AI assistants cite directories more than your own website
In brief
According to a test published by Journal du Net, a professional asked six client-style questions on 29 October to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude with web search on, for 24 answers. His own site appeared in only 2 of 20 commercial replies. The assistants mostly pointed to freelance platforms, directories, comparison pages and LinkedIn profiles.
Source : Journal du Net - « Pourquoi ChatGPT ne cite pas votre entreprise, et ce qui joue vraiment »
What it changes for an SME
For an SME of 10 to 250 people, a prospect who looks for a supplier through an assistant will mostly see what directories, LinkedIn and other sites say about you. According to the author of the test, an up-to-date listing in a trade directory often counts more than another page on your own site. ChatGPT described the author with a job he had already left, taken from an old LinkedIn profile. There is no new legal duty, but mismatched public data can misrepresent the company and send demand elsewhere.
What you can do
- Ask the main assistants the questions your clients would type and note which sources they cite, so you can join the directories that keep appearing.
- Check that robots.txt does not block OAI-SearchBot; according to OpenAI, sites that refuse this crawler do not appear in ChatGPT search answers.
- Make your website, Google listing, social profiles and directories say the same thing, and register the site with Bing Webmaster Tools, whose index also feeds Copilot.
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