Research · Published 6 October 2026 · Updated 6 October 2026
Which Adelaide businesses do AI assistants name?
For 61 days (1 August 2026 to 30 September 2026), five AI assistants were asked the same 12 questions a small business owner might ask about getting a website and marketing in Adelaide, once a day each. For the 11 questions that ask for a business, that gave 3,072 usable answers. We counted which businesses each answer named and which websites it relied on.
What we found
- The assistants named a business in 98% of answers, about 5 per answer. Over the 61 days, more than 500 different businesses came up in two or more answers.
- The answer moves from day to day. The first business an assistant named was the same the next day only 44% of the time.
- Each assistant has its own favourites. Of the 25 businesses in any assistant's top 10, 13were in only one assistant's top 10, and only one (Website Adelaide) made all five.
- Businesses' own websites did most of the talking: 60% of the links the assistants cited went to the websites of businesses named in the answers.
- Answers talk money and reviews. 48% quoted a dollar figure and 63% mentioned reviews, ratings or star scores.
How the study worked
The answers were collected by an AI-answer tracker (SE Ranking's), which asks each question once a day, with the location set to Adelaide, and stores the full answer, the businesses it names and the links it cites. These are the questions:
- Affordable website design for small business in Adelaide
- Best SEO company for tradies in Adelaide
- Best digital marketing agency in Adelaide for small business
- Best local SEO company in Adelaide
- Best web designer for tradies in Australia
- Website design company in Adelaide with fixed prices
- Who builds websites for tradies in Adelaide?
- Who can build a website for my plumbing business in Adelaide?
- Who can set up a website and business email for a new business in Adelaide?
- Who does Google Ads management for small businesses in Adelaide?
- Who is the best website designer in Adelaide for small businesses?
A twelfth question, “How do I get my business found on ChatGPT and AI search?”, asks for advice rather than a business, so it is reported on its own further down and left out of the business counts.
The 11 questions should have produced 3,355 answers. 118 were never collected: all from Perplexity, which the tracker missed on 8 whole days and part of 6 more. Another 165 were collected but were not real answers (blank, page code, the question repeated back, an error message or a reply cut off after a few words), so we left them out. That leaves 3,072 usable answers.
We counted a business once per answer, however often the answer repeated it. We merged different spellings of the same business, including names that point to the same website, and left out names that are platforms, tools, places or individual people rather than businesses (for example Google Business Profile, Wix, Microsoft 365, “Adelaide”, or a staff member named in a review listing). When we count how many different businesses were named, we only count those named in at least two answers: the assistants gave 901 different names in all, and 387 of them came up only once, which includes slips and descriptions rather than real business names.
How each assistant answered
Gemini named at least one business in 99.9% of its usable answers; Perplexity in 86.4%. Links per answer count each web address once.
| Assistant | Usable answers | Named a business | Businesses per answer | Different businesses (named 2+ times) | Links per answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 665 | 99.7% | 6.5 | 159 | 9.9 |
| Google AI Overviews | 627 | 99.7% | 4.4 | 153 | 10.2 |
| Google AI Mode | 627 | 99.7% | 4.8 | 149 | 15 |
| Perplexity | 486 | 86.4% | 5 | 252 | 12.9 |
| Gemini | 667 | 99.9% | 4.8 | 186 | 3.4 |
The businesses named most
These are the 15 businesses named in the most answers across all five assistants. Being named is not the same as being recommended: some answers list a business as an alternative or for a particular need. We counted names, not praise, and we are not ranking anyone as the best.
- 1.Website Adelaidewebsiteadelaide.com1,056 answers · 34%
- 2.Loudachris Digital Marketingloudachris.com.au660 answers · 22%
- 3.Boylen Website Designboylen.com.au555 answers · 18%
- 4.Online Path Digital Marketingonlinepath.com.au430 answers · 14%
- 5.EDynamedynam.com416 answers · 14%
- 6.Studio 60 Designstudio60design.com.au359 answers · 12%
- 7.Digital Nomads HQdigitalnomadshq.com.au326 answers · 11%
- 8.MP Launch(us)mplaunch.com.au316 answers · 10%
- 9.Clickable Web Coclickableweb.co277 answers · 9%
- 10.Digital Marketing Adelaidedigitalmarketingadelaide.com.au277 answers · 9%
- 11.Reward Designrewardinc.com.au255 answers · 8%
- 12.Adelaide SEO Marketingadelaideseomarketing.com.au249 answers · 8%
- 13.Marketing Sweetmarketingsweet.com.au238 answers · 8%
- 14.HeyTradieheytradie.com.au225 answers · 7%
- 15.Havealookhavealook.com.au203 answers · 7%
| Business | ChatGPT | AI Overviews | AI Mode | Perplexity | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website Adelaide | 265 | 193 | 272 | 109 | 217 |
| Loudachris Digital Marketing | 230 | 142 | 191 | 51 | 46 |
| Boylen Website Design | 213 | 86 | 128 | 29 | 99 |
| Online Path Digital Marketing | 159 | 59 | 125 | 13 | 74 |
| EDynam | 278 | 30 | 64 | 17 | 27 |
| Studio 60 Design | 14 | 124 | 139 | 30 | 52 |
| Digital Nomads HQ | 9 | 64 | 76 | 47 | 130 |
| MP Launch | 120 | 74 | 73 | 47 | 2 |
| Clickable Web Co | 42 | 99 | 118 | 0 | 18 |
| Digital Marketing Adelaide | 71 | 31 | 67 | 47 | 61 |
| Reward Design | 0 | 80 | 93 | 51 | 31 |
| Adelaide SEO Marketing | 109 | 13 | 49 | 64 | 14 |
| Marketing Sweet | 10 | 65 | 70 | 15 | 78 |
| HeyTradie | 0 | 52 | 39 | 10 | 124 |
| Havealook | 3 | 49 | 38 | 10 | 103 |
The assistants often disagree, and change their minds
Each assistant has its own favourites. Of the 25businesses that made at least one assistant's top 10 (counting ties for tenth place), 13made only one assistant's list, and 8 made three or more (Boylen Website Design, Digital Nomads HQ, Loudachris Digital Marketing, MP Launch, Marketing Sweet, Online Path Digital Marketing, Reward Design and Website Adelaide).
