# ChatGPT cites almost nothing but a Reddit thread when asked about our business in Marienberg, never our own website | Illia BizTech

> A business in Marienberg notices that ChatGPT prefers citing a forum thread over its own, well-maintained website when asked about it.

Source: https://illia-biztech.de/en/forum/chatgpt-zitiert-bei-fragen-zu-unserem-betrieb-in-marienberg-fast-nur-ein-reddit-forum-nicht-unsere-eigene-seite

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# ChatGPT cites almost nothing but a Reddit thread when asked about our business in Marienberg, never our own website

A business in Marienberg notices that ChatGPT prefers citing a forum thread over its own, well-maintained website when asked about it.

* ##### Asked by  
FaintBeacon260
* ##### Asked on  
October 28, 2026

Out of curiosity we asked ChatGPT about our business in Marienberg. The source cited was mainly an old Reddit thread where someone had briefly written about us, our own, far more detailed website barely showed up at all.

Why would an AI prefer some random forum over our own official page? Can we even do anything about that?

#### Answers

![Portrait of Alina Belichenko, content and social media specialist](/_ipx/f_webp,q_75/https://cms.illia-biztech.de/uploads/small_Alina_Belichenko_author_ae667ebec9.png)

##### Alina Belichenko · Content & Video Specialist

✓ Accepted answer October 28, 2026 

This preference isn't a one-off, it's a documented pattern in AI answers, user-generated content like Reddit discussions or review sites gets cited noticeably more often than a business's official page. One reason is that such platforms are treated by AI systems as an independent, unbiased source, while a business's own website naturally gets classified as self-promotion.

In practice that means a well-maintained website alone isn't enough to be well represented in AI answers, even if it's far more thorough in content than a short forum post. What matters just as much is the picture of a business that forms elsewhere on the web, somewhere the business itself has little direct influence over.

Reacting to a specific, outdated or wrong forum post is possible through the feedback option right under the relevant AI answer, though a fast correction isn't guaranteed. How exposed a Marienberg business currently is to this effect is exactly what Illia BizTech's [AI Visibility Report](https://illia-biztech.de/en/ki-sichtbarkeitsbericht) shows, based on real conversations with ChatGPT.

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