ChatGPT topic ownership is rare, and SEO alone doesn’t explain it

Only 15.2% of ChatGPT taxable categories had a clear marque proprietor crossed related purchaser questions, according to a Semrush analysis.

That intends astir 85% of categories had nary ascendant brand. Appearing successful 1 punctual didn’t mean a marque appeared consistently crossed related questions successful the aforesaid topic.

How ownership was defined. Semrush defined a class proprietor arsenic the marque pinch the highest stock of mentions, appearing successful astatine slightest 4 of 5 related prompts and starring the runner-up by astatine slightest 5 percent points.

• Only 15.2% of the 1,094 categories met that standard.
• Another 31.2% had an emerging leader, pinch 1 marque appearing successful astatine slightest 3 prompts but without the required lead.
• The remaining 53.7% were unsettled, pinch nary marque appearing successful astatine slightest 3 of 5 prompts.

Popular topics, fewer clear owners. Semrush divided categories into 2 groups by AI hunt demand. Only 11.3% of topics successful the apical half had a clear owner, compared pinch 19% successful the bottommost half.

• The apical half accounted for 98% of the AI hunt measurement successful the sample.
• Most ChatGPT request Semrush tracked was successful categories without a clear marque owner.

Broad SEO metrics had constricted predictive value. Traditional SEO spot didn’t reliably foretell which brands owned ChatGPT topics. “Traditional SEO metrics aren’t capable to explicate who owns a topic. While they play their role, there’s much to it,” wrote Kevin Indig, laminitis of Growth Memo.

• Semrush compared class owners pinch runners-up crossed branded hunt volume, integrated traffic, and Authority Score.
• Owners had higher branded hunt measurement successful 55.7% of comparisons, higher integrated postulation successful 48.4%, and a higher Authority Score successful 52.5%. Branded hunt measurement was the only metric that reached statistical significance.

Most-cited seldom meant most-mentioned. Semrush measured ownership by marque mentions successful ChatGPT’s reply text, not by the links cited below.

• Mentions and citations often didn’t align. Only 21% of the most-cited domains successful a class were besides the most-mentioned brand.

Why we care. Semrush recovered that prompt-level visibility didn’t ever transportation crossed related purchaser questions. That suggests topic-level visibility is much useful for assessing whether ChatGPT consistently associates a marque pinch a category.

Brands that owned a taxable usually kept it. Clear class owners stayed successful first spot successful 90.4% of month-over-month comparisons. Weaker leaders changed much often, pinch the apical marque switching successful 1,950 of 5,470 comparisons crossed emerging and unsettled categories.

Narrow leads were little stable. When a apical marque later mislaid first place, its emblematic lead was conscionable 1.3 percent points. When it stayed connected top, its emblematic lead was 2.9 points, much than doubly arsenic large.

• Semrush said the information didn’t explicate why leaders changed. It showed only that brands pinch smaller leads were much apt to suffer first place.

About the data. Semrush and Kevin Indig analyzed 1,094 U.S. categories successful ChatGPT from January done June 2026 utilizing the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit. The dataset covered much than 50,000 brands, 220,000 domains, 600,000 citations, and 220,000 URLs. Each class included 5 prompts tied to communal purchaser questions, including definitions, comparisons, alternatives, usage cases, and buying decisions.

The study. AI visibility is simply a topic-level game: A study of 50,000 brands successful ChatGPT [Study]