# 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. Counted from mttr's catalog on October 27, 2026. Web page: https://mttr.si/research/what-assistants-cite

## What was asked

- Questions in the bank: 2,142
- 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

Share of the 11,949 citations (one answer citing one site) by kind of site:

- A business or body's own site: 83% (9,909 of 11,949), 6,118 sites
- Directory or marketplace: 6.3% (749 of 11,949), 58 sites
- Publisher or reference: 0.9% (109 of 11,949), 31 sites
- Forum, social or video: 6.2% (735 of 11,949), 8 sites
- Government: 3.7% (447 of 11,949), 120 sites

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.

| Place | Site | Kind | Answers citing it | mttr score |
| ---: | --- | --- | ---: | ---: |
| 1 | reddit.com | Forum, social or video | 522 | Not scored |
| 2 | [youtube.com](https://mttr.si/report/youtube.com) | Forum, social or video | 129 | 64 |
| 3 | expedia.com | Directory or marketplace | 90 | Not read yet |
| 4 | angi.com | Directory or marketplace | 73 | Never read |
| 5 | justia.com | Directory or marketplace | 52 | Not scored |
| 6 | [marriott.com](https://mttr.si/report/marriott.com) | A business or body's own site | 52 | 76 |
| 7 | [rotorooter.com](https://mttr.si/report/rotorooter.com) | A business or body's own site | 52 | 87 |
| 8 | [zillow.com](https://mttr.si/report/zillow.com) | Directory or marketplace | 50 | 74 |
| 9 | facebook.com | Forum, social or video | 47 | Never read |
| 10 | firestonecompleteautocare.com | A business or body's own site | 46 | Not scored |
| 11 | [midas.com](https://mttr.si/report/midas.com) | A business or body's own site | 45 | 83 |
| 12 | hilton.com | A business or body's own site | 44 | Never read |

## By line of work

| Line of work | Answers with sources | Most cited | Citations to a site of its own |
| --- | ---: | --- | ---: |
| Clinics and dentists | 318 | targetoptical.com (36), lenscrafters.com (31), [stantonoptical.com](https://mttr.si/report/stantonoptical.com) (22) | 97% of 1,160 |
| Law firms | 318 | justia.com (50), [superlawyers.com](https://mttr.si/report/superlawyers.com) (38), [bestlawyers.com](https://mttr.si/report/bestlawyers.com) (17) | 87% of 1,317 |
| Restaurants and cafes | 317 | reddit.com (155), [diningout.com](https://mttr.si/report/diningout.com) (13), [wanderlog.com](https://mttr.si/report/wanderlog.com) (13) | 75% of 870 |
| Trades and home services | 317 | reddit.com (61), angi.com (60), [rotorooter.com](https://mttr.si/report/rotorooter.com) (47) | 84% of 1,538 |
| Auto repair and dealers | 316 | reddit.com (123), firestonecompleteautocare.com (46), [midas.com](https://mttr.si/report/midas.com) (43) | 87% of 1,192 |
| Cities and public services | 316 | [goloadup.com](https://mttr.si/report/goloadup.com) (31), [youtube.com](https://mttr.si/report/youtube.com) (17), [permitsguide.com](https://mttr.si/report/permitsguide.com) (16) | 63% of 870 |
| Nonprofits and charities | 316 | redcrossblood.org (20), redcross.org (17), [satruck.org](https://mttr.si/report/satruck.org) (16) | 91% of 1,023 |
| Real estate | 315 | reddit.com (50), [zillow.com](https://mttr.si/report/zillow.com) (47), redfin.com (35) | 80% of 1,239 |
| Hotels and travel | 309 | expedia.com (86), [marriott.com](https://mttr.si/report/marriott.com) (51), hilton.com (43) | 77% of 1,192 |
| Software and SaaS | 17 | [youtube.com](https://mttr.si/report/youtube.com) (5), reddit.com (4), [elogii.com](https://mttr.si/report/elogii.com) (2) | 81% of 64 |
| Lending, insurance and finance | 12 | [bankrate.com](https://mttr.si/report/bankrate.com) (5), [farmers.com](https://mttr.si/report/farmers.com) (2), [fliptexts.com](https://mttr.si/report/fliptexts.com) (2) | 69% of 54 |
| Online shops | 12 | reddit.com (6), [fromthelabels.com](https://mttr.si/report/fromthelabels.com) (2), [mattressnerd.com](https://mttr.si/report/mattressnerd.com) (2) | 76% of 49 |
| Manufacturers and suppliers | 9 | shown from 10 answers with sources | |
| News and publishers | 9 | shown from 10 answers with sources | |
| Schools and courses | 9 | shown from 10 answers with sources | |
| Agencies and studios | 6 | shown from 10 answers with sources | |

## How the cited sites read

Of the 6,335 sites cited, mttr has read 5,983; 5,280 are scored and 703 were read and not scored. 244 are sites 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.

Median score: cited sites 84 (5,280 scored), every site 78 (287,848 scored).

| 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) |

| Rule | Cited sites passing | Every site passing |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Let AI crawlers in | 98% of 5,280 | 96% of 287,848 |
| Put the text in the HTML | 75% of 5,228 | 64% of 276,999 |
| Fix title lengths | 9.7% of 5,280 | 16% of 287,848 |
| Fix description lengths | 8.4% of 5,280 | 9.2% of 287,848 |
| Add structured data | 56% of 5,280 | 36% of 287,848 |
| Name the publisher | 78% of 3,237 | 77% of 99,126 |
| Add an llms.txt | 34% of 5,280 | 22% of 287,848 |

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

- [semrush.com](https://mttr.si/report/semrush.com): 4 answers, a business or body's own site
- reddit.com: 3 answers, forum, social or video
- [google.com](https://mttr.si/report/google.com): 2 answers, a business or body's own site
- [321webmarketing.com](https://mttr.si/report/321webmarketing.com): 1 answer, a business or body's own site
- [amicited.com](https://mttr.si/report/amicited.com): 1 answer, a business or body's own site
- [beepartners.vc](https://mttr.si/report/beepartners.vc): 1 answer, a business or body's own site
- [botview.app](https://mttr.si/report/botview.app): 1 answer, a business or body's own site
- [charleagency.com](https://mttr.si/report/charleagency.com): 1 answer, a business or body's own site
- [cloudinary.com](https://mttr.si/report/cloudinary.com): 1 answer, a business or body's own site
- [conductor.com](https://mttr.si/report/conductor.com): 1 answer, a business or body's own site

mttr.si is not cited in any of them yet.

## Method and limits

- The 2,142 questions were written by mttr, by line of work, the local ones asked in each of fifteen large US cities.
- One assistant, Gemini, with Google Search on, was sent the question and nothing else, each at most once a week.
- A site cited by several pages of one answer counts once for that answer.
- 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 are each cited site's latest read by mttr, drafts and sites closed to crawlers left out. 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.
- Rules: https://mttr.si/rulebook. Free tools: https://mttr.si/tools. Leaderboard: https://mttr.si/leaderboard.