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The short version
Which pages does AI read on a business website? We collected every link to a business's own site in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews, from 30 September 2026 onwards, for four businesses. Then we sorted each page by type.
- For local service firms, service + town pages and town pages did most of the work: 518 of 695 citations. (Service and town pages)
- The home page was rarely cited, but it named the business every time: 31 of 31. (Home page)
- A service page without a town got the name less than half the time, and one of them only 2 times in 36. (Service pages)
- A town page only works where the business is known in that town. Kato's Surrey page: cited 13 times, named 0. (Town pages)
- Blog posts mattered for the roofer and the online store, not the electrician. An online store's product pages were barely touched. (Blogs)
How we sorted the pages
The short answer: every own-site link in five AI systems' answers, grouped by what the page is for.
LLM Visibility Lens asks each business's buying questions daily, logged out, from the business's own area, and records every link each answer cites. This study takes the links to the businesses' own websites, from 30 September 2026 onwards, for:
- Kato Electrical, a Vancouver-area electrician and our public demo.
- A Massachusetts roofer (anonymous).
- A Miami dental training institute (anonymous), whose site is mostly course pages.
- An online mobility store (anonymous).
For each page we counted the answers that cited it, and how many of those answers also named the business. Being cited and being recommended aren't the same thing; we found 57% of own-site citations came without the business's name in when your own web page helps a competitor.
We sorted pages into home page, service + town page (such as "emergency roofing in [town]"), town page, service page without a town, blog post, plans or packages, and about or contact.
What this can't tell you. It's four websites, and each site's mix of pages shapes the result: a site with no blog can't show blog citations. One answer can cite two pages, so totals are citations, not answers. Treat the patterns as strong signals, not rules.
I sell this tracker, so weigh my view. Kato's pages and numbers are visible in the demo.
Service and town pages do most of the work
The short answer: for the electrician and the roofer, pages that name a place carried three quarters of the citations.
| Page type (electrician + roofer) | Pages | Times cited | Named the business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service + town page | 9 | 395 | 51% |
| Town page | 5 | 123 | 71% |
| Service page, no town | 5 | 87 | 40% |
| Blog post | 2 | 38 | 68% |
| Home page | 2 | 31 | 100% |
| Plans / packages | 3 | 13 | 92% |
| About / contact | 2 | 8 | 13% |
Customers ask AI things like "who can fix a leaking roof in Andover" or "best electrician in Burnaby". AI looks for a page that matches both the service and the place, and pages that say both get picked.
The roofer's most-read page was its emergency roofing page for its town: 122 citations, used by all five AI systems. Kato's was his Vancouver residential electrician page, with 82.
The home page: rarely read, always named
The short answer: AI cited the home pages only 31 times, but every one of those answers named the business.
That makes sense: a home page says who you are in the first lines. When AI reaches it, the name is right there.
The catch is that AI rarely goes there for buying questions. It prefers a page that answers the specific question. So don't put everything on the home page, and don't neglect it either. It's the page that confirms who you are when AI checks. Google's guide to local business structured data is a good checklist for making the basics machine-readable.
Service pages without a town get read for facts
The short answer: general service pages got cited for information, and the business was named in only 40% of those answers.
The roofer's general roof replacement page is the clearest example: cited 36 times, the roofer named twice. AI used it to explain costs and materials, then recommended other roofers. Kato's troubleshooting page did the same: named in 3 of 17. His panel upgrade page: 0 of 4.
Compare the roofer's service pages that include the town, such as skylight repair (11 of 11) and tile roofing (4 of 5). Same business, same kind of service, very different result.
What to do: on every service page, say who you are, where you work and how to book, near the top. If you serve one main area, put it in the page. More in how to get recommended by ChatGPT.
A town page works only where you're known
The short answer: Kato's town pages were named 71% of the time overall, from 97% in Vancouver to 0% in Surrey.
| Kato's page | Cited | Named Kato |
|---|---|---|
| /vancouver-electricians | 30 | 29 |
| /electricians-coquitlam | 31 | 24 |
| /north-vancouver-electrician | 30 | 18 |
| /burnaby | 19 | 16 |
| /surrey | 13 | 0 |
The pages are built the same way. The difference is what else the web says about Kato in each town. In Vancouver and Burnaby, directories and "best of" lists back the page up. In Surrey, the page stands alone, and only Perplexity read it. We covered which sites those are in the directories AI reads, and the same town effect in Google Business Profile and AI answers.
What to do: build town pages for places you genuinely serve, then get listed for that town on the directories AI reads. A town page alone won't do it.
