What assistants cite
mttr asks Gemini the questions people put to assistants, across 16 lines of work and fifteen cities, and keeps every site the answers cite. Here is who gets cited, what kind of site each is, and how the cited sites read by mttr's rules.
ArticleBy mttrPublished Counted 6 minute read
- 6,335Sites cited in 3,275 answersAsked of Gemini between October 17, 2026 and October 25, 2026
- 13,885Sources cited, in allAcross 3,301 answers that came back whole
- 2,490Questions asked so farOf the 2,142 in the bank
- 84 of 100The median score of cited sites mttr has scoredAgainst 78 for every site scored
Counted from mttr's catalog on October 26, 2026.
What was asked
- Questions in the bank
- 2,142, across 16 lines of work and mttr's own subject
- Questions asked so far
- 2,490
- Calls made
- 3,830
- Answers that came back whole
- 3,301
- Answers that cite a source
- 3,275
- Sources cited, in all
- 13,885
- Distinct sites cited
- 6,335
- Assistant asked
- Gemini, with Google Search on
- When
- Between October 17, 2026 and October 25, 2026
Who gets cited
Each citation is one answer citing one site. Of the 11,949 citations across 3,275 answers, this is the share going to each kind of site.
- A business or body's own site6,118 sites, 97% of sites cited83%9,909 of 11,949
- Directory or marketplace58 sites, 0.9% of sites cited6.3%749 of 11,949
- Publisher or reference31 sites, 0.5% of sites cited0.9%109 of 11,949
- Forum, social or video8 sites, 0.1% of sites cited6.2%735 of 11,949
- Government120 sites, 1.9% of sites cited3.7%447 of 11,949
The kind of each site is mttr's own call, from a short list of directories, marketplaces, publishers, forums and government names kept by hand. A site on none of them counts as its own site, which a directory the list has not met yet would wrongly be.
The most cited sites
| Place | Site | Kind | Answers citing it | mttr score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | reddit.com | Forum or social | 522 | Not scored |
| 2 | youtube.com | Forum or social | 129 | 64 |
| 3 | expedia.com | Directory | 90 | Not read yet |
| 4 | angi.com | Directory | 73 | Never read |
| 5 | justia.com | Directory | 52 | Not scored |
| 6 | marriott.com | Own site | 52 | 76 |
| 7 | rotorooter.com | Own site | 52 | 87 |
| 8 | zillow.com | Directory | 50 | 74 |
| 9 | facebook.com | Forum or social | 47 | Never read |
| 10 | firestonecompleteautocare.com | Own site | 46 | Not scored |
| 11 | midas.com | Own site | 45 | 83 |
| 12 | hilton.com | Own site | 44 | Never read |
Answers citing each site, of the 3,275 with sources. A score is the site's latest read by mttr; a site not read yet is in line, and one never read is a site mttr does not put in line. A score says pages are well formed. It does not say an assistant cites the site.
By line of work
The sites cited most for each line of work's questions, and the share of its citations that go to a site of its own rather than a directory, publisher, forum or government site.
| Line of work | Answers with sources | Most cited | Citations to a site of its own |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinics and dentists | 318 answers |
| To a site of its own 97%of 1,160 |
| Law firms | 318 answers |
| To a site of its own 87%of 1,317 |
| Restaurants and cafes | 317 answers |
| To a site of its own 75%of 870 |
| Trades and home services | 317 answers |
| To a site of its own 84%of 1,538 |
| Auto repair and dealers | 316 answers |
| To a site of its own 87%of 1,192 |
| Cities and public services | 316 answers | To a site of its own 63%of 870 | |
| Nonprofits and charities | 316 answers |
| To a site of its own 91%of 1,023 |
| Real estate | 315 answers |
| To a site of its own 80%of 1,239 |
| Hotels and travel | 309 answers |
| To a site of its own 77%of 1,192 |
| Software and SaaS | 17 answers |
| To a site of its own 81%of 64 |
| Lending, insurance and finance | 12 answers | To a site of its own 69%of 54 | |
| Online shops | 12 answers |
| To a site of its own 76%of 49 |
| Manufacturers and suppliers | 9 answers | Shown from 10 answers with sources | |
| News and publishers | 9 answers | Shown from 10 answers with sources | |
| Schools and courses | 9 answers | Shown from 10 answers with sources | |
| Agencies and studios | 6 answers | Shown from 10 answers with sources | |
How the cited sites read
Of the 6,335 sites cited, mttr has read 5,983 so far. Those not read are put in line after each round of asking, but for 244 mttr never reads: the giants nearly every site links to, many directories and publishers among them, and public bodies and schools. So the cited sites read lean toward businesses' own sites. 5,280 are scored against other sites; 703 were read and are not scored, because they keep crawlers out or are drafts.
