Get listed where AI assistants look: directories, review sites and \"best of\" lists
· 3 min read · MAALI team
Ask an AI assistant with web search for "the best accountant for freelancers in Bristol" or "sustainable linen brands" and look at the links under the answer. Many aren't the businesses themselves. They're directories, review sites and roundup articles: the pages the assistant read before deciding who to name.
If your competitors are on those pages and you aren't, you're starting from behind. The good news: getting onto the right ones is ordinary, honest marketing work, and you can usually start this week.
Find the sites that matter for you
Don't sign up to every directory on the internet. Find the few that the assistants actually use for your questions:
- Ask the assistants your customers' questions (see how to check whether AI assistants recommend your business) and note every site they cite.
- Search the same questions on Google and note the directories and articles on the first page.
- Look at where your competitors are listed. Search a competitor's name and see which review sites and directories come up.
Sites that show up in more than one of these are your shortlist.
What usually counts, by kind of business
Every industry has its own, but these come up again and again:
- Local businesses: your Google Business Profile (the most important), Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp or the main review site in your country, your chamber of commerce or town directory, and the trusted directories for your trade (for example, a regulator's register or an association's member list).
- Software and SaaS: software review sites in your category, marketplaces and app directories for the platforms you integrate with, "alternatives to" sites, and community launch sites.
- Online stores: marketplaces you also sell on, niche directories (sustainable, local, handmade, independent), and gift guides and roundups from bloggers and publications in your niche.
- Services and agencies: industry directories, partner directories of the tools you're certified in, and professional association listings.
Fill in your listing properly
A half-empty listing isn't much use to an assistant. On each one:
- Use exactly the same name, address, phone and website as on your own site. Small differences ("St." vs "Street" is fine; an old address isn't) make assistants less sure about you.
- Write a clear description: what you offer, who it's for, where you work, what it costs or "from" prices. Write it for people, in plain words.
- Choose the right categories. They're often how directories decide which searches show you.
- Add real photos, opening hours and links to your main pages.
- Answer reviews, good and bad, briefly and politely. It shows you're active.
"Best of" lists and roundups: ask honestly
Roundup articles ("best linen brands", "top bookkeeping apps for cafés") are often what assistants quote. You can't buy your way onto good ones, and you shouldn't try. You can:
- Check you're a genuine fit for the list and its readers.
- Write to the author or editor briefly: who you are, why you fit, one fact that helps them (a free trial, a sample, your price range). No pressure, no payment for placement.
- Make it easy to describe you: a short, accurate summary and a good image they're allowed to use.
- Keep track of who you contacted, so you don't send reminder after reminder.
Paid placements labelled as ads are fine if you want them, but they're a different thing from earning a mention, and many assistants treat them differently too.
Keep it up to date
Listings go stale. Set a reminder to check your main ones every few months, and whenever you move, change hours, add a location or change prices. Remove or update old listings for locations you've closed: assistants sometimes still quote them.
What to avoid
- Mass directory submission services. Hundreds of low-quality listings don't help and can make your details less consistent.
- Fake or paid-for reviews, on any site. They break platform rules and, in many countries, the law.
- Buying "guaranteed AI placement". Nobody controls what an assistant says.
Where MAALI fits
MAALI's AI Visibility check lists the websites ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude rely on when they answer your customers' questions, and shows which of them backed a competitor instead of you. Its action plan names the specific directories and lists worth your time, alongside the pages to write and the facts to make clearer. Our guide on why AI assistants recommend your competitors covers the other reasons, from reviews to blocked crawlers.
(The businesses in the examples are made up.)
Keep reading
A step-by-step way to see what AI assistants say when your customers ask for what you sell, which competitors they name instead, and how to track it over time.
The seven most common reasons ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name a competitor instead of you, how to spot each one, and the fix.
What generative engine optimization (GEO) means for a small business, how AI assistants decide what to recommend, and the practical steps that help.
People searching "X vs Y" are close to buying. How to write comparison pages that are fair, useful and rank, without trashing competitors.