AI search citations favor a small set of formats. Listicles, articles, and product pages drive over half of all mentions across major LLMs, according to new Wix Studio AI Search Lab research analyzing 75,000 AI answers and more than 1 million citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity.
The findings. Listicles led at 21.9% of citations, followed by articles (16.7%) and product pages (13.7%). Together, these three formats made up 52% of all AI citations.
- Articles dominated informational queries, cited 2.7x more than other formats.
- Listicles captured 40% of commercial-intent citations, nearly double any other type.
Why intent wins. Query intent — not industry or model — most strongly predicts which content gets cited. This pattern held across industries, from SaaS to health.
- Informational queries skewed heavily toward articles (45.5%) and listicles (21.7%).
- Commercial queries were led by listicles (40.9%).
- Transactional and navigational queries favored product and category pages (around 40% combined).
Why we care. This research indicates that you want to map content types to user goals rather than just creating more content. Articles educate, listicles drive comparison, and product pages convert. Aligning content format with user intent could help you capture more AI citations and increase visibility.
Not all listicles perform equally. Third-party listicles accounted for 80.9% of citations in professional services, compared to 19.1% for self-promotional lists. That seems to indicate LLMs prefer neutral, editorial comparisons over brand-led rankings.
Model differences. All models favored listicles, but diverged after that.
- ChatGPT leaned heavily into articles and informational content.
- Google AI Mode showed the most balanced distribution.
- Perplexity stood out, with 17% of citations coming from discussions like Reddit and forums.
Industry patterns. Content preferences shifted slightly by vertical:
- SaaS and professional services over-indexed on listicles.
- Health favored authoritative articles.
- Ecommerce spread citations across listicles, articles, and category pages.
- Home repair showed the most even distribution across formats.
The research. The content types most cited by LLMs
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