The same assistant also changes its answer. Asked the same question on consecutive days, the first business named was the same only 44% of the time, and on average 38% of the businesses named overlapped. The steadiest was ChatGPT (54% same first pick); the least steady was Perplexity (35%). One screenshot of one answer says little about where a business really stands.
| Assistant | Same first pick next day | Businesses that overlapped |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 54.0% | 42.6% |
| Google AI Overviews | 51.2% | 46.4% |
| Google AI Mode | 38.4% | 38.1% |
| Perplexity | 35.1% | 29.4% |
| Gemini | 38.2% | 29.3% |
Where the answers came from
Most answers cite links. We counted each web address once per answer and sorted it into a type by its address. The websites of businesses the assistants named made up 60% of the links (45% of all links went to a business named in that same answer), and Google's two AI features linked heavily to Google's own Maps and search pages (23% of all links). Directories and review sites were cited in 26% of answers, and "best of" lists in 25%.
| Type of site | Share of all links cited | Answers citing at least one |
|---|---|---|
| Named businesses' own websites | 59.9% | 92.2% |
| Google's own pages (Maps and search) | 22.5% | 23.7% |
| Directories and review sites | 6.1% | 26.3% |
| Other websites | 4.9% | 25.0% |
| 'Best of' lists and articles | 4.1% | 24.8% |
| MP Launch's own site (shown separately because it is ours) | 1.4% | 11.2% |
| Social media and forums | 1.2% | 9.4% |
What the answers talk about
Answers often quote named businesses' prices and review counts. ChatGPT quoted a dollar figure in 79% of its answers and mentioned reviews, ratings or star scores in 85%.
| Assistant | Quoted a dollar figure | Mentioned reviews or ratings |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 79.2% | 84.8% |
| Google AI Overviews | 54.9% | 63.6% |
| Google AI Mode | 33.0% | 69.9% |
| Perplexity | 52.1% | 48.8% |
| Gemini | 19.6% | 43.9% |
What the assistants told businesses to do
Asked “How do I get my business found on ChatGPT and AI search?” (281 usable answers), the assistants mentioned these most often. We counted a platform when the answer text mentions it.
| Mentioned | Answers | Share of answers |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | 269 | 95.7% |
| 148 | 52.7% | |
| Yelp | 118 | 42.0% |
| YouTube | 115 | 40.9% |
| Yellow Pages | 114 | 40.6% |
| Bing Places | 108 | 38.4% |
| Apple Maps or Apple Business Connect | 97 | 34.5% |
| 96 | 34.2% |
What we take from it, if you run a small business
- Your own website is a main source. With 60%of links going to businesses' own sites, it pays for yours to say plainly what you do, where you work and what it costs.
- Prices and reviews get repeated. Answers quote dollar figures and review counts, so published prices and a healthy, current review profile give an assistant something to say about you.
- Listings still matter. Directories and review sites show up in the citations, and the how-to answers mentioned Google Business Profile, Reddit and Yelp most often.
- Judge it over weeks, not one answer. Answers change daily and the assistants disagree with each other, so a single check is a snapshot, not a ranking.
These are our reading of the numbers above, not tested causes: this study counts what the assistants said, not why.
Limits of this study
- The 12 questions were written by us, about the kinds of services we sell. All but two mention Adelaide, and all were asked with the location set to Adelaide. Other questions would produce other answers.
- Each answer came from an automated tracker. A person asking in their own account, with their own history or a different location, can get a different answer.
- Business names are as the assistants wrote them. We merged spellings of the same business and linked a name to a website only when an answer cited that website alongside it.
- Link types were assigned by rules on the web address (known directory sites, Google's own pages, words like “best” or “top” in the address for lists, and a business's own website when the address matches the name of a business the assistants named), so some links will be in the wrong group.
- Being named is not the same as being recommended. We counted names, not what was said about them.
Our interest in this
MP Launch builds websites and does local SEO for small businesses, including helping them show up in AI answers, so we have a stake in this topic. We track these questions for our own business, and we are in the data: the assistants named MP Launch in 316 of the 3,072 usable answers (10.3%), the 8th most often of the businesses named. 60% of those mentions came from three questions close to what we sell ("Who builds websites for tradies in Adelaide?" 82, "Website design company in Adelaide with fixed prices" 67 and "Who can build a website for my plumbing business in Adelaide?" 42), and on 4 of the 11 questions we were named three times or fewer. The questions, the counting rules and the clean-up were the same for every business, us included.
Use the data
You are welcome to use these figures. Please credit MP Launch and link to this page.
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