Top of PromptCategory data · Professional services · Sydney
Which sources do AI assistants cite about digital marketing agencies in Sydney?
Directories, not agencies. Clutch is the most cited source on both ChatGPT and Perplexity, with Semrush's agency directory and DesignRush behind it, and almost no Sydney agency cited directly in its own category.
Measured 2026-09-05 · Previous measurement 2026-08-22
Across 16 buying-journey prompts about digital marketing agencies that named Sydney, NSW or Australia, these are the sources each AI engine cited most in its answers. A citation is a source the engine actually linked in a response, which makes this list a map of who each engine trusts in this category right now.
The top 3 cited sources, by engine
| Engine | #1 cited source | #2 | #3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | clutch.co cited in 56.2% of answers | agencies.semrush.com cited in 37.5% of answers | involvedigital.com cited in 31.2% of answers |
| Perplexity | clutch.co cited in 87.5% of answers | agencies.semrush.com cited in 75% of answers | designrush.com cited in 62.5% of answers |
| Google AI Overviews | salesforge.ai cited in 25% of answers | 23digital.com.au cited in 18.8% of answers | agencies.semrush.com cited in 12.5% of answers |
Sample: 16 prompts, responses collected 2026-08-29 to 2026-09-05 (16 from each of ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews). Excluded from citation counts: 34 prompts naming a specific business, per the TOP Score rules, and 150 prompts that stated no location (see the correction note below). Percentages are the share of that engine's responses containing at least one citation of the domain. Ties: Google AI Overviews' third place is shared at 2 citations by agencies.semrush.com, callboxinc.com, digitalagencynetwork.com and soupagency.com.au.
Small sample: only 16 prompts in this category named a location, so treat these figures as a first sounding rather than a settled ranking. The sample grows at the next collection and the page will be updated with its own date stamp.
Correction and rebaseline, 26 August 2026
The first version of this page, published earlier the same day, included prompts that didn't name a location. Our own checking showed engines answer location-less questions with largely overseas sources, which distorted the picture of what a Sydney buyer's question returns. We rebaselined the page the same day to count only prompts naming Sydney, NSW or Australia, and we're saying so here rather than editing silently, because that's the standard this site holds itself to. The location-less results remain interesting, and we'll publish them separately as their own finding.
What the data says
When buyers ask AI to recommend a digital marketing agency in Sydney, the engines don't audition the agencies, they read the lists. Clutch turned up in 87.5% of Perplexity's answers this collection, which makes a handful of directory profiles disproportionately important to how this category gets answered. Full disclosure, twice over: this category includes the market Sydney Digital Marketing competes in, this site is run by SDM, and in this collection SDM's own site was cited in 43.8% of Perplexity's answers. We're publishing that number because it's what the measurement returned, and you should weigh it knowing who's reporting it. The data is reported exactly as collected.
Disclosure
Top of Prompt is run by Sydney Digital Marketing, which competes in this category. SDM's own domain appears in the underlying data and is reported exactly as collected, nothing added, nothing removed. The full disclosure policy is here.
How to read this page
- 1Citations are not mentions. This page measures which sources the engines link when they answer, not which businesses they name. Who gets named is the TOP Score, and it's measured separately.
- 2Engines disagree, so we never pool them. Each engine is reported on its own row because an average hides a total absence on the engine your buyers actually use.
- 3This is a measurement with a date on it. Models and retrieval change; a source moving between collections has not necessarily done anything. The method, cadence and limits are on the standard page.
- 4Ties are shown alphabetically and single-page sources are named. Where sources tie on citations, the table orders them alphabetically and the tie is stated under it. A domain's count can rest on a single page, often a "best of" listicle, and that concentration is itself part of what this site measures, so where it's true of a listed source we say so. Domains are counted by exact hostname, so government subdomains count separately.
Are you cited in your category?
A free Namecheck shows whether AI engines name and cite your business, with the actual answers we saw. If the measurement on this page looks wrong, the corrections process applies to it like everything else here.