A finite list of specific pages.
This is the least glamorous work in the whole category and reliably the highest-yield, because the set of pages deciding your answers is much smaller than it feels.
Every composed answer is assembled from a handful of pages, and across a whole question set those pages repeat. In one run we measured, a single roundup was cited 126 times, and the top fifteen domains accounted for the overwhelming majority of everything read.
That is the whole opportunity. Not "build brand awareness" — get onto about a dozen pages.
Working the list in order
- Sort by citation count, not by prestige. The page cited a hundred times matters more than the publication you would rather be in.
- Separate the reachable from the unreachable. Roundups and directories usually accept submissions; a news article about somebody else does not.
- Start with the ones where you are the obvious omission. An editor updating a "best X in Y" list is receptive to a business that plainly belongs and is missing.
- Complete the aggregator profiles before pitching anybody. They are free, they appear constantly, and an empty profile is a bad description rather than no description.
What to send
The sentence you want repeated, a specific reason you belong on that particular list, and nothing else. Editors of these pages are usually one person maintaining something in their own time, and a short message that does their work for them outperforms a press kit.
Measuring it
Two series, monthly: whether the page now includes you, and whether the answers that cite that page now name you. They are different questions and the gap between them is instructive — being listed and still unnamed usually means the description is wrong rather than the listing missing.
The short answers
How do I get listed where AI assistants look?
Pull the cited sources for your own questions, sort by how often each is cited, separate reachable pages from unreachable ones, and work down. In one run we measured, a single roundup was cited 126 times and the top fifteen domains covered the overwhelming majority of everything read.
Which directories matter most?
The ones actually cited in your category’s answers, which is usually a different and shorter list than the one a generic guide recommends. Prestige is a poor proxy for citation frequency.
What should I send to a list editor?
The sentence you want repeated, a specific reason you belong on that list, and nothing else. Most of these pages are maintained by one person in their own time, and a short message that does their work outperforms a press kit.
Should I pay to be included?
Not on an editorial list. Payment converts a citable source into an advertisement, and the thing you were buying was that it was not one.
I got listed but I am still not named. Why?
Usually the description rather than the listing. If the page describes you as one more general option, the answer has no reason to carry you over the names it already has.
How long does this take to show up?
Weeks to months, depending on how often the engine re-reads the page. Track two separate monthly series: whether the page includes you, and whether answers citing it name you.
Find out in under ten minutes
One free check, no account and no card. You get the answers the assistants gave, not a score.
Every figure quoted here comes from a real question put to a real assistant, saved with the date and the assistant that answered it. This piece was written to answer the search "get listed ai recommendations".