{"id":3693,"date":"2026-10-27T16:19:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T16:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/?p=3693"},"modified":"2026-10-27T16:20:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T16:20:30","slug":"ai-search-index-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/ai-search-index-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"UK and US AI Search Cite the Same Web"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"h-\"><strong>About 30.7% UK AI Search citations go to UK sites, against 76.0% in Germany and 76.1% in France, on the same 16 industries<\/strong>, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/insights.otterly.ai\/industry-reports\/\">OtterlyAI AI Search Index<\/a>, a study of 4.25 million citations across four markets (US, UK, Germany and France) on 7 AI Search Engines.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A UK site can take three forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Local UK domains<\/strong>, such as which.co.uk, gov.uk and amazon.co.uk.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Global domains with a UK signal in the URL<\/strong>, such as forbes.com\/advisor\/uk\/ and uk.trustpilot.com.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>British sites on a global domain<\/strong>, such as theguardian.com, johnlewis.com and tesco.com.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everything else counts as global, and UK answers draw on the same global sites as American ones: two in three UK citations (66.7%) go to global sites that US answers to the same industry prompts also cite.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"623\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-45.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3697\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.6041131105398458;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-45.png 1000w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-45-300x187.png 300w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-45-767x478.png 767w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For global businesses, that means a strong .com page already competes for most UK citations. For UK businesses, it means competing with American pages on their home prompts. Their edge is in answers that depend on the country, such as prices, delivery and regulation: Retail and E-commerce, Healthcare, and Finance and Insurance are the most local UK industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-key-takeaways-from-the-study\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Takeaways From The Study:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Only three in ten UK citations (30.7%) go to UK sites<\/strong>, against 76.0% in Germany and 76.1% in France.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>66.7% of UK citations go to global sites that US answers also cite<\/strong> for the same industry prompts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Forbes beats the British press in UK answers<\/strong>: it takes 5.1% of UK news citations, more than the 15 British newspapers and broadcasters we tracked combined (2.95%). The BBC takes 0.08%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>UK comparison and advice sites lead the British layer<\/strong>: websites like MoneySavingExpert.com take up 2.4% of UK citations for finance and insurance prompts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Company pages stay global<\/strong>: only 35.6% of company page citations go to UK sites, against 78.1% in Germany and 79.4% in France.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No UK industry is as local as the least local German or French one<\/strong>: the UK peaks at 53.9% in Retail and E-commerce, below Pharma in Germany (60.3%) and France (56.4%).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ChatGPT shifted sharply as GPT-6 rolled out in October<\/strong>. From 9 October, we detected that ChatGPT cited 2.6 times as many sources a day for the same UK prompts as in late September. News rose from 10.1% to 13.4%, Reddit from 0.14% to 0.51% in the UK.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-does-ai-search-prefer-citing-uk-sites\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Does AI Search prefer citing UK sites?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The answer? Less than it prefers German sites in Germany or French sites in France.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Across the 1,600 UK prompts, only <strong>30.7% of citations went to UK sites<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While German prompts kept <strong>76.0% on German sites<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>French prompts <strong>76.1% on French sites<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"928\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-44-928x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3696\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.9056603773584906;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-44-928x1024.png 928w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-44-272x300.png 272w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-44-767x847.png 767w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-44.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 928px) 100vw, 928px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The 30.7% splits across the three kinds of UK site<\/strong> (rounded shares of all UK citations):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Local domains (16.5%)<\/strong>: every address ending in .uk, from .co.uk to gov.uk and nhs.uk.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Global domains with a UK signal in the URL (3.6%)<\/strong>: \/uk\/ or \/gb\/ in the path, or uk. in front of the host name.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>British sites on a global domain (10.7%)<\/strong>: nothing in the address says UK, so we count a site as British when UK answers cite it at least five times as often as answers in each of the other three markets, or when it belongs to one of the 15 British newspapers and broadcasters we track, such as theguardian.com.