<\/p>
In this case study, we went deep instead of broad. We focused on one question: why wasn\u2019t a brand present in a single ChatGPT prompt across ~70 iterations?<\/p>
We chose one prompt: \u201cWhat are the best hotels in New York City?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
We analyzed mentions, citations, fanouts, and SERPs in Google and Bing. We also planned to analyze GPT memory, but it made no discernible difference to mentions, citations, or fanouts.<\/p>
We chose NYC hotels because it\u2019s a crowded, mature market with juggernauts and up-and-comers. We also have no connection to the NYC luxury hotel space \u2014 we intentionally picked an area where we could stay objective and learn from scratch.<\/p>
After running the prompt \u201cwhat are the best hotels in New York City\u201d 68 times, we identified which hotels appeared most consistently and which were nearly invisible. <\/p>
We chose the Baccarat Hotel as our \u201cclient\u201d because it appeared only once (1.5% of the time), despite strong reviews and clear alignment with the prompt\u2019s intent. We wanted to know why \u2014 and whether it could change that.<\/p>
Key findings:<\/strong><\/p> Note:<\/strong> A full methodology breakdown appears in the appendix.<\/em><\/p> The Baccarat Hotel appeared once in 68 trials (1.5%).<\/p> Top performers were large luxury hotels like the Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown. <\/p> ChatGPT also identified boutique hotels as a subcategory, generating a secondary list in its answers. Boutique hotels like the Baccarat are typically smaller and not part of large chains.<\/p> Within this boutique subcategory, the Baccarat still underperformed. The Fifth Avenue Hotel, the top-performing boutique property, appeared 13 times, cited 20% of the time, versus the Baccarat\u2019s 1.5%.<\/p> We first checked whether anything in the hotel\u2019s history or reputation could explain the gap. As the chart below shows, nothing significant did:<\/p> Overall, the Baccarat has been around longer and has more reviews. On quality, the Fifth Avenue Hotel has no edge in Google reviews and only a slight edge in Expedia reviews. The only area where the Baccarat lags is price \u2014 but that\u2019s unlikely the issue when The Ritz-Carlton, a consistent non-boutique winner, is listed at $1,100.<\/p> Further reinforcing the Fifth Avenue\u2019s underdog status: one of its most prominent Google results (rank 2) was a Wikipedia page for a different Fifth Avenue Hotel that closed in 1908, creating potential entity confusion similar to the two Danny Goodwins.<\/p> If the Fifth Avenue Hotel had been the one missing, it would suggest a less established brand with entity confusion. But the opposite happened \u2014 it prevailed in ChatGPT. <\/p> So what was the problem for the Baccarat Hotel?<\/p> When ChatGPT performs a web search, it sends a series of queries you can extract via Chrome DevTools. In this case study, examples included:<\/p> In total, we extracted 25 unique query fanouts.<\/p> If we only looked at the articles dominating fanout SERPs in Google, we\u2019d expect the Baccarat to narrowly outperform the Fifth Avenue in ChatGPT. That didn\u2019t happen.<\/p> In the table below, the Baccarat \u201cwins\u201d three of the top 10 most frequently appearing pages, while the Fifth Avenue Hotel \u201cwins\u201d two. The other five feature neither. A \u201cwin\u201d means one of the following: <\/p> The data:<\/strong><\/p> By contrast, looking only at the articles dominating fanout SERPs in Bing, we\u2019d expect the Fifth Avenue to outperform the Baccarat in ChatGPT \u2014 and it did.<\/p> In the table below, the Fifth Avenue \u201cwins\u201d five of the eight most frequently appearing URLs.<\/p> Note:<\/strong> The table includes two fewer URLs because Bing SERPs were slightly less diverse for these fanouts.<\/em><\/p> The data:<\/strong><\/p> Bing rank strongly predicts ChatGPT citations \u2014 87% align with Bing\u2019s top results, Seer Interactive found. Our case study supports this and extends it.<\/p> We examined the relationship between fanouts (Seer focused on prompts) and brand mentions.<\/p> Example mention: \u201cFor a luxury boutique feel: listings like The Fifth Avenue Hotel or Crosby Street Hotel consistently make \u2018top NYC\u2019 lists from travel editors.\u201d<\/p> Mentions are often more valuable than citations. Most people won\u2019t follow citations but will remember the top recommendation.<\/p> There\u2019s ongoing debate about whether fanouts shape ChatGPT\u2019s answers and mentions, or simply support answers generated from training data. For example, Leigh McKenzie argued on LinkedIn: <\/p> By contrast, our data aligns with Beehiiv\u2019s research, which suggests citations do shape mentions.<\/p> Training data doesn\u2019t appear to be the issue for the Baccarat. Compared to the Fifth Avenue, it\u2019s older, has more reviews, and holds similarly high ratings across major platforms. What it lacks is strong presence in Bing results for fanouts and citations, which appears to lead to fewer mentions.<\/p> A simple flow might look like this:<\/p> In this vertical, third parties like Forbes and Cond\u00e9 Nast control the space. Visibility depends on who mentions you, so you need a strong outreach strategy \u2014 not just updates to your own content.<\/p> Our data shows that \u201ctargeting Forbes\u201d isn\u2019t specific enough.<\/p> The top result surfaced in both Bing and ChatGPT was the same Forbes article. In Google, the most frequent fanout result was also a Forbes article \u2014 but a different one.<\/p> As we\u2019ve seen, getting into Google\u2019s Forbes article likely wouldn\u2019t provide a meaningful boost. The Baccarat \u201cwon\u201d in that piece. <\/p> Getting into Bing\u2019s Forbes article, where the Baccarat wasn\u2019t mentioned, could make all the difference. This requires a highly surgical approach grounded in Bing data.<\/p> Generalities won\u2019t work; detail reigns supreme.<\/p> Model:<\/strong> We prompted GPT-5.2 Instant and manually extracted results. We didn\u2019t use APIs within ChatGPT.