Blog posts and online stores
The short answer: blog posts helped where the business wrote about its own market, and the online store's product pages were almost never cited.
- The roofer's blog: two posts, cited 38 times and named 68% of the time. One was a "top 10 roofing companies in our town" list that included itself, cited 30 times and named 22. It works, but only in some AI systems; we showed in when your own web page helps a competitor that Perplexity used such a list to recommend the others.
- Kato: no blog post was cited at all in this period.
- The online store: 12 buying-guide blog posts were cited 39 times and named it 12 times. Its home page was cited 15 times, all by ChatGPT, and named every time. Product and collection pages: one citation in total.
- The dental institute: course pages carried 68% of its citations, and its home page 23%. Its FAQ page (4 of 33) and course credit page (4 of 64) were read for facts and rarely led to its name.
For online stores, that's a real warning: AI read the buying guides, not the product pages. We saw the wider picture in which AI recommends local businesses most, where online businesses were named in under 4% of answers.
By AI system
The short answer: Perplexity reads the widest range of a site's pages. ChatGPT reads only a few.
- Kato: Perplexity cited 10 of his 11 cited pages. ChatGPT cited only three: the home page, the EV charger page and the Burnaby page.
- The online store: the home page was cited only by ChatGPT, and the blog posts mostly by AI Overviews and Gemini.
- Kato's Surrey and panel upgrade pages were read only by Perplexity, and neither ever got his name.
For ChatGPT, the pages it does read need to make the business obvious. For Perplexity, every page counts, because it reads more of them. We compared the two in Perplexity vs ChatGPT for local businesses.
A checklist for each page type
- Home page: business name, services, areas served and contact in the first screen. Add local business structured data.
- Service + town pages: one page per main service in each town you genuinely serve. Name the business, the service and the town near the top, with a clear "call us" section.
- Town pages: only for towns where you work regularly. Back each one with directory and list listings for that town.
- Service pages without a town: add your name, areas and a booking line near the top, or AI will use the page for facts and recommend others.
- Blog posts: write about your own market (costs, comparisons, local guides) and end each with who to call.
- FAQ, pricing and policy pages: expect them to be read for facts. Put your name and a booking line on them too.
- Everywhere: let AI crawlers in. Check OpenAI's crawler documentation, submit your sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools, and read Google's notes on AI features and your website.
How to see your own
Our AI visibility tracker shows every page of your site that AI cited, how often, and whether those answers named you. See Kato's in the live demo. The free question finder writes the questions to track from your website, plans start free, and agencies can report under their own name; see the agency plan.
More reading:
- Which websites ChatGPT trusts
- ChatGPT citations for local businesses
- Why a single AI visibility score can mislead you
- How to report AI visibility to clients
- Invisible on Google, recommended by AI
- 5 AIs, same questions, 1,814 answers
- 5 AI systems, 35 questions
- Google AI Mode for local businesses
- How to rank in AI Overviews
- AI Overview tracking for near me searches
- How to rank in ChatGPT
- Why there's no rank #1 in ChatGPT
- Spoken questions
- What one free check can and can't do
- We asked AI who to hire 80 times
The method is on the how it works page. There's also a comparison with Semrush's AI visibility tool, the changelog, the FAQ page and the security page. If you'd like me to look at which of your pages AI reads, get in touch.
Questions people ask
Which pages does AI read on a business website?
In our data, for local service firms, mostly service + town pages and town pages: 518 of 695 citations. AI also read general service pages, blog posts and the home page. The home page was cited least, but every answer that cited it named the business.
Do location or town pages help with AI search?
Yes, where the business is known in that town. Kato's Vancouver town page named him in 29 of 30 answers that cited it. His Surrey page was cited 13 times and named him in none, because little else on the web connects him to Surrey.
Does AI read blog posts?
Sometimes. A roofer's two blog posts were cited 38 times and named it in 68% of those answers, and an online store's buying guides were cited 39 times. No blog post on the electrician's site was cited in this period. Posts about your own market work best.
Should I put everything on my home page for AI?
No. AI rarely cites home pages for buying questions; it prefers a page that answers the specific service and place. But keep the home page clear about who you are, what you do and where, because when AI does read it, it names you.
Why does AI cite my page but recommend a competitor?
Usually because the page explains a topic without making you the obvious answer. A roofer's general replacement page was cited 36 times and named it twice. Put your name, areas and a booking line near the top of every service page.
Does AI read product pages on online stores?
Rarely, in our data. An online store's product and collection pages were cited once in total, while its buying-guide blog posts were cited 39 times. Strong buying guides that link to your products matter more for AI than product pages alone.
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.