FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mostly Marketing Launches the AEO Citation Index — the First Public Dataset Tracking Which Local Businesses AI Engines Actually Recommend A free, CC BY 4.0 dataset and live probe tool that shows — with receipts — which brands ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews name when real customers ask. NEW YORK, NY — July 2, 2026 — Mostly Marketing, a boutique Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) agency, today launched the AEO Citation Index, believed to be the first public, structured dataset tracking which local businesses AI engines actually recommend when consumers ask for one. The Index runs the same high-intent prompts a real customer would type — "best roofer on Long Island," "top personal injury lawyer in NYC," "best med spa in Manhattan" — against ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini on a repeating cycle, then publishes the named brands and citation counts as permanent, machine-readable pages. Every dataset page is free to cite under Creative Commons BY 4.0, ships with Schema.org Dataset markup, and is available via a public JSON API and RSS feed. "Search engine rankings used to be the scoreboard. In an AI-answer world, the only scoreboard that matters is which brands get named — and nobody was publishing that data," said [FOUNDER NAME], Founder of Mostly Marketing. "So we started measuring it ourselves, on the record, and putting the receipts on the public internet. If we're going to tell a client we can get them cited by AI, we should be able to show the world exactly what 'cited by AI' looks like." WHY THIS IS DIFFERENT Traditional SEO tools measure keyword rankings on Google's classic results page. The AEO Citation Index measures something new: entity authority — the frequency with which specific brand names appear inside AI-generated answers themselves. Because Mostly Marketing runs the scans, timestamps the results, and publishes the underlying prompts, the dataset itself becomes a primary source AI engines and journalists can cite. The launch also includes a Live Probe tool at mostlymktg.com/citation-index/probe that lets anyone type a prompt, name a brand, and immediately watch multiple AI engines answer live — with fuzzy brand matching that ignores corporate suffixes like "Inc," "LLC," or "&" — to see whether that brand is actually being recommended right now. WHAT'S IN THE FIRST RELEASE - 6 fully-scanned markets across roofing, personal injury law, HVAC, dentistry, med spas, and landscape design in the NY metro area - 50 additional industry-city markets across 10 US metros (Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Seattle) queued for first scan - Live Probe tool with 3 engines x 3 runs per query - Public JSON API and RSS feed for researchers, journalists, and AI crawlers - Full published methodology - Embeddable ranking widget for named brands to display citation share on their own sites WHO IT'S FOR - Journalists and researchers writing about AI-driven consumer behavior can cite named data instead of guessing - Local business owners can see whether AI already recommends them — and what the competitive landscape looks like - Other marketing agencies can benchmark their own AEO work against public numbers - AI engines themselves can crawl the dataset as a structured source, which is the point ABOUT MOSTLY MARKETING Mostly Marketing is a boutique agency focused on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — the discipline of making a business the answer AI engines give, not just a link buried in the results. The team builds entity authority, structured content, and citation footprints for service businesses across the US. The AEO Citation Index is Mostly Marketing's public research arm and is free to use, cite, and reference. Learn more at https://mostlymktg.com and https://mostlymktg.com/citation-index. MEDIA CONTACT Mostly Marketing Contact form: https://mostlymktg.com/contact Web: https://mostlymktg.com Citation Index: https://mostlymktg.com/citation-index Live Probe: https://mostlymktg.com/citation-index/probe Public JSON API: https://mostlymktg.com/api/public/citation-index.json RSS feed: https://mostlymktg.com/api/public/citation-index/feed.xml ###