<\/p> Number of iterations:<\/strong> We ran the same prompt 68 times.<\/p> Prompt:<\/strong> \u201cWhat are the best hotels in New York City?\u201d<\/p> Settings:<\/strong> We tested three memory states:<\/p> For all trials, we turned off \u201creference chat history\u201d to avoid interference across iterations.<\/p> We expected differences based on memory settings but found none, so we treated all trials as a single dataset.<\/p> What we extracted:<\/strong><\/p> Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.<\/em> <\/p> News#Bing #Google #shapes #brands #ChatGPT #recommends1775499339<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this case study, we went deep instead of broad. We focused on one question: why wasn\u2019t a brand present in a single ChatGPT prompt across ~70 iterations? We chose one prompt: \u201cWhat are the best hotels in New York City?\u201d\u00a0 We analyzed mentions, citations, fanouts, and SERPs in Google and Bing. We also planned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1705,103,94,75,83,22395,9046],"class_list":["post-5978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","tag-bing","tag-brands","tag-chatgpt","tag-google","tag-news","tag-recommends","tag-shapes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Mentions of the Baccarat vs. the Fifth Avenue Hotel show just how wide the disparity in ChatGPT visibility can be<\/h2>
Reputation can\u2019t explain visibility disparities<\/h2>
The Baccarat\u00a0<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> <\/tr> Year Founded<\/td> 2015<\/td> 2023<\/td> <\/tr> Current Price<\/td> $930<\/td> $563<\/td> <\/tr> Number of Google Reviews<\/td> 1.3k<\/td> 213<\/td> <\/tr> Google Reviews Rating<\/td> 4.6<\/td> 4.6<\/td> <\/tr> Number of Expedia Reviews<\/td> 531<\/td> 201<\/td> <\/tr> Expedia Reviews Rating<\/td> 9.4<\/td> 9.6<\/td> <\/tr> <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/figure> Winning Google SERPs for query fanouts doesn\u2019t help, but winning Bing SERPs does\u00a0<\/h2>
What we saw in the Google SERPs<\/h3>
URL<\/td> Who Wins?<\/td> Notes<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.forbestravelguide.com\/destinations\/new-york-city-new-york<\/td> The Baccarat<\/td> The Baccarat Hotel is #4 on the list, the Fifth Avenue Hotel is #13 and sits far below the fold<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.mrandmrssmith.com\/destinations\/new-york-state\/new-york\/hotels<\/td> Neither<\/td> Neither Hotel appears on this list<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/guide.michelin.com\/us\/en\/article\/travel\/the-best-hotels-in-new-york-all-the-michelin-key-hotels-in-the-city<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> The Baccarat is listed as a \u201cone key\u201d hotel, placing it at the bottom of the list. The Fifth Avenue Hotel\u00a0 is listed as a \u201ctwo key\u201d hotel, placing it in the middle of the list.<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/youshouldgohere.com\/2025\/01\/best-boutique-hotels-new-york-city\/<\/td> Neither<\/td> Neither Hotel appears on this list<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/hotels\/new_york_ny\/<\/td> The Baccarat<\/td> The Baccarat #11 on the list, the Fifth Avenue Hotel #16<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/luxlifelondon.com\/best-hotels-manhattan-new-york-city\/<\/td> Neither<\/td> Neither appears on this list<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.com\/Hotels-g60763-New_York_City_New_York-Hotels.html<\/td> Neither<\/td> Neither Hotel appears on this list<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.lartisien.com\/hotels\/united-states\/new-york<\/td> The Baccarat<\/td> The Baccarat is #5, the Fifth Avenue is #15<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.cntraveler.com\/gallery\/readers-choice-awards-new-york-city-hotels<\/td> Neither<\/td> Neither Hotel appears on this list<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/chubbytravel\/comments\/1n7jro1\/which_luxe_hotels_are_people_loving_in_new_york\/<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> Both mentioned, but the Fifth Avenue much more positively<\/td> <\/tr> <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/figure> What we saw in the Bing SERPs<\/h3>
URL<\/td> Who Wins?<\/td> Notes<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/forbes-personal-shopper\/article\/best-hotels-in-new-york-city\/<\/td> Neither<\/td> Neither appears on this list<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/hotels\/best-luxury-hotels-in-nyc<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> The Fifth Avenue is #1, The Baccarat is #16<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/robbreport.com\/travel\/hotels\/lists\/best-luxury-hotels-new-york-city-1237348563\/<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> The Fifth Avenue is #5 (but also wins the hero image\/caption), the Baccarat is #11<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.cntraveler.com\/story\/best-boutique-hotels-nyc<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> The Fifth Avenue appears, the Baccarat does not<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.travelandleisure.com\/best-hotels-in-new-york-city-8612778<\/td> The Baccarat<\/td> The Baccarat appears, the Fifth Avenue does not<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.com\/Hotels-g60763-zff12-New_York_City_New_York-Hotels.html<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> The Fifth Avenue appears, the Baccarat does not<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/www.cntraveler.com\/gallery\/best-hotels-in-new-york-city<\/td> The Fifth Avenue<\/td> Both are listed, but the Fifth Avenue is listed under \u201cOur Top Picks\u201d<\/td> <\/tr> https:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/hotels\/new_york_ny\/<\/td> The Baccarat<\/td> The Baccarat is #11 on the list, the Fifth Avenue is #16<\/td> <\/tr> <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/figure> The connection between Bing visibility and brand mentions<\/h3>
Coda: A tale of two Forbes articles, or why the details matter<\/h2>
Appendix: Methodology<\/h2>