When prospective clients use generative search engines to benchmark executive and consulting rates, the underlying citation sources dictate what numbers they see. A recent study tracked the exact domains referenced by Perplexity and Google AI Overviews across eleven cost queries covering fractional leadership and advisory fees.
The most striking finding was citation stability. Perplexity returned nearly identical reference domains across repeated queries. For nine of the eleven questions tested, every single domain cited appeared in all ten runs. This shows that Perplexity relies on a fixed, highly consistent index for pricing queries rather than rotating sources at random.
Google AI Overviews showed clear domain concentration across 31 tracked results. The most frequently cited domains were gofractional.com with 21 appearances, linkedin.com with 19, and fractionus.com with 18. Specialized fractional talent platforms and established professional networks dominated the results, capturing the majority of organic real estate.
For advisory and fractional practices, visibility in AI-assisted research depends heavily on presence within these specific directories and platforms. You can examine the full breakdown of queries and domain frequencies at https://bit.ly/which-sites-ai-tools-list-executive-consulting
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