VercatusComparison intents
For commercial prompts, answer engines mostly cite third-party-style 'best X' lists rather than dedicated comparison pages. Ahrefs (December 2025; 750 top-of-funnel ChatGPT prompts on software, products and agencies; 26,283 source URLs) found 'best X' blog lists were 43.8% of cited page types, and a brand's own self-promotional list still appeared in more than a third of software responses in which that brand was recommended. Wix Studio's AI Search Lab (March 2026; 75,000 answers and 1,056,727 citations from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Perplexity) found listicles took 40.86% of citations on commercial-intent prompts, while comparison pages took 4.08% and alternative pages 0.54% there, and under 3% combined across all intents; product pages led transactional prompts (24.88%).
Sources
- 1Ahrefs (Glen Allsopp) · 2025Do self-promotional 'best' lists boost ChatGPT visibility? Study of 26,283 source URLsahrefs.com
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CGrade C: reputable industry data or observation. A grade describes the provenance of the sources above; it is not a probability that a change will work. The effect basis says how the size of the effect is known: measured by a study, taken from an industry report, only documented without a size, or not quantified.
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