Are listicles worth it for AI visibility?

Listicles, those “best X tools” roundups, get cited in AI answers more than almost any other kind of page, especially when buyers ask which product to choose. But being cited in a listicle isn't the same as being recommended by the AI, and the research on publishing your own “best X” list is mixed.

For a B2B company, the more useful question is which listicles are worth your time and what to build alongside them. If you've been told to “get on more listicles,” or you're wondering whether to write your own, I'll walk you through the research and how I'd think about it.

What counts as a listicle in AI search?

“Listicle” gets used for three different things, and they behave differently in AI answers:

• Third-party lists: roundups published by media sites, review platforms, consultants or other software companies, like “The 10 best CRMs for small sales teams.”
• Self-promotional lists: a “best X” list on a company's own blog where that company ranks itself first.
• Comparison pages: a page on your own site that compares you with named competitors, like “Us vs. Competitor” or “Alternatives to Competitor.”

How often do AI tools cite listicles?

Ask ChatGPT for the best project management tool for a remote agency, and you'll often see a few “best tools” roundups in the sources. That's not a coincidence. A Wix Studio AI Search Lab study covered by Search Engine Land looked at about 75,000 AI answers across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Perplexity. Listicles were the most-cited format overall, at 21.9% of citations, and for commercial questions they made up roughly 41%.

Ahrefs found something similar in ChatGPT. When Glen Allsopp ran 750 early-stage buying prompts about software, products and agencies, “best of” blog lists made up 43.8% of the pages ChatGPT cited, and most of those lists had been updated recently.

B2B software is especially crowded. In Kevin Indig's August 2026 analysis of Google results, lists written by vendors showed up in the top 10 for 46.2% of B2B software searches, compared with 3.3% of food searches.

So when someone tells you AI tools love listicles, they're right. What matters more is what happens after the citation.

Does being cited in a listicle mean AI recommends you?

Not necessarily. Being cited means an AI tool used a page as a source. Being mentioned means it named your brand in the answer itself. I explain the difference in more detail in SEO vs GEO, and it matters a lot with listicles.

Say a buyer asks ChatGPT for the best CRM for a 15-person sales team. ChatGPT reads a “10 best CRMs” roundup, names three of the tools in its answer and cites the roundup in a footnote. If you're number seven on that list, the citation didn't do anything for you.

The research backs this up. In a September 2026 study by Scrunch, 63.9% of AI answers that cited a company's own “best X” list didn't recommend any brand at all, and a competitor from that list was recommended instead of the company 24.3% of the time. In other words, you could write the list and still lose the recommendation to a competitor you included on it.

Listicles also don't seem to take citations away from your own pages. In The Search Spot's October 2026 study, product page citations for one B2B software brand stayed between 8% and 11% whether listicles appeared in 44% or 70% of answers. The author's read is that AI tools use listicles to build a shortlist, then go to product pages to check the details. It's a bit like a buyer asking a colleague for a shortlist, then going to each vendor's website to check the pricing. It's one brand, so I'd treat it as a useful signal rather than a rule.

Are third-party listicles worth chasing?

Yes, when they're the specific lists AI tools already cite for your buyers' questions. Getting onto a list nobody reads is wasted effort, and paying for a spot on one is wasted money.

Before you pitch anyone, find out which lists matter:

1. Run the questions your buyers ask in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode, with several versions of each.
2. Note which listicles get cited, and which ones keep coming up.
3. Check which of those lists leave you out.
4. Start with the ones that show up most often.

Most of the listicles AI tools cite are third-party lists, at least in some industries. In Wix's data, about 81% of listicle citations in professional services went to third-party lists rather than self-promotional ones.

To get on a list, give the editor a reason to include you: an up-to-date product or pricing page they can reference, a clear use case where you're the best fit, strong customer reviews, or data they can't get anywhere else. Say you sell payroll software for restaurants, and a “best payroll software for restaurants” roundup keeps showing up in AI answers. Send the editor your restaurant-specific features, pricing and a few customer reviews, the things they'd need to write a fair entry. If a placement is paid, it should be labelled as sponsored. I cover how to earn these mentions in Building off-site authority.

Should you publish your own “best X” list?

This is where the research disagrees, so it's worth looking at both sides.

The case for it: Ahrefs found no clear downside to self-promotional lists for rankings or AI citations, and concluded that SaaS companies and agencies can publish them. Peec AI's March 2026 analysis of 232,000 AI citations found that self-promotional lists made up about 11% of listicle citations, with no sign that AI tools were filtering them out.

The case against it: in the same Peec data, ChatGPT cited self-promotional lists far less often than the other platforms did, at about 3.6% compared with roughly 10% for Google AI Mode and Perplexity. Scrunch found the lift from being cited in your own list was modest, with recommendations rising from about 4% to 7%, and its own checks suggested part of that came from brands that were already growing. Google also appears to be pushing down low-quality listicles. Kevin Indig found that listicles in the top spot dropped by about four percentage points between January and August 2026, though he couldn't tie the drop to self-promotion specifically.

Then there's your reader. If a buyer reads “The 7 best CRMs of 2026” on a CRM company's blog and that company is number one, they'll take it with a grain of salt, and most B2B buyers doing careful research will. A list that reads like an ad can cost you more trust than the citation is worth.

If you do publish one, make it a list you'd be comfortable having a prospect read:

• Include the competitors buyers are actually comparing you with, and describe them fairly.
• Explain how you chose and ranked them.
• Say clearly that it's your list.
• Keep it updated, since most of the lists AI tools cite have been refreshed recently.

What should B2B companies focus on alongside listicles?

Listicles help AI tools build a shortlist. Your own pages are where they check whether you belong on it.

• Pricing and product pages: The Search Spot found that pricing pages were the most-cited product pages, with a median of 52 citations. If your pricing is hidden, AI tools have to piece it together from other sources. I look at that trade-off in Does hiding your pricing cost you in AI answers?
• A fair comparison page: an “us vs. them” or “alternatives to” page gives AI tools the specifics they need to match you to a buyer's requirements. I cover how to build one in my guide to comparison pages.
• Reviews: platforms like G2 and Capterra are one of the places AI tools look for a second opinion before recommending you.

How do you measure whether listicles are working?

Track whether you're being recommended, not only whether you're being cited:

• Mention rate: how often AI tools name you across groups of similar buyer questions.
• Before and after: check your mention rate for the questions a list covers before you get on it, and again a month or two later.
• Share of voice: how often you're mentioned compared with the competitors on the same lists.

AI answers change every time someone asks, so look at the trend across many versions of a question rather than a single screenshot.

So, are listicles worth it?

It depends on which kind of listicle you mean:

Neither kind of list replaces clear product, pricing and comparison pages, because that's where AI tools go to check the details before they recommend anyone.

Want to know which listicles matter for your buyers?

If you're not sure which lists AI tools cite in your category, or your own pages aren't giving them enough to work with, I can help. The AI search optimization audit shows which third-party sources AI tools rely on in your space, and content strategy covers the pages they check before they recommend you. See how I work with in-house teams!