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the .uk address alone, the UK share is lower still: 16.5% of UK citations, against 51.7% for Germany&#8217;s country domains (.de, .at, .ch) and 35.0% for France&#8217;s (.fr, .be, .ch). Most .uk citations (77.4%) are .co.uk, so a .uk address is mostly a company address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reason is language. A German or French page signals its market because it is written in another language, and a local address is the natural home for it. Despite small language differences, a British page reads the same on any domain, so UK publishers have less reason to mark their pages, and AI Search has less to go on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What this means for your GEO strategy:<\/strong> The .uk share understates how British the UK web is. Judge UK visibility on your own prompts and treat the domain count as a floor, because a UK brand on .com can still win UK citations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-where-do-uk-citations-come-from\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Where do UK Citations Come From?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UK draws on the same mix of sources as the US, Germany and France.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Brand &amp; corporate pages make up 60.0% of UK citations<\/strong>, against 57.6% in the US, 59.2% in France and 58.0% in Germany.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>News and media take 13.9%<\/strong>, a little below the US (15.8%) and Germany (14.6%) and well above France (10.3%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"964\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-42-964x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3694\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.9411764705882353;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-42-964x1024.png 964w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-42-282x300.png 282w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-42-767x815.png 767w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-42.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 964px) 100vw, 964px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The differences sit in the smaller categories.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NGOs and associations take 5.6% in the UK<\/strong> and 5.1% in the US, against 8.4% in Germany and 7.6% in France.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Community and forum sites take 2.5% in the UK<\/strong> and 3.1% in the US, against 1.7% in Germany and 1.6% in France, so on both measures the UK behaves like the US.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-brands-and-corporate-pages-most-uk-brand-citations-sit-on-global-sites\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Brands and corporate pages: most UK brand citations sit on global sites<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Company pages are the largest category in every market, and in the UK only 35.6% of them sit on UK sites. Germany keeps 78.1% of its company-page citations on German sites and France 79.4% on French ones. The .uk share of UK company-page citations is 18.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UK brands that win are comparison and advice services. Which? on which.co.uk takes 0.56% of all UK citations, MoneySavingExpert 0.33%, Amazon UK 0.25%, MoneySuperMarket 0.18% and Uswitch 0.16%. The most cited domain in UK answers is google.com at 2.72%, almost all of it from Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-news-and-media-british-newspapers-barely-register\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>News and media: British newspapers barely register<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">News and media take 13.9% of UK citations, and 18.8% of those land on UK sites. In Germany the figure is 79.4% and in France 73.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"648\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-46.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3698\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5445544554455446;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-46.png 1000w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-46-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-46-767x497.png 767w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Together, the 15 British newspapers and broadcasters in the chart take 2.95% of UK news citations. Forbes alone takes 5.09%, close to its 4.9% share of US news citations, and TechRadar, CNBC and Tom&#8217;s Guide follow it in UK answers. The Independent leads the British titles at 0.85%, ahead of The Telegraph (0.49%) and The Guardian (0.47%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On these buying questions, the BBC takes 0.08% of UK news citations and the Daily Mail less than 0.01%. Global domains carry 80.1% of UK news citations, so the outlets that shape UK answers are mostly the ones that shape American answers too.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-social-media-forums-and-video-the-uk-sits-with-the-us\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Social media, forums and video: the UK sits with the US<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Facebook takes 0.58% of UK citations and LinkedIn 0.48%, close to the US (0.63% and 0.44%) and well above Germany (0.16% and 0.22%). YouTube is the exception. At 1.17% it is lower in the UK than in any of the other three markets, which range from 1.33% to 1.54%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"825\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-43.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3695\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.2116504854368932;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-43.png 1000w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-43-300x248.png 300w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-43-767x633.png 767w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instagram (0.15%), TikTok (0.05%) and X (0.01%) are small in every market. Social platforms are a minor citation channel for commercial prompts wherever you are, and the UK uses them the American way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-every-uk-citation-by-kind-of-address-and-where-it-landed\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Every UK citation, by kind of address and where it landed<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Splitting every UK citation by source type shows where the UK layer sits.<br>Local domains (.uk or .co.uk) take 16.5% and UK sites on a global domain 14.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-50.