Median score of cited sites 84Of every site 78Each column is a share of its own group. Scores out of 100, in tens.
| Score | Cited sites | Every site |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 9 | 0% (0) | 0% (0) |
| 10 to 19 | 0% (0) | 0% (0) |
| 20 to 29 | 0% (0) | 0% (0) |
| 30 to 39 | 0.0% (2) | 0.0% (34) |
| 40 to 49 | 0.2% (8) | 1.6% (4520) |
| 50 to 59 | 1.5% (77) | 14% (41308) |
| 60 to 69 | 4.6% (243) | 14% (40906) |
| 70 to 79 | 22% (1159) | 26% (74252) |
| 80 to 89 | 48% (2508) | 32% (91499) |
| 90 to 100 | 24% (1283) | 12% (35329) |
Rules that matter to an assistant
The share of sites passing each rule on every page read. Cited sites counted are those mttr has scored; every site is each site mttr has scored, the cited among them.
| Rule | Cited sites passing | Every site passing | Gap, more is better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Let AI crawlers in | 98%of 5,280 | 96%of 287,848 | +2 points |
| Put the text in the HTML | 75%of 5,228 | 64%of 276,999 | +12 points |
| Fix title lengths | 9.7%of 5,280 | 16%of 287,848 | −7 points |
| Fix description lengths | 8.4%of 5,280 | 9.2%of 287,848 | −1 points |
| Add structured data | 56%of 5,280 | 36%of 287,848 | +19 points |
| Name the publisher | 78%of 3,237 | 77%of 99,126 | +1 points |
| Add an llms.txt | 34%of 5,280 | 22%of 287,848 | +12 points |
This sets the sites one assistant cited against every site mttr has read. It is a correlation, from one assistant, on these questions, in these weeks. It does not show that reading well is why a site is cited, and a site may be cited for being large, known or local, which no rule measures. A score says pages are well formed. It does not say an assistant cites the site.
On mttr's own subject
What Gemini cites when asked how a site gets read and cited by search engines and assistants, the subject mttr works on.
- semrush.comOwn site4 answers
- reddit.comForum or social3 answers
- google.comOwn site2 answers
- 321webmarketing.comOwn site1 answer
- amicited.comOwn site1 answer
- beepartners.vcOwn site1 answer
- botview.appOwn site1 answer
- charleagency.comOwn site1 answer
- cloudinary.comOwn site1 answer
- conductor.comOwn site1 answer
From 18 answers with sources, to 20 questions about getting a site read and cited by search engines and assistants. mttr.si is not cited in any of them yet.
Method and limits
- The questions were written by mttr: 2,142 questions people put to assistants, by line of work, the local ones asked in each of fifteen large US cities. They are not drawn from anyone's real searches.
- One assistant, Gemini, with Google Search on, was sent the question and nothing else: no site, no account, no place beyond the words. Each question is asked at most once a week.
- A source is a site the answer links. A site cited by several pages of one answer counts once for that answer. Sites are counted by their address without www, so a subdomain counts as a site of its own. A site marked never read is one mttr does not put in line: the giants nearly every site links to, and public bodies and schools.
- The kind of each site is mttr's own call, from a short list of directories, marketplaces, publishers, forums and government names kept by hand. A site on none of them counts as its own site, which a directory the list has not met yet would wrongly be.
- Scores and rules are each cited site's latest read by mttr, over the pages read, with drafts and sites closed to crawlers left out, as on every page across sites. A score says pages are well formed. It does not say an assistant cites the site.
- Sites whose owners asked to go unnamed are counted and not named. 1 cited site is kept unnamed here.
- Counted from mttr's catalog as this page is asked for, at most ten minutes behind, on October 26, 2026. Every part with too little behind it says so: the most cited from 30 answers with sources, a line of work from 10, scores from 30 cited sites scored, a rule from 30 cited sites it applied to.
Check your own site the same way: the rulebook holds every rule above, the free tools check one page at a time, and the mttr skill hands the fixes to your agent. The leaderboard ranks every site read.