Study: Gemini Favors Business Websites in Local Search
A new study by Steady Demand has found that business websites account for nearly 60% of the sources Gemini cites in local AI search results. The research analyzed 14,472 citations across 1,487 local search queries in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States.
Business websites outperform directory services. Nearly 60% of Gemini's citations link directly to a business's own website — a share higher than directories, review platforms, and forums combined.
The study's most significant finding was the inconsistency of AI responses — a phenomenon Steady Demand co-founder Ben Fisher calls "Grounding Drift": even when the same query is run multiple times, Gemini can recommend different sources each time.
The same 1,487 local search queries were also tested through ChatGPT, and the results showed that Gemini and ChatGPT rarely cite the same sources or recommend the same business.
This is an important warning for marketers: success on one AI search platform should never be assumed to carry over to another. Monitoring only a single platform can give a distorted picture of a brand's overall AI visibility — which is why local businesses now need to track their visibility across multiple AI search systems separately.
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