Analyse a hundred AI answers in your category and an uncomfortable pattern emerges: the same twenty domains repeat. Understanding why is the most profitable shortcut in AEO.
The four source profiles that get cited most
- Aggregators and comparison sites with structured, updated listings.
- Trade media and industry publications with "best X for Y" articles.
- Official brand pages and documentation when the question is specific (price, limits, compatibility).
- Communities and forums when the question is about real experience and problems.
Notice what they share: concrete, structured content with dates and checkable data.
What makes a page likely to be picked
- Literal match with the question: an H2 that says exactly what the user asked.
- Fact density: numbers, tables, lists. Generic paragraphs offer nothing quotable.
- Visible freshness: a clear update date.
- Technical accessibility: readable HTML without executing scripts, no signup walls.
- Cross-source agreement: if three sites say the same thing about you, that claim becomes a "fact".
What works against you
- Purely promotional content with no data.
- Pages with no date or author.
- Contradictory information between your site and your external listings.
- Key content locked in PDFs, video or images with no transcript.
How to get onto the cited-domain list
Step 1. For three weeks, record the sources appearing in answers to your key questions. You will get a map of 15-25 domains.
Step 2. Classify them: where you already are, where a listing or form would get you in, and where you need an editorial relationship.
Step 3. Prioritise those repeating across the most answers. One heavily cited roundup can be worth more than ten of your own articles.
Step 4. Repeat the measurement monthly. When you appear in a new source, you will see whether your mention rate rises in the following weeks.
That systematic source log is, literally, your PR roadmap for the AI era.