Who AI search surfaces for payroll software
adp.com and gusto.com tie atop the payroll software retrieval pool (4/5 queries each)
| # | Domain | Type | Queries | Mean pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | adp.com | Brand | 4/5 | 2.93 |
| 2 | gusto.com | Brand | 4/5 | 4.75 |
| 3 | equalpaytoday.org | Editorial | 3/5 | 4 |
| 4 | patriotsoftware.com | Brand | 3/5 | 4.56 |
| 5 | onpay.com | Brand | 3/5 | 5.67 |
| 6 | softwarefinder.com | Aggregator | 2/5 | 4.67 |
| 7 | joinhomebase.com | Brand | 2/5 | 4.83 |
| 8 | airwallex.com | Brand | 1/5 | 1 |
| 9 | paycor.com | Brand | 1/5 | 3 |
| 10 | fridayapp.com | Aggregator | 1/5 | 3 |
| 11 | paychex.com | Brand | 1/5 | 3 |
| 12 | quickbooks.intuit.com | Brand | 1/5 | 3 |
“Queries” = how many of the 5 sampled queries surfaced this domain in the top 10 (across 3 samples). Position is the mean rank when present.
By distinct domain the pool is 53.6% brand-owned, 39.3% aggregator/directory, 7.1% editorial. Brand pages hold the largest single share here, so your own domain can compete directly.
adp.com (brand) and gusto.com (brand) tie as the most consistently surfaced sources, each appearing in 4 of 5 sampled queries. Below them, equalpaytoday.org (editorial) at 3/5 and patriotsoftware.com (brand) at 3/5 also recur. 7 of the 28 distinct domains surface in two or more of the 5 queries; the rest appear once and drop out. Across the pool, brand-owned pages hold the largest share of what AI search retrieves here.
A comprehensive on-domain library is a credible lever in this category. The retrieval set is very stable run to run (top-10 overlap 0.9852), so a single snapshot is a reasonable read.
Methodology & limits: Snapshot only: 5 buyer-intent queries, 3 samples each, one time period. This maps the retrieval candidate pool (what AI search can draw from), not logged AI citations. Treat it as a directional signal, not a census.
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