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Marketing & Growth

How do AI assistants actually choose which sources to cite in an answer?

Two separate systems are at work: the model's training data (slow to change, favours brands widely written about) and live retrieval, where the assistant runs web searches (ChatGPT leans on Bing's infrastructure) and cites pages it can extract cleanly. Citation studies show each engine has its own diet: Reddit and Wikipedia are heavy in ChatGPT, Perplexity rewards fresh structured pages, and Google's AI features pull from its normal index. The founding GEO research found that adding statistics, quotations, and clear structure lifts your odds of being cited by 30-40%.

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Terms in this answer

Answer Engine Optimization

More in Getting Found in AI Search (AEO/GEO)

Why does it now matter how ChatGPT and Perplexity describe my startup? 17 → How do founders get their product recommended by AI assistants? 18 → Is traditional SEO dead, what should an early-stage startup actually do? 21 → How do I find out what ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini currently say about my startup, and track it over time? 21 → Do Reddit, review sites, and press mentions matter more than my own website for AI visibility? 16 → Should I publish comparison pages and 'best X' listicles to win AI recommendations? 18 → What technical setup does my site need so AI crawlers can find, read, and cite it? 20 → Google now answers with AI Overviews and AI Mode. Does my Google strategy change? 17 → How do I measure traffic, signups, and revenue coming from AI search? 17 → I sell products online. How do I get into ChatGPT Shopping, Perplexity, and agent-driven commerce? 19 → ChatGPT says something wrong or outdated about my startup. How do I fix it? 17 →

Also in Starting Up

The same ground, over in Brand, web & content, our Starting Up track.

How do I come up with a good name for my startup? 3 → What should actually go on my startup's landing page? 2 →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →