Plugin Visibility Index · Softrecs research
What AI engines actually cite when someone asks about WordPress plugins
We ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode the questions plugin buyers ask, then read every answer and every source in full. Each run below is one measurement, with its method, data and limits on the page. This is the summary.
Key findings so far
Ask the same question twice and a quarter of the answer changes
Perplexity, same prompt run twice in ten plugin categories. Overlap between the two answers ranged from 100% down to 40%, and even at 100% the top pick changed.
One domain takes a median 43% of an answer's citations
Across 60 Perplexity answers. The most-cited domain overall was a booking-plugin vendor, writing about categories it does not compete in.
Two engines name only about half the same plugins
Perplexity and Google AI Mode, identical question: a median 53% of the same products, and a different top pick in four of ten categories.
Similar answers, almost none of the same sources
The same two engines shared only 15% of cited domains. Google used YouTube as a source in eight categories, Perplexity in none.
Repeat a query and you measure the cache
An identical query returned an identical source list. Adding a question mark changed a fifth of the sources.
ChatGPT reads 217 sources and shows 36
Ten categories on ChatGPT. A third engine lowered cross-engine agreement instead of raising it.
One vendor's domains were a source in 18 of 45 answers
Five categories, three engines. Only backup had full agreement on the leading plugin.
Zero in 72: softrecs.com itself, a month on
Our own site was cited in none of 72 answers. Google AI Mode leaned on YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn; ChatGPT showed 12% of the sources it read.
What this means if you run a plugin
- One check is not a measurement. The same prompt can return a different answer, and a fixed-wording tracker can end up reading a cache (Runs 01 and 04).
- Each engine is its own channel. Engines overlap on about half the plugins they name and far less on the sources they read (Runs 02, 03 and 05).
- The sources decide the answer. A few domains supply most citations, and they are often not the plugin's own site (Attribution 01, Leaderboard).
Use the data
Check your plugin in the leaderboard
See whether the engines named it, and what they read instead. Updated with the 10 October run.
Plugin retrievability check
Can AI crawlers fetch, index and quote your plugin's site and wordpress.org listing?
Guides
What the evidence supports, and which common GEO advice it does not.
How we make this
Method, tools and where an AI assistant is used in the work.