You’ll be able to repeat this evaluation your self fairly simply.
Simply do an open database search in Model Radar, head to the “Cited pages” report to your desired AI assistant, and export the highest 1,000 cited pages.
Then run the cited pages by way of our Batch Evaluation instrument to seize extra natural knowledge on every URL.
I did precisely that. Right here’s what I discovered…
ChatGPT’s citations aren’t confined to encyclopedic or editorial pages—however Wikipedia stands out as the one most-cited content material kind, far forward of all others.
The remainder of the citations are unfold throughout academic content material, homepages, app listings, blogs, and different codecs.
I used Claude to categorize this knowledge. It is probably not 100% fool-proof, however it offers a directional understanding of ChatGPT’s most-cited pages.
Right here’s what the highest 1,000 cited URLs appear like damaged down by content material kind:
Wikipedia performs a central position in ChatGPT’s quotation conduct. The assistant is clearly in search of structured, reference-style sources that summarize matters comprehensively and predictably.
Academic and homepage pages additionally crop up usually.
However what’s most fascinating is the dearth of alternative to really get talked about in these high-visibility citations.
Our Director of Content material Advertising and marketing, Ryan Legislation, refers to Wikipedia, homepages, app retailer pages as “useless” citations, in you could’t simply affect them.
Going by the above categorization, solely 32.3% of the highest 1,000 citations in ChatGPT are pitch/outreach-worthy—or no less than off-site and influenceable.
In different phrases, roughly two-thirds of ChatGPT’s prime citations are successfully off-limits to conventional outreach techniques—they’re organizational pages, reference websites, and different “useless” citations you possibly can’t realistically affect.
Practically one-third of ChatGPT’s citations level to pages with no conventional search visibility.
Listed below are some doable explanations for this:
Freshness: Some zero-keyword pages are probably recent content material not but ranked by serps. ChatGPT might uncover and cite new content material earlier than it accumulates search rankings.
Area of interest matters: Citations might cowl particular, long-tail matters with minimal search demand. They reply questions precisely however don’t appeal to important search visitors. This additionally applies to fan-out queries—even when somebody asks ChatGPT a few common matter, the dialog typically branches into extra particular subtopics the place few pages straight goal these angles.
Totally different discovery: ChatGPT tends to entry and consider content material in another way than serps, seemingly prioritizing accuracy, freshness, and relevance over reputation alerts like backlinks.
The truth is it’s probably a mix of all three. Recent content material, area of interest matters, and various high quality alerts all contribute.
UPDATE
Here’s a random pattern of precise ChatGPT cited URLs with zero natural key phrases and visitors…
This text ranked briefly in 2023, however right this moment has zero conventional search visibility—but it’s cited in ChatGPT 4.6K instances…
Then there’s this text from Lifehack on “7 methods you will be useful right this moment”. It’s cited 1.4K instances in ChatGPT, however has by no means gained any natural key phrases or visitors.
Fairly a couple of Apple retailer app pages turned up within the dataset, however once more, no natural visibility.
After which there have been a couple of pages with zero search visibility, however respectable ChatGPT presence, from information media websites like New York Publish and Condé Nast Traveller.
The pages that do rank show some fascinating patterns. Listed below are the important thing takeaways:
- Web site authority actually issues: 65.3% are DR 81+, median DR 90
- However web page authority doesn’t: 67.3% have UR 0-10 and a median UR solely 6. ChatGPT cites pages from authoritative domains, however not essentially probably the most linked-to pages on these domains.
- Pages are keyword-rich: Median 279 key phrases
- Most have sturdy backlink profiles: Median 70 referring domains
- Half have excessive search visibility: 52.1% rank in prime 3 for key phrases
- Low-authority exceptions exist: 11.7% have DR 0-20
ChatGPT closely favors pages from high-authority domains which have sturdy backlink profiles and rank properly in search, however will cite low-authority sources for particular related content material.
Wrapping up
ChatGPT’s prime citations skew towards newer content material, embrace virtually a 3rd of pages with no natural visibility, and are dominated by reference websites you possibly can’t simply affect.
The info suggests your finest wager for ChatGPT visibility is getting talked about in particular content material that falls into these influenceable classes.
To seek out outreach alternatives, you should utilize Model Radar. Simply drop in your market or area of interest, head to the cited pages report and look out for the highest blogs, publications, and overview websites.
