Getting recommended by ChatGPT isn’t as hard as recent studies make it seem. While data shows that 67% of ChatGPT’s citations come from “unreachable” sources like Wikipedia, this statistic is misleading for businesses. For commercial queries where someone is looking for a product or service recommendation, nearly all citations are influenceable through strategic content creation.
The key is understanding what ChatGPT looks for when answering commercial queries and creating content that either influences existing citations or replaces them entirely.
Why the 67% Statistic Is Misleading
A recent Ahrefs study analyzed ChatGPT’s top 1,000 cited pages and found that roughly 67% came from sources marketers can’t directly control. These “dead” citations include:
- Wikipedia (approximately 30% of all citations)
- Official company homepages (23.8% of citations)
- App store pages
The problem? This data represents all ChatGPT queries, not just commercial ones.
Most ChatGPT queries are informational. People ask about historical facts, definitions, and general knowledge. For those queries, Wikipedia dominates. But if you’re a business, you don’t care about ranking for “What is the capital of France?” You care about ranking when someone asks “What’s the best window tinting service near me?” or “Which CRM should I use for my small business?”
What ChatGPT Actually Cites for Commercial Queries
For commercial queries, Wikipedia’s dominance drops to around 22%. More importantly, when tracking prompts that businesses actually care about (product recommendations, service comparisons, buying decisions), Wikipedia often accounts for less than 1% of citations.
What does ChatGPT cite instead? For commercial queries, the citation mix looks completely different:
- Company homepages and landing pages
- Blog posts comparing products or services
- Review sites and forums like Reddit
- “Vs” and “alternative” comparison pages
- Industry-specific content
The best part? Most of these are highly influenceable.
Two Strategies for Influencing ChatGPT Rankings
There are two main approaches to getting cited by ChatGPT: influencing existing citations or replacing them with your own content.
Strategy 1: Create Comparison and Alternative Pages
ChatGPT loves comparison content. When someone asks “[Your competitor] vs [Another competitor]” or “What are alternatives to [Product]?”, the AI looks for pages that explicitly answer those questions.
Create dedicated pages on your site, like:
- “[Your Brand] vs [Major Competitor]: A Detailed Comparison”
- “Top 5 Alternatives to [Competitor Tool]”
- “[Your Service] vs [Competitor Service]: Which Is Better?”
These pages work because they directly match common user queries. Make them genuinely informative with clear headings, comparison tables, and factual information. ChatGPT can easily extract relevant information from well-structured comparison content.
Strategy 2: Replace Citations with Better Content
If you know what ChatGPT is citing for relevant queries, you can create superior content that ranks higher and gets cited instead.
Start by researching what users ask about your industry. Look at queries like:
- “Best [product category] for [use case]”
- “[Competitor] review”
- “How to choose a [your service]”
Then create content that targets those queries. If ChatGPT is citing a competitor’s blog post titled “Top 10 Tools for X,” write a more comprehensive “Top 15 Tools for X” that includes your brand.
The key is being in the top 10 search results for the first query ChatGPT runs. Ranking #1 for that initial search can yield about a 40% citation rate, but even being in the top 10 gives you a chance.
Why Homepages Actually Help You
Here’s where the Ahrefs data becomes even more misleading. Yes, homepages account for nearly 24% of citations. But these are usually your homepage and your competitors’ homepages.
You have complete control over your own homepage. Make sure it clearly states:
- What you do
- Your key features and benefits
- Your value proposition
- Specific use cases you serve
When ChatGPT pulls information about your product, it often cites your homepage for factual details. And when it cites your competitors’ homepages, that gives you valuable data about what information ChatGPT considers important for recommendations in your industry.
What Doesn’t Work: LinkedIn and Medium
Despite their high domain authority, LinkedIn and Medium are not effective platforms for ChatGPT citations. While Google’s AI Overviews frequently cite LinkedIn posts (about 13% of sources), ChatGPT’s top-cited sources include none from these platforms.
ChatGPT prefers reference-style content and community discussions over personal articles. If you’re going to create content, host it on your own site where you can build your domain’s authority.
The one exception: if your Medium article ranks extremely well on Google for a relevant query, ChatGPT might find it through web search. But you’re better off putting that content on your own site.
Why Your Business Isn’t Showing Up
If ChatGPT isn’t mentioning your business, it’s usually one of these issues:
Your content doesn’t answer questions directly. ChatGPT favors content that provides clear answers. If your website is heavy on marketing language and light on informative content, the AI won’t cite you. Create FAQ sections, how-to guides, and comparison content that AI can use to inform responses.
You’re not present on trusted sources. ChatGPT cross-verifies information across multiple sites. If you have no Wikipedia page, no mentions in major publications, and no presence on review platforms, the AI might not know about you. Work on getting covered in industry publications and review sites.
You haven’t created content targeting AI queries. Identify the prompts customers use when looking for your type of product or service. Create dedicated content for those queries, especially comparison pages and buying guides.
Technical SEO issues. Make sure your site allows crawling by AI agents (don’t block OpenAI’s GPTBot in your robots.txt). Ensure your pages load quickly and are indexed by Google. Content hidden behind logins or heavy scripts might be missed entirely.
The Real Numbers for Commercial Queries
When you track prompts that actually matter to businesses (recommendations, comparisons, purchase decisions across 30+ industries), the citation landscape looks nothing like the 67% “unreachable” statistic.
For these commercial queries:
- Wikipedia drops to under 1% of citations
- Your own homepage becomes a controllable asset
- Blog posts, comparison pages, and review content dominate
- Nearly all citations become influenceable through strategic content
The truth is, for the prompts you care about, the game is wide open. You can influence existing high-ranking content or create new content that displaces what’s currently being cited.
Next Steps for ChatGPT Optimization
Start by identifying the 5-10 most important queries your customers use when looking for your product or service. Then:
- Create dedicated comparison pages for each major competitor
- Write “alternative to [competitor]” content
- Develop comprehensive guides that answer common questions
- Optimize your homepage with clear, factual information
- Build presence on relevant review sites and industry publications
The earlier you start optimizing for AI platforms, the bigger advantage you’ll have over competitors who are still following misleading advice about “unreachable” citations.
Get Help with AI Optimization
TJ Digital specializes in AI SEO and optimization for small to medium-sized businesses. We track over 1,500 prompts across 30 industries to understand exactly what works for getting cited by ChatGPT and other AI platforms. Our content creation systems efficiently produce the comparison pages, guides, and strategic content you need to rank in AI results.
We offer a three-month minimum commitment with no long-term contracts. If you’re not happy in the first month, we’ll refund your payment. Contact us for a free digital marketing audit to see how your business can start showing up in ChatGPT recommendations.