Key facts
- Five prompts were run once each on 2026-09-26 through gpt-5.1 with the web search tool on: accounting firm for a small business in Toronto, best bookkeeping service for a restaurant in Vancouver, financial advisor recommendations in Calgary, tax preparer for self-employed in Chicago, and insurance broker for a small business in Dallas.
- The model attached 43 citations; by our sorting 32 were firms' own sites, eight were reference or government sites and three were Reddit; no general review directory was cited in this category.
- The Toronto accounting prompt cited eight hosts, all small and mid-sized accounting firms' own sites, and named those firms; the Vancouver restaurant bookkeeping prompt cited eight hosts, all bookkeeping and consulting firms' own sites, and asked the reader how many restaurants each firm handles.
- The Chicago tax preparer prompt cited irs.gov, tax.illinois.gov, turbotax.intuit.com, en.wikipedia.org and one accounting firm, and its answer was a guide to credentials such as enrolled agents rather than a list of preparers.
- The Calgary advisor prompt cited fpcanada.ca, the planning standards body, feeonlyfinancial.ca, a fee-only directory, a credit union directory, en.wikipedia.org, reddit.com and several advisors' own sites, and told the reader to check credentials and ask about deliverables and price.
What we asked and how the study works
On 2026-09-26 we sent five financial services prompts, one run each, to gpt-5.1 with its web search tool on, and recorded every URL the model attached to its answer. We sorted each cited host by type with our own rules: a firm's own site, a directory or review site, a news, reference or government site, Reddit, or social. The host list is the model's; the labels on it are ours.
The prompts covered the hiring decisions a small business owner makes: accounting firm for a small business in Toronto, best bookkeeping service for a restaurant in Vancouver, financial advisor recommendations in Calgary, tax preparer for self-employed in Chicago, and insurance broker for a small business in Dallas.
What each prompt cited
Toronto accounting: eight citations to eight firm sites, bluepeakaccounting.ca, capstonellp.ca, icpaaccounting.ca, maqcpa.ca, prismaaccounting.com, qsllp.ca, sblr.ca and vertexfinancial.ca. The answer named those firms; every one is a small or mid-sized practice, in contrast to the national firms the same model named with browsing off in our other panel.
Vancouver restaurant bookkeeping: eight citations to firm sites, brigadeconsulting.ca, coalharbourbookkeeping.ca, fluentbook.ca, foolproofbookkeeping.com, orbisaccounting.ca, padgettvancouver.ca, soleimanicpa.com and tallyforth.ca, and the answer told the reader to ask exactly what is included monthly and how many restaurants each firm handles.
Calgary financial advisor: eleven citations, to fpcanada.ca, feeonlyfinancial.ca, credituniondirectory.ca, find.wellspent.co, maketheswitch.ca, en.wikipedia.org, reddit.com and advisor sites such as albertafinancialplanner.ca and amoneymakermindset.com. Chicago tax preparer: eight citations, to irs.gov, tax.illinois.gov, turbotax.intuit.com, en.wikipedia.org and reedaccounting.com, with the answer explaining enrolled agents and CPAs and what to ask. Dallas small business insurance: eight citations to broker and agency sites, 4jinsurance.com, agents.farmers.com, forceoneinsurancegroup.com, merit-ins.com, performanceinsuranceagency.com, rekerdres.com and secureriskpartners.com, and the answer named those agencies.
The pattern: firm sites for hiring, regulators for rules
When the prompt asked who to hire, an accountant, a bookkeeper, a broker, the model cited firms' own sites and named the firms it read, and the firms it read were small and local. When the prompt touched on rules or credentials, tax preparation, financial advice, it cited the IRS, the state revenue department, the planning standards body and a fee-only directory, and shaped the answer around credentials and questions rather than a list.
By our sorting, 32 of 43 citations were own sites, eight were reference or government sites and three were Reddit. No general review directory appeared, which sets this category apart from home services and healthcare.
What a firm can do with this
For an accounting, bookkeeping or insurance firm, this is the most direct result in the study: the model read firm websites and named the firms whose pages described the exact client type in the prompt, a ten-person business, a restaurant, a small business needing coverage. A site that says plainly which clients the firm serves, what is included each month, and what it costs is the page that gets cited.
For advisors and tax preparers, the credential bodies and government sites frame the answer, so a firm's page should state its credentials in the terms those bodies use, CFP, CPA, enrolled agent, and make them easy to verify. SearchPod builds those pages for financial services clients, within the advertising rules that apply to regulated professionals, and tracks which prompts cite the firm with a fixed prompt panel.
What this cannot tell you
Each of five prompts was asked once of one model on a single date. A different date, model or phrasing would give a different set of citations; the host labels are ours. The firms the model named are recorded only as what it said; nothing on this page verifies or endorses any firm, and nothing here is financial, tax or insurance advice.
Related questions
Yes. The Toronto accounting and Vancouver bookkeeping prompts cited eight firm sites each and nothing else, and the Dallas insurance prompt cited seven agency sites. Thirty-two of 43 citations in the category were firms' own sites.
The IRS, the Illinois revenue department, a tax software vendor, Wikipedia and one accounting firm. The answer explained enrolled agents and CPAs and what to ask rather than listing preparers.
We record the answer because the reasoning cannot be seen. With web search on, the model read and cited small firms' pages that matched the prompt; with browsing off in our other panel, the same model named national firms from memory.
By our own pattern rules, sorting each host as a firm's own site, a directory or review site, a news, reference or government site, Reddit or social. Our rules are simple and open to challenge, while the hosts are verbatim from the model.
State plainly which clients the firm serves, what is included and what it costs, and list credentials in the terms the standards bodies use so they are easy to verify. SearchPod monitors this for clients with a repeatable prompt panel.
Sources
one model with web search, one run per prompt, one date; host types are sorted by SearchPod's own rules; names are recorded as the model wrote them and are not verified or endorsed; nothing here is financial advice; SearchPod sells AI visibility work.
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