Your name can be in the answer while the link beside it points somewhere else entirely. Counting mentions gives you a number. Looking at what gets linked instead gives you a list of things to build.
IN THIS ARTICLE
SUMMARY
When ChatGPT recommends a business, it often links to someone else’s page, such as a comparison article, an industry blog, or a competitor’s roundup, rather than the business’s own website. The pages that earn those links read like reference material: they compare options honestly, name competitors, use clear headings, and show a recent date. Instead of only checking whether AI tools mention you, check which pages they link to and build your own page to match.
Most owners check their AI visibility the same way. You open ChatGPT, ask the question a client would ask, and look for your name. If your name is not there, that is a real problem and worth fixing.
Here is the part almost nobody checks. Your name can be in the answer while the link beside it points somewhere else entirely.
Say a facilities manager asks which firms in your region handle the kind of work you do. ChatGPT names you. Good. Then it footnotes that answer with a link to a directory listing, an industry roundup, or a competitor’s blog post that mentioned you in passing. The facilities manager clicks that link. They form their impression of you from a page you did not write and cannot change.
You got named. You did not get credited.
A search agency called DerivateX published a study in May 2026 that asked ChatGPT buyer-style questions across 40 business software categories, ten times each. When ChatGPT recommended a specific company, it linked to that company’s own website only 11.6% of the time. The rest of the time the credit went to a third-party page, such as a comparison article, an industry blog, or a competitor’s roundup.
In 25 of the 40 categories, not one recommended company got a link back to its own site.
A NOTE ON THE DATA
A few things to keep in mind. That research came from DerivateX, an agency that sells AI search services, so hold the exact numbers loosely. Other 2026 studies have found different rates depending on the AI tool, so treat the pattern as more reliable than the percentage. And it looked at software buying, not professional services. But there is no reason to expect the pattern to stop at software. When someone asks an AI tool about your field, it pulls from whatever it can find, and what it finds is usually not you talking about yourself.
“Are we mentioned in ChatGPT?” is a yes or no question. There is not much you can do with either answer.
“Whose page is getting the link instead of ours?” is a different kind of question. You can go read that page. You can see what it covers, how it is organized, when it was last updated, and who it names. Then you can look at your own site and spot the difference in about fifteen minutes.
Asking whose page gets the link gives you somewhere to go.
The pages AI tools link to tend to read like reference material rather than sales material. They compare options honestly, including options that are not yours. They name competitors. They are organized with clear headings so a reader can find the answer fast. And they carry a recent date.
Most company websites only describe how good the company is, and pages like that rarely get linked this way.
The encouraging part is that you can write a reference page like that yourself. It does not take a public relations budget or a following anywhere. It takes a decision to be genuinely useful in public.
One thing to be realistic about. In some categories, outside sources have such a hold on the links that your own page will not be enough on its own. You also need to show up, described the same way, in the places these tools already look. Review sites. Industry directories. The roundup articles in your field. Showing up in those outside sources moves slower, and it starts with something simple: making sure your business is described consistently everywhere it already appears.
Change what you watch for in AI answers.
Counting mentions gives you a number and a feeling. Looking at which pages get linked gives you a list of real pages, a side-by-side comparison with your own, and a short list of things to build.
01
When ChatGPT recommends a business, the link beside its name often points to a third-party page rather than the business’s own website.
02
In a May 2026 DerivateX study of 40 business software categories, ChatGPT linked to a recommended company’s own website only 11.6% of the time, and in 25 of those categories no recommended company was linked to its own site.
03
Pages that earn links in AI answers tend to read like reference material: honest comparisons, named competitors, clear headings, and a recent date.
04
Checking which pages AI tools link to is more useful than counting mentions, because it shows what to build.
05
In some categories, a business also needs to be described consistently in the directories and industry roundups AI tools already draw from.
IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHICH PAGES AI CITES IN YOUR FIELD
We test 25 buyer questions, examine competitors and the sources AI cites, and give you prioritized recommendations for what to publish, improve, and address next.
Michelle Richard is the founder of ExpressBrand Studio, a strategic marketing advisory practice for founder-led B2B service businesses. She helps owners get clear on what they sell and who they serve, then build the website and marketing foundation buyers and AI tools need to find and choose them.
SOURCES CITED
DerivateX, “B2B SaaS AI Citation Study,” May 31, 2026.
https://derivatex.agency/report/b2b-saas-ai-citation-study/