- ChatGPT linked to suppliers' own sites; Perplexity leaned on marketplaces and roundups.
- Category pages with numbers in text were cited far more than home pages or PDFs.
- Suppliers named repeatedly publish one detailed page per product line.
- Consistency across site and listings, and third-party confirmation, decide trust.
1. Entity clarity
The engine must be sure which company it is naming. Consistent name, domain, location and product focus across every source.
2. A page for the exact question
Perplexity cited eight pages from one factory site in our tests: product category pages, sub-category pages, buyer guides and landing pages. Not the home page, not a catalogue.
3. Numbers in text
Both engines repeated MOQ figures stated in page text — "3,000 units per SKU", "500 units per SKU". Numbers in images are invisible.
4. Evidence stated precisely
Certifications named with standard numbers; audits named where permitted; capacity with units.
5. Third-party confirmation
Perplexity's sources included Alibaba, Made-in-China, Accio, SourceReady and "top manufacturers" articles. Those pages confirm — or contradict — what your site says.
6. Crawlability
Fast, script-light pages reachable by each engine's search crawler.
7. Freshness
Guides titled with the current year and pages with visible update dates were among those cited.
The underlying data
All eleven answers, prompts and rankings are in the AI Supplier Index.