AI visibility guide
AI visibility by industry
The short answer
The type of question decides which sources AI uses. For questions tied to a place (‘coffee shop in Shoreditch’), your site and listings count most; for recommendation questions (‘best invoicing app’), the press, comparisons and reviews do. So the work changes with the industry.
Restaurants, cafés and local businesses
For questions tied to a place, about 86% of citations came from sources the brand itself manages, such as its site and listings (Yext, October 2025, countries not stated). Start with your Google Business Profile, a site with your address, hours and menu as text, and the same details in directories.
In UK, US and Australian data, Google Business Profile was 28.63% of citations in local AI answers (BrightLocal, August 2026).
Software and SaaS
Questions are about comparisons and use cases: ‘alternatives to X’, ‘best CRM for a small estate agency’. Honest comparison pages on your own site help, as do public documentation, visible pricing and a presence on software review sites. Each engine cites differently. In our scans of a consultancy's site (es-AR, October 2026, 3 scans, 15 answers per engine), the answers drifted towards software: Perplexity sent between 19 and 36 of its 201 citations to comparison sites, listicles and software reviews, depending on how one domain of unclear type is counted, and ChatGPT 0 of 52.
Professional services
Solicitors, accountants, consultancies: AI looks for signs that you know the subject and that you really exist. One page per service, who provides it and with what qualification, the area you cover, and mentions in professional bodies or industry directories. In regulated professions, check your advertising rules first; in England and Wales the SRA requires some firms to publish prices for certain services.
Online shops
For products, Google and Bing read product data (price, availability) and expect it to match what the page shows. Marketplaces can take many of the citations: in Argentina, Mercado Libre took 50.9% of retail citations in an August 2026 study (Eleven and LLM Pulse). Your category page needs to say clearly why someone should buy from you.
At a glance
| Industry | Sources that tend to count | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| Local (restaurant, salon, garage) | Your site, Google profile, local guides | Profile and consistent details |
| SaaS | Comparisons, software reviews, documentation | Comparison and pricing pages |
| Professional services | Directories and professional bodies, trade press | One page per service, named authors |
| Online shop | Marketplaces, comparison sites, product data | Consistent product data |
We'll add a page per industry with more detail and sources.
Sources
- Yext, AI citations and query context (2025-10-09)
- BrightLocal, top sources for local AI search (2026-08-26)
- SRA, Transparency Rules (2025-04-11)