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3702\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.482185273159145;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-50.png 1000w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-50-300x203.png 300w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-50-767x518.png 767w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Global domains take 67.4%, and other countries&#8217; domains 1.8%. That&#8217;s where a global page competes with a British one on equal terms. Global domains dominate the platforms: they carry 98.4% of social media citations, 95.1% of video citations and 94.7% of reference citations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NGOs and associations are the most British type, with 30.5% of their citations on .uk and 14.2% on UK sites with a global domain. Government follows at 26.8% on .uk, academic sources at 25.7% and company pages at 18.9%. News and media sit at 8.6% on .uk, with 80.1% of their UK citations on global domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-same-prompts-two-countries-the-uk-against-the-us\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Same prompts, two countries: the UK against the US<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of the 1,600 UK prompts, 1,383 are word for word the American prompts, and the other 217 differ only in British spelling, such as tyres or cosy. That makes the US a clean test of what the UK setting changes. Asked from the UK, the prompts send 30.7% of their citations to UK sites, and asked from the US, 1.1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"623\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-48.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3700\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.6041131105398458;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-48.png 1000w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-48-300x187.png 300w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-48-767x478.png 767w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-no-uk-industry-is-as-local-as-the-least-local-german-or-french-one\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>No UK industry is as local as the least local German or French one<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Measured against each market&#8217;s own sites, the gap holds in every industry. The UK peaks at 53.9% in Retail and E-commerce. Germany&#8217;s least local industry, Pharma, still sends 60.3% of its citations to German sites, and France&#8217;s, also Pharma, 56.4% to French sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"988\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-49-988x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3701\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.9659442724458205;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-49-988x1024.png 988w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-49-290x300.png 290w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-49-767x795.png 767w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-49.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 988px) 100vw, 988px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The widest gap is in Educational Platforms: 12.4% in the UK against 71.6% in France and 68.5% in Germany. Media and Entertainment follows, at 20.0% against 77.3% and 75.6%. The narrowest gap is Healthcare, and even there the UK (52.4%) sits 30.9 points behind France and 34.1 behind Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What this means for your GEO strategy:<\/strong> A European playbook built on local domains and local-language pages doesn&#8217;t transfer to the UK. In Germany and France the local web carries most citations; in the UK it is a minority layer on top of a shared English base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-which-ai-search-engine-prefers-uk-sources\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Which AI Search engine prefers UK sources?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every engine treats the UK as the least local of the three European markets. Microsoft Copilot, the most local engine in the UK at 50.5%, still sits below the least local engine in Germany (Google AI Overviews, 67.8%) and in France (Google AI Overviews, 67.5%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"558\" src=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-47.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3699\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.793103448275862;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-47.png 1000w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-47-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-47-767x428.png 767w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Inside the UK the engines split widely. Copilot sends 50.5% of its citations to UK sites, including 29.0% to .uk addresses, and ChatGPT follows at 44.3%. Google AI Overviews (35.1%), Claude (33.2%) and Google AI Mode (29.7%) sit in the middle, with Gemini (23.3%) and Perplexity (12.6%) at the bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 37.9-point spread is about twice Germany&#8217;s (19.7) and France&#8217;s (17.9). Perplexity flips the most: it is the most local engine in Germany (87.5%) and France (85.3%), and the least local in the UK, with 3.8% of its UK citations on .uk and 84.0% on global domains. It answers UK prompts much as it answers American ones, since 81.1% of its UK citations go to global sites it also cites for the same industry in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google AI Mode&#8217;s figure is held down by its own pages. Of its UK citations, 29.6% point to google.com, and without them its UK-site share would reach 42.1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What this means for your GEO strategy:<\/strong> Track UK visibility engine by engine. A .co.uk site that does well in Copilot and ChatGPT can still be close to invisible in Perplexity, where global pages take most of the UK citations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-how-to-do-geo-for-the-uk\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to do GEO for the UK?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-if-you-are-an-international-company-entering-the-uk\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>If you are an international company entering the UK<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Start with the page you already have.<\/strong> Two in three UK citations (66.7%) go to global sites that US answers to the same prompts also cite. A strong global page competes for most UK citations on equal terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Localize where the answer depends on the country.<\/strong> Retail and E-commerce (53.9%), Healthcare (52.4%) and Finance and Insurance (44.8%) send the most citations to UK sites. Give those pages a UK signal, a \/uk\/ path or a .co.uk address, and UK prices, delivery and rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Get into the outlets both markets read.