Who AI search surfaces for smart home security
Three aggregators surface in all 5 smart-home-security queries; brands are present but account for only 18.9% of pooled retrieval slots
| # | Domain | Type | Queries | Mean pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | safehome.org | Aggregator | 5/5 | 3.32 |
| 2 | security.org | Aggregator | 5/5 | 2.16 |
| 3 | safewise.com | Aggregator | 5/5 | 4.82 |
| 4 | realestate.usnews.com | Aggregator | 4/5 | 4.08 |
| 5 | goabode.com | Brand | 2/5 | 5.44 |
| 6 | consumerreports.org | Aggregator | 2/5 | 4.4 |
| 7 | nerdwallet.com | Aggregator | 2/5 | 4 |
| 8 | tomsguide.com | Aggregator | 2/5 | 5 |
| 9 | simplisafe.com | Brand | 1/5 | 5.5 |
| 10 | wasserstein-home.com | Brand | 1/5 | 6 |
| 11 | gadgetreview.com | Editorial | 1/5 | 6 |
| 12 | alarm-reviews.net | Aggregator | 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 unique domain count, the split is aggregator 40.6% (13 domains), brand 34.4% (11 domains), editorial 25.0% (8 domains). That looks competitive. But pooled by actual retrieval appearances, aggregators account for 73.0% of all slots, brands only 18.9%, and editorial 8.1%. The gap between those two views tells the real story: brands are numerous but thin, each appearing once or twice, while the handful of dominant aggregators recur across nearly every query. For a brand competing here, the retrieval pool is structurally controlled by third-party comparison sites, not by manufacturer or vendor pages.
Aggregators dominate this vertical decisively. safehome.org (aggregator) surfaced in all 5 queries with 22 total appearances and a mean position of 3.32. security.org (aggregator) also appeared in all 5 queries with 19 appearances and the best mean position of any domain in the leaderboard at 2.16. safewise.com (aggregator) completed the top tier, present in all 5 queries with 11 appearances. No brand-owned domain came close to that breadth: the highest-placed brand was goabode.com, present in only 2 of 5 queries. With leaderboardStrength rated 'strong', these three aggregators are genuine leaderboard leaders, not artefacts of disjoint query pools.
The three aggregators that surface across all 5 queries (safehome.org, security.org, safewise.com) are the effective gatekeepers of AI retrieval in this vertical. A brand's own site is unlikely to displace them. The practical play is to get listed, rated, and accurately described on those three platforms first, then pursue realestate.usnews.com (present in 4 of 5 queries) as a secondary target. For comparison queries specifically ('SimpliSafe vs Ring' style), goabode.com's blog showed up in 2 queries at a mean position of 5.44, which suggests a brand with strong comparison content can surface in that query sub-type even if it cannot crack the broad 'best systems' queries dominated by aggregators. The meanJaccardTop10 of 0.5026 means roughly half the top-10 result set is shared across queries, so a domain that earns a stable position on one roundup is likely to benefit across several related queries simultaneously.
Methodology & limits: This analysis is based on 5 web-search queries, which is a snapshot, not a census. The data maps the organic retrieval landscape (the candidate pool AI search engines draw from) across those 5 queries only. It does not directly log which pages ChatGPT, Perplexity, or any other AI engine actually cited in a given answer session. Domain rankings reflect surfacing frequency in web-search results, not confirmed AI citations. The leaderboardStrength of 'strong' means the top domains genuinely appear across multiple queries rather than dominating a single isolated query, which increases confidence in the rankings, but a 5-query sample is still narrow.
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Which websites does AI search retrieve most often for smart home security queries?
Based on a 5-query retrieval landscape sample, safehome.org and security.org (both aggregator/comparison sites) surfaced in all 5 queries sampled and held the highest pooled appearance counts (22 and 19 respectively). safewise.com also appeared in all 5 queries. Brand-owned sites were present but much less frequent, accounting for only 18.9% of pooled retrieval slots despite making up 34.4% of unique domains.
Can a smart home security brand's own website rank in AI search results?
Brand-owned domains do appear in the retrieval pool for smart-home-security queries, but they are significantly outpaced by comparison aggregators in frequency. In this 5-query sample, the highest-ranked brand site (goabode.com) surfaced in only 2 of 5 queries, while the top aggregators surfaced in all 5. Brands appear most competitive in narrow comparison queries (e.g. 'Brand A vs Brand B') rather than broad 'best systems' queries.
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