Business websites accounted for nearly 60% of Gemini's citations in local AI search, according to a new study. Steady Demand analyzed 14,472 citations from 1,487 local search queries across 50 U.S. metro areas.
The study's more consequential finding came alongside it: identical searches often produced different AI recommendations.
Nearly 60% of Gemini's citations pointed directly to businesses' own websites — more than the combined total for directories, review platforms, and forums.
Reddit ranked second at 13.7% of citations, outperforming the entire local-service directory category including Angi, Thumbtack, and HomeAdvisor.
That ordering matters for local SEO practice. Local visibility has long been treated as a directory-listing and review-platform problem. On Gemini, the business's own site is the primary citation source.
The report's biggest finding is what Steady Demand co-founder Ben Fisher called "Grounding Drift."
Repeating the same Gemini query produced overlapping cited sources only about 40% of the time.
In a control test, Google's local pack returned the same top listing about 90% of the time. Gemini recommended the same top business only about 7% of the time.
Fisher's conclusion is direct: a single AI search should be treated as a snapshot, not a reliable measure of long-term visibility.
The same 1,487 local search queries were also run through ChatGPT:
The patterns themselves diverged. Gemini mainly cited business websites, while ChatGPT relied much more on Reddit and business directories.
Never assume success in one AI engine carries over to another. Gemini and ChatGPT rarely cited the same sources or recommended the same businesses. Monitoring only one platform gives a misleading picture of AI visibility.
Design measurement as repeated sampling. If grounding drift is real, a single check on a given prompt cannot function as a performance metric. Run the same prompt set on a schedule and read trends in the pattern. AI citation share can shift dramatically within days, which makes a one-off check useless as a performance judgment.
Manage your own site as the primary local data source. If Gemini cites business sites 60% of the time, any disagreement between your directory listings and your own site surfaces directly in AI answers.
Invest in different assets per platform. If ChatGPT leans on Reddit and directories, those assets need management; if Gemini is the priority, structured data and factual accuracy on your own site come first. The technical prerequisites are identical either way, and what happens when content delivery depends on JavaScript was measured directly in a 41-day crawler log experiment.
Steady Demand analyzed 14,472 citations from 1,487 Gemini local search queries across 50 of the largest U.S. metro areas and 10 service categories, repeating the same queries in ChatGPT to compare citation patterns across platforms.
Business websites outranking directories in local AI citations is good news. But a 7% chance of the same answer to the same question is a warning: AI visibility cannot be treated like a ranking. Read it as a trend, not a snapshot.
Per Steady Demand's analysis, business websites accounted for nearly 60% of citations — more than directories, review platforms, and forums combined. Reddit was second at 13.7%.
The tendency for repeated identical queries to return different cited sources. In the study, sources overlapped only about 40% of the time, and the same top business was recommended in only about 7% of repeats.
They cited many of the same domains only 8% of the time and recommended the same top business 4.2% of the time. Gemini favored business websites while ChatGPT leaned on Reddit and directories.
Not from a single search result. Run a consistent prompt set on a schedule, read trends in the pattern over time, and monitor multiple platforms rather than one.
To apply what you just read to your own site, start with a free audit of where things are now.
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