<\/strong> Forbes takes 5.1% of UK news citations and 4.9% of US news citations, and TechRadar, CNBC and Tom&#8217;s Guide are cited in both markets. One placement there works for UK and US prompts at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Expect your global pages to do best in Perplexity and Gemini.<\/strong> They send the fewest UK citations to UK sites, 12.6% and 23.3%, so global pages carry the most weight there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-if-you-are-a-uk-business-serving-uk-clients\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>If you are a UK business serving UK clients<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Make your .co.uk count in Copilot and ChatGPT.<\/strong> Microsoft Copilot sends 29.0% of its UK citations to .uk addresses and ChatGPT 25.3%, against 3.8% in Perplexity. Those two engines reward a British address the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Expect American pages on your home prompts.<\/strong> UK answers cite Forbes 6.0 times as often as The Independent, and 68.1% of UK government citations go to US federal sites. Publish the UK facts that American pages can&#8217;t supply: UK prices, UK rules and UK providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Get listed where UK answers find UK sources.<\/strong> Comparison and advice sites carry the British layer: Which? (0.56% of all UK citations), MoneySavingExpert (0.33%), MoneySuperMarket (0.18%) and Uswitch (0.16%). Mumsnet (0.09%) is the British community AI Search cites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Plan for ChatGPT&#8217;s news shift.<\/strong> News and media rose from 10.1% to 13.4% of ChatGPT&#8217;s UK citations after GPT-6, while government and NGO sources fell. News coverage now holds a larger share of ChatGPT&#8217;s UK citations than it did in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-study-methodology-how-this-was-measured\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Study methodology: how this was measured<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The OtterlyAI AI Search Index tracks 16 industries in four markets: the UK, the US, Germany and France. Each industry runs 100 bottom-funnel commercial prompts per market, 1,600 per market, every day on seven AI Search engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Claude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This edition covers the same 14 days in every market, 22 September to 5 October 2026: 4,254,781 citations, of which 1,034,569 came from UK prompts, 1,021,020 from the US, 1,072,998 from France and 1,126,194 from Germany. We read every citation at URL level, which shows the path as well as the domain. The ChatGPT chapter uses daily data from 22 September to 13 October 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each citation gets one of four address types. A local domain ends in .uk, which includes .co.uk, .org.uk, .gov.uk, .nhs.uk and .ac.uk. A UK site on a global domain either carries a UK marker in the first part of the host name (uk.) or in the first three path segments (\/uk\/, \/en-gb\/, \/gb\/), or is a .com, .org or similar site that UK prompts cite at least five times as often, as a share of all citations, as prompts in each of the other three markets, or the global domain of one of the 15 British newspapers and broadcasters in the news chart (theguardian.com, thetimes.com, ft.com, bbc.com, news.sky.com). Local domains and UK sites on a global domain together make up UK sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rest sit on global domains (.com, .org, .net and similar) or on other countries&#8217; domains. Germany (.de, .at, .ch), France (.fr, .be, .ch) and the US (.us) run the same test with their own markers. Source types follow the AI Search Index taxonomy of 12 categories, with government and academic sites identified by domain pattern. Shares are rounded to one decimal, so parts can differ from their total by a tenth of a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-got-a-geo-experiment-idea-let-s-collaborate\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Got a GEO experiment idea? Let&#8217;s collaborate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At OtterlyAI, we don&#8217;t write about AI Search from the sidelines. We test it. With the community, we run and update a public GEO Experimentation Tracker showing what we are running and what moved AI Search. If you are running your own GEO experiment, email rick.tousseyn@otterly.ai and we may feature it with your name attributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Want to measure your AI Visibility? Start with <a href=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/\">OtterlyAI<\/a> and our <a href=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/\">GEO Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Learn how to connect your Claude or ChatGPT to <a href=\"https:\/\/otterly.ai\/blog\/\">OtterlyAI&#8217;s MCP<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 30.7% UK AI Search citations go to UK sites, against 76.0% in Germany and 76.1% in France, on the same 16 industries, according to the OtterlyAI AI Search Index, a study of 4.25 million citations across four markets (US, UK, Germany and France) on 7 AI Search Engines.&nbsp; A UK site can take three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ayudawp_aiss_exclude":false,"_ayudawp_aiss_exclude_summary":false,"_ayudawp_aiss_summary":"About 30.7% UK AI Search citations go to UK sites, against 76.0% in Germany and 76.1% in France, on the same 16 industries, according to the OtterlyAI AI Search Index, a study of 4.25 million citations across four markets (US, UK, Germany and France) on 7 AI Search Engines. Everything else counts as global, and UK answers draw on the same global sites as American ones: two in three UK citations (66.7%) go to global sites that US answers to the same industry prompts also cite.&nbsp;. A UK site on a global domain either carries a UK marker in the first part of the host name (uk.) or in the first three path segments (\/uk\/, \/en-gb\/, \/gb\/), or is a.com,.org or similar site that UK prompts cite at least five times as often, as a share of all citations, as prompts in each of the other three markets, or the global domain of one of the 15 British newspapers and broadcasters in the news chart (theguardian.com, thetimes.com, ft.com, bbc.com, news.sky.com).","_ayudawp_aiss_summary_provider":"extractive","_ayudawp_aiss_summary_hash":"dfd86a0e0aa68f2efc13aad6bcc2605d4f640299","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-search-studies","eq-blocks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UK AI Search Index 2026: Key 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