How to get onto the lists AI cites
Published 3 November 2026 4 min read
ChatGPT recommends the shops that rankings, comparison and review sites already list. How to find the ones for your products and earn a place on them.
Ask ChatGPT for the best wide-fit hiking boots and open the sources under the answer. You will often find the same few pages: a “best of 2026” ranking, a comparison site, a review site, a forum thread. The shops in the answer are the shops on those pages.
An earlier post covered why: an assistant recommends shops that other sites already write about. This one is about getting onto those sites.
Before it answers, ChatGPT runs its own short web searches and reads what comes back. A study by Ahrefs of 1.4 million prompts found that most cited pages arrive that way, and that they are mostly lists, reviews and well-known sites. So the list you are missing from is usually one a search can find today.
First, find the lists cited for your products
- Write down three questions a buyer asks before buying what you sell, without your shop's name. For example: “Which hiking boots are best for wide feet?”
- Ask each one in a fresh ChatGPT chat, then in two more fresh chats. Answers change from run to run, so one answer can be luck.
- Open the sources it shows with each answer. Note every page, and whether the shops the answer recommends appear on it.
- Search Google the way a buyer would: “best wide-fit hiking boots 2026”, “hiking boots ranking”, “which hiking boots to choose”. Add the pages from the first page of results.
- Mark the pages cited again and again. That is your short list.
Sort what you found
Most pages fall into a few kinds, and each needs different work:
- Rankings and buying guides: “the 10 best…” articles on blogs, magazines and specialist sites. Each has an author you can write to.
- Comparison sites such as Ceneo, where buyers compare offers from many shops.
- Review sites such as Opineo, and your reviews on Google.
- Marketplaces such as Allegro or Amazon.
- Forums and groups, where buyers ask each other for advice.
- YouTube, where people test products on camera.
Some sources will be other shops. Cross them off: a competitor's site won't write about you, and it isn't worth asking.
What to do on each kind of site
Comparison sites and marketplaces: be listed, with a complete and current offer. Full product names, prices that match your shop, stock that is true, delivery times, your shop's details filled in. An old or half-finished listing can say something wrong about you, and an assistant may repeat it.
Review sites: OpenAI says ChatGPT's review summaries come from public websites. Ask real buyers for honest reviews where other buyers look for them. In Poland that is often Google, Ceneo and Opineo. Ask once the parcel has arrived, in an email or on a card in the box. Answer bad reviews calmly; your reply is public too.
Forums and YouTube: don't plant posts. Answer questions you know the answer to, under your own name. A creator who already reviews products like yours may welcome one to test.
Give the authors of rankings something useful
Every ranking has an author, and the author wants a better article. A message that says “please add my shop” gives them nothing. Offer something that improves their page:
- a product to test, with no conditions on what they write,
- sizing data they can't get elsewhere, such as how your boots fit wide feet or which sizes buyers exchange most,
- a clear comparison: how your products differ from the ones already on the list, in two or three sentences, with prices and links,
- a correction, if the article gets something about your category wrong.
Keep it short, name the article, and say why their readers would care. Many authors won't reply. Follow up once, then move on to the next list. A ranking with a year in its title has to be refreshed to stay current, so a no today can turn into a yes at the next update.
It's slow, and it pays twice
None of this moves in a week. A listing goes up in an afternoon; reviews and a place in a ranking take months. Nobody can promise it gets you recommended by AI. What it does is raise the odds: much of what an assistant goes on lies off your own site, on the rankings and comparison sites its searches return.
And every list and review you gain also works on people who never open ChatGPT. The buyer comparing prices on Ceneo sees you there too.
Want to see it for your shop?
Monitoring counts the sites in the assistants' answers to your buyers' questions, so you see which ones they cite.
Sign up, describe your shop, and choose the buyer questions to ask and the AI assistants to ask them of. Each question is asked three times for a baseline report, usually ready within the hour, then again on the days you choose, with every answer kept word for word.