Key facts
- Five prompts were run once each on 2026-09-26 through gpt-5.1 with the web search tool on: best CRM for a small plumbing company, which scheduling software a med spa should use, best email marketing tool for a Shopify store, field service software for an HVAC company, and best booking software for a dog daycare.
- The model attached 31 citations across four answers; the plumbing CRM prompt attached none and answered from general knowledge, naming products and sorting them by team size and whether the buyer wants one system or several tools.
- Reddit threads were cited in three of the five answers, seven citations in all, more than any single review site; Wikipedia was cited in two answers.
- Review and comparison sites appeared as expected: capterra.com and softwareadvice.com for med spa scheduling, softwareadvice.com for dog daycare booking, g2.com for HVAC field service; the Shopify app store was cited for the email marketing prompt.
- Vendor and industry sites made up the rest: a medical spa association, a salon software vendor's page, a field service vendor's page, industry blogs and a kennel software vendor, but the model rarely cited the product it was recommending; it cited the pages that compared them.
What we asked and how the study works
On 2026-09-26 we sent five software 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 vendor's or business's own site, a directory or review site, a news, reference or government site, Reddit, or social. The classification is ours to defend; the citations are the model's own.
The prompts were written the way an owner would ask: best CRM for a small plumbing company, which scheduling software a med spa should use, best email marketing tool for a Shopify store, field service software for an HVAC company, and best booking software for a dog daycare.
What each prompt cited
Plumbing CRM: no citations. The model named several products and organized them by team size, budget and whether the owner wants one system or a mix of tools, entirely from general knowledge.
Med spa scheduling: nine citations, to capterra.com, softwareadvice.com, americanmedspa.org, an industry association, phorest.live, a salon software vendor, en.wikipedia.org and reddit.com. The answer named a few products and asked about provider count and treatment rooms.
Shopify email marketing: six citations, to apps.shopify.com, the app store, en.wikipedia.org and sendkite.io. The answer compared a few tools and asked about the owner's time and skills. HVAC field service: eight citations, to g2.com, facilio.com, msidata.com, servbuilder.com, hvacsoftwareinside.com and reddit.com, with the answer sorting products by residential versus commercial and team size. Dog daycare booking: eight citations, to softwareadvice.com, kennelbooker.com, kennelpermit.com, franpos.com, worldmetrics.org and reddit.com, sorted by daycare size and growth plans.
The pattern: comparisons and forums, not vendors
The model cited the places where software gets compared, Capterra, Software Advice, G2, the Shopify app store, industry blogs, and the places where owners argue about it, Reddit, far more than the vendors it recommended. Wikipedia appeared twice for background. When it had nothing to cite, as with the plumbing CRM prompt, it still named products confidently.
By our sorting, 20 of 31 citations were vendor, industry or other business sites, but most of those were third-party industry pages rather than the recommended vendor's own site; seven were Reddit, two were directories or review sites by our narrow rule, and two were reference sites. Counting Capterra, Software Advice, G2 and the app store as comparison sites, which our simple rule did not, roughly a third of citations were comparison pages.
What a software company can do with this
A vendor selling to small service businesses is being evaluated in three places the model reads: the comparison and review sites, Reddit threads where owners describe what they actually use, and industry blogs and associations that write about the category. A product's listing on Capterra, Software Advice and G2, with current pricing and reviews, is the first thing to get right. The second is the questions the model asked in every answer, team size, budget, one system or several, residential or commercial, because a pricing page and a comparison page on the vendor's own site that answer those plainly give the model a vendor page worth citing.
SearchPod builds those comparison and pricing pages for software clients, works on the review listings, and tracks which prompts cite the product with a fixed prompt panel.
What this cannot tell you
The evidence is one model, one date and one pass over five prompts. Another day, model or wording would produce different citations, and the host sorting is ours; in particular our simple rule did not classify Capterra, Software Advice and G2 as review sites, so the type counts understate comparison sites. The products the model named are recorded only as what it said; nothing on this page verifies or endorses any product.
Related questions
Rarely. It cited comparison sites such as Capterra, Software Advice and G2, the Shopify app store, Reddit threads, industry blogs and associations, and Wikipedia far more than the recommended vendors' own pages.
In three of five answers, seven citations in all, more than any single review site in this set of prompts.
The model's reasoning is not visible. It named products and sorted them by team size and budget from general knowledge without attaching a source.
By our own pattern rules, which sorted each host as a business or vendor site, a directory or review site, a news or reference site, Reddit or social. Our rule did not treat Capterra, Software Advice or G2 as review sites, so those landed in the business bucket; the hosts themselves are exactly what the model attached.
Keep Capterra, Software Advice and G2 listings current with pricing and reviews, publish a plain pricing page and comparison page that answer team size and budget questions, and pay attention to the Reddit threads and industry blogs where the category is discussed. SearchPod follows this for clients with a standing set of prompts.
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; SearchPod sells AI visibility work.
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