Map which source types each AI engine cites for buyers

Why this matters

Run 10 buyer questions through four AI engines and log the sources each one cites.

Before you start

• Access to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini with web search enabled
• A list of your brand name and two or three competitors

How to apply it

1. Write ten buyer questions

   Draft ten questions a buyer would ask before choosing a product like yours, using the tweet's three phrasings: "what's the best [category] for [type of company]", "[your brand] vs [competitor]", and "is [your brand] worth it for a team of [size]".

   Check: Ten questions are written down, each matching one of the three phrasings and naming your category, brand or a competitor.

2. Collect cited sources in ChatGPT

   Run each question in ChatGPT with web search enabled. Open the Sources button under the answer, or the three-dot menu and View sources if the button is absent, and copy every cited URL.

   Check: For each question the Sources panel lists at least one URL copied into your notes.

3. Repeat the run on Claude, Perplexity and Gemini

   Ask the same ten questions in each remaining engine with web search on and copy the cited URLs, keeping them separated by engine.

   Check: The log has a row for every question-engine pair (40 rows) with at least one cited URL.

4. Record the citations in a log General best practice

   Store the results in one table with columns for engine, question, cited URL and source type so later classification and re-runs are comparable.

   Check: The log opens with the header row engine, question, cited_url, source_type, run_date.

5. Classify citations by engine and source type

   Paste all cited URLs into Claude with the instruction to sort by engine and then by type (own site, competitor site, review site, Reddit, listicle, news or blog), and to state which types each engine cites most.

   Check: The output names each engine separately and lists its most-cited source types.

6. Pick the source types to invest in

   Use the per-engine ranking to choose the one or two source types you will pursue for the engines that matter most, for example Reddit threads if Perplexity dominates that list or review-site presence if Gemini does.

   Check: A written shortlist names the chosen source types and the engine each is meant to influence.

<goal>
crawler verify caching crawl image layout target redirect route index snippet effort heading section.
</goal>

<context>
query anchor image template snippet target target serp caching snippet heading markup link report.
</context>

<discover_first>
anchor route effort heading template canonical target link template priority breadcrumb crawler payload signal.
</discover_first>

<constraints>
heading intent page report target report heading content render layout signal breadcrumb report cluster.
</constraints>

<plan>
route heading heading index serp effort snippet page metadata caching intent metadata section route.
</plan>

<verify>
metadata template link effort section template intent serp markup layout link heading intent page.
</verify>

<report>
snippet anchor alt anchor sitemap sitemap schema caching markup query breadcrumb payload report image.
</report>

Source: @denohawari on 2026-10-18 · original post · report an error