Who AI search surfaces for website builder
Aggregators outgun brands at the top of website-builder retrieval: tooltester.com surfaces in 3 of 5 queries vs. wix.com in 2, despite wix.com being a named subject of several queries
| # | Domain | Type | Queries | Mean pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tooltester.com | Aggregator | 3/5 | 3.67 |
| 2 | wix.com | Brand | 2/5 | 5.67 |
| 3 | framer.com | Brand | 1/5 | 4.5 |
| 4 | themframes.com | Aggregator | 1/5 | 5 |
| 5 | titan.email | Brand | 1/5 | 1 |
| 6 | experte.com | Aggregator | 1/5 | 1 |
| 7 | canva.com | Brand | 1/5 | 1 |
| 8 | zapier.com | Editorial | 1/5 | 1 |
| 9 | knapsackcreative.com | Aggregator | 1/5 | 2 |
| 10 | websitebuilderexpert.com | Aggregator | 1/5 | 2 |
| 11 | site123.com | Brand | 1/5 | 2 |
| 12 | amawebsites.co.uk | Aggregator | 1/5 | 2 |
“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.
Of 37 unique domains in the retrieval pool, brands account for 43.2%, aggregators 40.5%, and editorial 16.2%. In pooled appearances (weighted by frequency), the split is nearly identical: brand 44.2%, aggregator 41.9%, editorial 14.0%. Brands and aggregators are in near-parity at the unique-domain level, but the editorial share (16.2% unique) is modestly below the global cross-vertical benchmark of 21.0%, suggesting this vertical is slightly less dominated by general-interest press and more contested between category-specific aggregators and the platforms themselves. For a brand competing here, the implication is that the retrieval pool is genuinely split: your own domain can surface, but aggregator roundups occupy an almost equal share of the candidate pool and cannot be ignored.
tooltester.com (aggregator) is the most consistent domain in the retrieval pool, surfacing in 3 of 5 queries with 9 total appearances and a mean position of 3.67. wix.com (brand) matches tooltester.com on raw appearances (9) but only surfaces in 2 of 5 queries, making it less cross-query stable. framer.com and themframes.com each surface in 1 query but rack up 6 appearances apiece, suggesting deep coverage of specific intents (photographers' portfolio, design-first builders). No single domain commands the entire vertical: only 2 of the 37 unique domains appear in more than one query, a sign of a heterogeneous, intent-partitioned retrieval landscape despite a meanJaccardTop10 of 1.0.
If you are a website builder brand (or a challenger entering the space), the immediate GEO priority is not polishing your own product page further. tooltester.com surfaces in 60% of queries and holds an average position of 3.67 in the retrieval pool; websitebuilderexpert.com, knapsackcreative.com, launchthedamnthing.com, and websiteplanet.com each surface in query-specific intents. Audit whether your product is listed, accurately described, and favourably positioned in each of those roundups. The photographer-portfolio intent is particularly concentrated (framer.com + themframes.com dominate that query), so if you serve that segment, getting into themframes.com's comparison pages is a concrete, measurable target. titan.email surfaces in the small-business query at a mean position of 1.0 despite being an email brand, suggesting that adjacent-category content on your own domain can enter the retrieval pool for commercial queries where you have legitimate expertise. The meanJaccardTop10 of 1.0 means the top-10 retrieval pool is highly stable across repeated samples of these queries, so the leaderboard you see here is likely what AI search engines consistently draw from.
Methodology & limits: This analysis is based on 5 queries in the website-builder vertical, out of 150 total across 30 verticals. It maps the organic web-search retrieval landscape, which is the candidate pool AI search engines draw from, not a direct log of which pages any specific AI system cited in its answers. 'Surfaces' and 'in the retrieval pool' are the accurate framings. With only 5 queries, individual query composition (e.g. two of five mention Wix by name) shapes the leaderboard, so treat domain rankings as directional signals rather than a census. leaderboardStrength is 'strong', meaning the top domains are consistently present across these 5 queries rather than being artefacts of a single query pull.
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Which types of sites does AI search retrieve most for website-builder queries?
Based on a 5-query sample of the organic retrieval landscape, brands and aggregators are in near-parity: 43.2% of unique domains are brand-owned (Wix, Squarespace, Canva, Framer, etc.) and 40.5% are aggregator review sites (tooltester.com, websitebuilderexpert.com, websiteplanet.com, and others). Editorial sites make up the remaining 16.2%. This is meaningfully different from the global cross-vertical average, where editorial holds a larger 21.0% share.
How stable is the website-builder retrieval pool across repeated queries?
The meanJaccardTop10 for this vertical is 1.0, indicating maximum stability in the top-10 retrieval pool across the 5 sampled queries. However, only 2 of the 37 unique domains appear in more than one query, which reflects strong intent partitioning: the pages AI search retrieves for 'best website builder for photographers' are almost entirely different from those retrieved for 'Wix vs WordPress for business.' Stability within each query intent is high; breadth across intents is low.
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