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Build the eight channels. Then be honest that they are 16% of the opportunity.
AirOps measured where AI search citations actually come from. The top 100 domains, which is where G2, Reddit, Wikipedia and every directory in this playbook live, account for 16% of citations. The remaining 84% come from more than 148,000 other domains.
We are running the eight-week build anyway, and here is why. The top 100 are structured, crawlable, permanently indexed, and you can be present on them by Friday. They are the floor. They are not the ceiling, and the shipped version of this issue implied that they were.
The directories everyone optimises for are the small half.
The eight-week build
1 | Claim and verify your G2 profile Search G2 for your product name. If unclaimed: click "Claim this profile" and follow the verification process (takes 15 minutes). Without claiming, you cannot control the description, category, or any profile fields. They default to whatever G2's algorithm infers, which may be wrong. |
2 | Complete every field with your canonical description
Product description: use your exact canonical description from Issue #13. Category selection: pick the most accurate primary G2 category. This determines which buyer queries your profile is cited for. Features: use buyer-language, not internal jargon. Add 5+ screenshots. Add pricing tier. Add video demo link. Leave nothing blank. |
3 | Launch a 20-review collection campaign Email your 20 most engaged customers with a direct link to your G2 review page. Three-sentence ask. Optional: $25 gift card offer (G2 TOS compliant). Follow up once after 5 days. Goal: 20 reviews, 4.0+ average, within 30 days. This is the single most impactful G2 action. Review count is the primary driver of AI citation weight from review platforms. |
And then the other 148,000
The long tail is not the leftovers. It is trade press in your vertical, niche forums, regional publications, association newsletters, practitioner blogs. Domains no AEO checklist will ever name, because they are different for every category.
You find them the same way an engine does. Run your twenty buyer queries on Perplexity, which always shows its sources, and read the domain list. Most of the names will surprise you. Those are your targets, and no competitor is fighting you for them.
 | Jason Barnard Kalicube · on AI-driven discovery |