4 Perplexity answers, named in 0.
Service pages in a crowded field. The roofer's roof replacement page was cited in 13 Perplexity answers. The roofer was named in none, while other roofers were.
Homepages with lots of programmes and little focus. The dental institute's homepage was the most-cited page in the study. AI Mode cited it 90 times and didn't name the institute in 73.
You can see which of Kato's pages each AI read on any day in the live demo.
Who wins instead
The short answer: usually the businesses with more evidence elsewhere on the web for that question and place.
When an AI cited Kato's own site but didn't name him, it named:
- In AI Overviews: Expert Electric (8 answers), Wicks Electric (6), Kerrisdale Electric (4) and TDR Electric (3)
- In Perplexity: Intel Power Electric (7), Intense Voltage Electrical (5), PowerX Electrical (5), and Whitley Electric, Premium Electric and Electric Hero (4 each)
These are the same names that dominate the list sites and directories for those areas. Your page tells the AI what a good answer looks like. The rest of the web tells it whose name to attach.
For the dental institute, one national implant-course provider was named in 89 Perplexity answers that cited the institute's own site. For the roofer, a single rival was named in 12.
The "top 10 competitors" trap. The roofer's own blog has a "top 10 roofing companies in [town]" post.
- AI Overviews cited it 14 times and named the roofer in all 14.
- Perplexity cited it 7 times and named the roofer in none, picking other companies from the same list.
A comparison post can work for you in one AI and hand your competitors a ready-made shortlist in another.
Why it happens
My reading of the pages and answers points to four causes.
- The page answers the topic, not "who should I hire". Cost guides, emergency advice and how-to pages are easy for AI to quote. If the business name sits only in the logo and footer, the answer takes the facts and leaves the name.
- Thin evidence for that place or service. A page saying "we serve Surrey" is one claim. If nothing else on the web backs it up, the AI looks elsewhere for who to recommend in Surrey.
- Long-list engines. Perplexity builds answers from many sources and lists many businesses, so any single page carries less weight.
- Names the AI can't easily attach. Long or inconsistent business names make it harder for an answer to credit you, and harder for any tracker to spot.
Google's guidance on AI features and your website says there's nothing special to do for its AI features beyond normal good practice. In our data, though, normal practice clearly includes making the business the obvious answer on the page.
How to fix a page that helps a competitor
Most of the fixes are on the page itself, and none of them is complicated.
- Put the name, service and place in the first lines, in plain text. For example: "Smith Electric installs home EV chargers across Burnaby and New Westminster." Not just in the logo.
- End every guide with a "who to call" section. On cost, emergency and how-to pages, add a short section saying how your business handles exactly this, where, and how fast.
- Give area pages local proof. List real jobs, response times and neighbourhoods for that place. If you don't truly serve a place, don't publish a page for it; a page you can't back up teaches AI that others are the local choice.
- Back the page up off your site. Get listed for that service and place on the directories and list sites AI reads. See which websites ChatGPT trusts.
- Use one consistent business name across your site, profiles and listings, and mark it up with LocalBusiness schema, including the areas you serve. Google's guide to business details in Search covers the basics.
- Think twice about listing competitors on your own site. If you publish a comparison, make clear who you recommend and why, or accept that some AI systems will take the other names.
- Add facts worth citing, with your name next to them. Real prices, timings and local details. Research on generative engine optimisation found that adding statistics and sources raised content's visibility in AI answers. Make sure the business name sits next to those facts.
The wider playbook is in how to get recommended by ChatGPT and how to rank in ChatGPT.
How to spot it on your own site
Check, page by page, how often each AI cites the page against how often that same answer names you.
By hand:
- Ask your buying questions in each AI, logged out.
- Click every source link.
- When one of your own pages appears, note whether the answer named you, and who it named if not.
- Do it over a few weeks, because answers change daily, as shown in 5 AIs, same questions, 1,814 answers.
Or let LLM Visibility Lens do it. It records every page each AI cites and whether that answer named you, so pages that help competitors stand out, and the monthly action plan flags which ones to rewrite first. The plans start free, and agencies can send the reports under their own name; see the agency plan.
More reading:
- ChatGPT citations for local businesses
- Google AI Mode for local businesses
- AI Overview tracking for near me searches
- spoken questions
- what one free check can and can't do
- We asked AI who to hire 80 times
- 5 AI systems, 35 questions
There's also a plain comparison with Semrush's AI visibility tool, the changelog, the FAQ page and the security page. If you'd like me to check which of your pages are helping competitors, get in touch.
Questions people ask
Why does AI cite my website but recommend my competitor?
Usually because your page answers the topic well but doesn't make your business the obvious answer, and because other sites connect your competitor more strongly to that service and place. In our data, AI systems that cited a business's own site named a competitor instead in 22% of those answers, and named nobody in another 36%.
Which AI is most likely to use my page and name someone else?
Perplexity, by a wide margin. In our data, when Perplexity cited a business's own website, it named a competitor instead in 54% of those answers. ChatGPT did it in 12%, AI Overviews in 8%, Gemini in 7% and Google AI Mode in 5%.
Is being cited by AI still worth it if I'm not named?
It helps a little: the customer may click through, and it shows the AI trusts your page. But a citation without your name rarely brings the call. Count how often you're named, not just how often you're cited.
Which pages are most likely to be cited without naming the business?
In our data: area pages for places the business barely covers, emergency and how-to guides, cost pages, and broad homepages. Pages that put the business name, service and place in the first lines and back it up elsewhere on the web were credited far more often.
Should I publish a "top 10" list that includes my competitors?
Be careful. One roofer's "top 10 roofers" post was cited 14 times by AI Overviews, which named the roofer every time, and 7 times by Perplexity, which named the roofer none of those times and picked others from the list instead.
How do I check if my pages are helping competitors in AI answers?
Ask your buying questions in each AI system over several weeks, click every source, and note when one of your own pages is cited without your business being named, and who is named instead. An AI visibility tracker can record this for every page automatically.
Harjeet Singh Bedi Founder, LLM Visibility Lens · SEO consultant, Bedi SEO
Harjeet has worked in SEO since 2010, first in agencies and now running Bedi SEO for local businesses, online stores and agencies. He built LLM Visibility Lens after clients kept asking whether they showed up in ChatGPT and other AI tools and nobody could give them an honest, measured answer. Every figure in this article comes from answers his tool collected.