How to get your business cited in AI search
The short answer
To get cited in AI search, publish content that answers the questions your buyers actually ask, in a clear structure, with real numbers and named examples, from real people in your business. Keep it fresh, and make sure your website and LinkedIn tell the same story.
Your next client may never type your business name into Google.
They will ask a question instead. "Which marketing consultants in Cape Town work with SMEs?" "What should a supplier audit include?" "Is it worth outsourcing payroll?"
An AI tool will give them an answer, and that answer will mention a few businesses. The question for you is simple: are you one of them?
A new study of 9.5 million AI citations gives us a clear picture of what gets businesses into those answers (Meltwater, 2026). Here is what it found, and what it means for South African businesses.
First, what is AI search?
AI search is when someone gets an answer written by AI instead of a list of links. That includes tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Claude, and Google's own AI Overviews, the summary that now appears at the top of many Google results.
A citation is when the AI names or links to a source to back up its answer. Being cited is the new version of ranking on page one.
Why it matters: fewer clicks, more answers
When people get an answer on the page, they click less. Pew Research Center tracked the real browsing of 900 US adults. When Google showed an AI summary, people clicked a search result in 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there was no summary. They clicked a link inside the AI summary itself just 1% of the time (Pew Research Center, 2025).
Google users click less when an AI summary appears
Share of visits to a Google results page where the user clicked a link (US, March 2025).
Questions trigger these summaries most. Pew found that 60% of searches starting with "who", "what", "when" or "why" produced an AI summary, compared with only 8% of one- or two-word searches.
So the more people search in full questions, the more often an AI answer sits between them and your website.
Buyers use AI, but they still want to talk to you
This is not a fad. In 6sense's 2025 Buyer Experience Report, 94% of B2B buyers said they used AI tools like ChatGPT during their buying journey (6sense, 2025).
But here is the part that gets less airtime. Those same buyers still had an average of 16 interactions with the supplier they chose. They mostly used AI in the middle of the process: comparing suppliers, checking proposals, building shortlists and summarising reviews.
In other words, AI helps decide who makes the shortlist. People still decide who gets the work.
South Africa is moving the same way. Microsoft's latest AI Diffusion report found that 23.1% of South Africa's working-age population used a generative AI tool in the first quarter of 2026, the highest share in Africa (TechCentral, citing Microsoft, 2026).
Where AI finds its answers
You might expect AI tools to quote company websites most. They don't. In the Meltwater study, which covered ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude and Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews, company websites made up 18.7% of citations. Sites where people share their own knowledge, like LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube, made up 47.5%.
LinkedIn was the second most-cited website overall, behind YouTube.
The five websites AI tools cited most
Share of 9.5 million AI citations across B2B questions, six AI platforms.
The percentages look small because AI tools cite thousands of different websites. What matters is the ranking. LinkedIn was a top-five source in all 14 business categories studied, and number one for marketing and advertising.
Three more findings stood out to me:
- People beat logos. 75% of the LinkedIn content that was cited came from individual members. Only 25% came from company pages.
- You don't need a big following. 51% of cited creators had fewer than 10,000 followers. Relevance and expertise counted for more than reach.
- Written content wins. Text posts made up 72% of cited LinkedIn content and articles another 12%. Video made up 11%.
What cited content looks like
The most-cited content was not polished thought leadership. It was practical and easy to scan.
What the most-cited articles have in common
Share of top-cited LinkedIn articles that used each element.
The formats that showed up most were the ones that help someone make a decision:
- "Best X" lists appeared in 54% of top-cited content.
- Side-by-side comparisons appeared in 50%.
- "How to choose" guides appeared in 33%.
Freshness mattered too. 72% of cited content was original rather than reshared, and 48% had been published in the previous three months.
A practical plan for your business
Here is how I would put this research to work for a South African SME.
- List the questions your buyers ask. Write down 20 to 30 real questions you hear in sales calls and emails. Include "best", "compare", "how to choose", "what does it cost" and "what are the risks" questions. These are your topics.
- Answer first, then explain. Put a clear, direct answer in the first few lines. Then give the detail, the options and the trade-offs.
- Make it easy to scan. Use headings, short paragraphs and lists. Name the tools, companies, places and standards you are talking about. Add real numbers, in rands where you can.
- Publish from people, not just the company page. Your founder and your specialists are your strongest voices. Help them post on LinkedIn about what they know. Meltwater suggests two to three posts a week per expert as a starting point, but steady and useful beats busy.
- Write from experience. Share what you have seen work and not work, with examples. AI tools lean on first-hand knowledge, and so do buyers.
- Keep your website in step. Your site still matters. Make sure it answers the same questions, uses clear structure and schema markup (code that tells search engines and AI exactly what your business does), and describes your business the same way as your LinkedIn profiles.
- Check what AI says about you. Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google the questions on your list. Note who gets mentioned, and refresh content that has gone stale.
None of this needs a big budget. It needs focus, consistency and someone who knows your customers well enough to answer their questions properly.
How Solas Creative can help. We help South African businesses get found on Google, in Google's AI answers and in tools like ChatGPT.
- An AI visibility check. We ask the AI tools your buyers use about your category and show you who they recommend, and why.
- A question-led content plan. The questions to answer, who in your business should answer them, and where to publish.
- Content that gets cited. Articles, LinkedIn posts and web pages written in your voice and structured for people and AI.
- The technical foundations. SEO, AEO and GEO work on your website, so search engines and AI tools understand exactly what you do.
If you want your business to be part of the answer, let's talk.
Sources
- 9.5M AI citations analyzed: How LinkedIn content wins AI search (Meltwater with LinkedIn, 12 May 2026)
- Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025)
- Stop Panicking: How B2B Buyers Really Use LLMs (6sense, 20 November 2025, from the 2025 Buyer Experience Report)
- South Africa leads rest of Africa in AI adoption: Microsoft (TechCentral, 18 May 2026, citing Microsoft's Global AI Diffusion Q1 2026 report)
- This Week in Marketing: Create B2B content that wins in AI search (LinkedIn for Marketing, 26 May 2026)
