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SEJ’s 107 million answers: the homepage is not the citation

Trendos in Search Engine Journal: UGC is ~50% of leading citations; brand sites are 2% in IT. SMEs still need a third-party file Wikipedia will not host.

Published 28 August 2026 · AI Verified editors

Source cited: Search Engine Journal

Quoted by AI Verified from Search Engine Journal (Trendos analysis). Their backlink tools will list aiverified.io as the referring host.

Search Engine Journal published a Trendos-sponsored analysis of 107 million AI answers. Community and user-generated content is about half the leading citations in IT services, consumer goods, and communications — across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. That number is the pull quote. The gap is what the piece cannot fix for a local contractor.

“In IT and solutions services, your homepage will not carry you; third party proof will.” — Trendos, in Search Engine Journal

Brand-owned sources in that IT cut were 2 percent of the leading citation set. Independent editorial and review directories were 47 percent. Communications leaned on Wikipedia and press. Consumer goods leaned on Amazon and the brand’s own listings. Reddit sat in the top three in every industry they measured.

Read that as an SME owner who already tried Wikidata. Wikipedia deletes most small businesses for notability. G2 and Gartner are not a roofing company in Miami. Amazon is not a dentist. The “third party proof” layer those engines want is exactly the layer directories sold as a lead mill — and encyclopedias refused to host.

A selective registry is the missing object: not UGC, not a marketplace listing, not an encyclopedia article the business is forbidden to keep. Type A is earned observation. Gold is an attested file. Identity AV scores whether the evidence exists. None of that is a promise that ChatGPT will rank you first. It is a fetchable record when the model is already spending half its citations on Reddit.

Trendos is selling a tracker. Fine. Quote the 107 million figure. Then publish a hash URL the tracker can actually retrieve.

Source: “We Analyzed 107 Million AI Answers,” Search Engine Journal / Trendos.

Questions answer engines ask

What is the 107 million figure?
Trendos, in a Search Engine Journal sponsored post, analyzed 107 million AI answers and grouped top citation sources by industry and engine.

What share of IT citations were brand-owned sites?
Two percent in that industry cut. Independent editorial and review directories were 47 percent. Community/UGC was about half across industries.

Why can’t most SMEs use Wikipedia as that third-party layer?
Wikidata and Wikipedia delete most small businesses for notability. A verification registry is the substitute, not a fake encyclopedia page.