IT Services covers companies that build, host or run technology for others: web and app development agencies, managed IT support, cloud and hosting providers, systems integrators and automation studios. AI answers in this industry mix local business directories, cloud vendor documentation, regulators and agency marketplaces, because buyers ask both who can do the work near them and how it should be done.
microsoft.comMicrosoftBiggest movers in October 2026
Rises
Shopify0.95 to 2.02+1.07 pt
Salesforce1.48 to 1.94+0.46 pt- Microsoft5.33 to 5.60+0.27 pt
Falls
Amazon1.81 to 0.39-1.42 pt
LinkedIn1.48 to 0.47-1.01 pt
Trustpilot1.29 to 0.79-0.50 pt
WordPress4.21 to 4.01-0.20 pt
HubSpot0.90 to 0.71-0.19 pt
Most cited domains in AI answers, IT Services
5 of the 10 most cited domains in IT Services (microsoft.com, esante.gouv.fr and pc2000.fr) do not appear among the 50 most cited domains of the whole panel.
How to read it: each bar is a domain; its length is its number of citations per 100 answers over the selected period and filters.
Domains ranked by citations per 100 answers, all periods combined.
| Rank | Rank change | Domain | Citations | per 100 answers | Share of citations | 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Up 1 |
| 877 | 6.00 | 1.39% | Trend: 7.50 in Jul 2026, 4.98 in Oct 2026, high 7.50. |
| 2 | Unchanged |  pagesjaunes.fr | 774 | 5.29 | 1.23% | Trend: 3.05 in Jul 2026, 8.01 in Oct 2026, high 8.01. |
| 3 | Up 1 |  cnil.fr | 622 | 4.25 | 0.99% | Trend: 3.85 in Jul 2026, 5.11 in Oct 2026, high 5.11. |
| 4 | Down 2 | WordPress wordpress.com | 558 | 3.82 | 0.88% | Trend: 2.81 in Jul 2026, 4.45 in Oct 2026, high 5.05. |
| 5 | Down 1 |  esante.gouv.fr | 514 | 3.52 | 0.81% | Trend: 4.71 in Jul 2026, 2.96 in Oct 2026, high 4.71. |
| 6 | Down 8 |  pc2000.fr | 443 | 3.03 | 0.70% | Trend: 2.49 in Jul 2026, 2.09 in Oct 2026, high 3.79. |
| 7 | Up 3 |  newp.fr | 379 | 2.59 | 0.60% | Trend: 2.01 in Jul 2026, 3.30 in Oct 2026, high 3.30. |
| 8 | Down 7 |  ohinformatique.fr | 336 | 2.30 | 0.53% | Trend: 2.25 in Jul 2026, 2.04 in Oct 2026, high 2.81. |
| 9 | Up 9 |  lafabriquedunet.fr | 332 | 2.27 | 0.53% | Trend: 2.73 in Jul 2026, 2.75 in Oct 2026, high 2.75. |
| 10 | Up 3 |  francenum.gouv.fr | 331 | 2.26 | 0.52% | Trend: 2.39 in Aug 2026, 3.72 in Oct 2026, high 3.72. |
| 11 | Up 9 |  sap.com | 323 | 2.21 | 0.51% | Trend: 2.37 in Jul 2026, 2.51 in Oct 2026, high 2.51. |
| 12 | Down 7 |  ovhcloud.com | 310 | 2.12 | 0.49% | Trend: 2.87 in Jul 2026, 1.75 in Oct 2026, high 2.87. |
| 13 | out of top | Amazon amazon.com | 309 | 2.11 | 0.49% | Trend: 2.58 in Jul 2026, 2.21 in Sep 2026, high 4.00. |
| 14 | new |  sortlist.fr | 246 | 1.68 | 0.39% | Trend: 3.82 in Jul 2026, 1.91 in Oct 2026, high 3.82. |
| 15 | new |
| 206 | 1.41 | 0.33% | Trend: 2.19 in Jul 2026, 1.41 in Oct 2026, high 2.42. |
| 16 | Down 7 |  net-concept.fr | 203 | 1.39 | 0.32% | Trend: 1.58 in Aug 2026, 1.75 in Oct 2026, high 2.02. |
| 17 | new | Salesforce salesforce.com | 195 | 1.33 | 0.31% | Trend: 2.16 in Jul 2026, 1.94 in Oct 2026, high 2.16. |
| 18 | Unchanged |  economie.gouv.fr | 192 | 1.31 | 0.30% | Trend: 1.36 in Aug 2026, 1.94 in Oct 2026, high 1.94. |
| 19 | Down 1 |  websenso.com | 188 | 1.29 | 0.30% | Trend: 2.31 in Sep 2026, 2.38 in Oct 2026, high 2.38. |
| 20 | new | Shopify shopify.com | 168 | 1.15 | 0.27% | Trend: 2.22 in Jul 2026, 2.44 in Oct 2026, high 2.44. |
cyber.gouv.frRankings are rebuilt from monthly rankings: the counts at the end of a list can be minimums. Industry: the business of the analyzed website, classified by Sorank. Data since July 2026. Rank change: rank in the October 2026 monthly list against September 2026 (new: absent from the September 2026 list). A dash: fewer than 1'000 answers in one of the two months in this scope, or absent from the October 2026 list. 12 months: monthly rate per 100 answers; gaps when the domain is out of the monthly list, hollow points for months under 1'000 answers.
Most cited platforms in AI answers, IT Services
Microsoft is the platform AI cites most in IT Services: 6.65 citations per 100 answers, 8.0 times its rate across all sectors over the same months (0.84).
How to read it: each bar is one of the tracked platforms; its length is its number of citations per 100 answers over the selected period.
| Rank | Rank change | Platform | per 100 answers | 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unchanged | Microsoft | 6.65 | Trend: 8.41 in Jul 2026, 5.60 in Oct 2026, high 8.41. |
| 2 | Unchanged | WordPress | 3.21 | Trend: 2.13 in Jul 2026, 4.01 in Oct 2026, high 4.21. |
| 3 | Down 5 | Amazon | 1.76 | Trend: 2.13 in Jul 2026, 0.39 in Oct 2026, high 2.91. |
| 4 | Up 1 | Salesforce | 1.69 | Trend: 1.93 in Jul 2026, 1.94 in Oct 2026, high 1.94. |
| 5 | Up 4 | Shopify | 1.41 | Trend: 1.93 in Jul 2026, 2.02 in Oct 2026, high 2.02. |
| 6 | Down 3 | LinkedIn | 1.23 | Trend: 2.01 in Jul 2026, 0.47 in Oct 2026, high 2.01. |
| 7 | Up 1 | Trustpilot | 1.16 | Trend: 1.60 in Jul 2026, 0.79 in Oct 2026, high 1.60. |
| 8 | Up 2 | HubSpot | 1.05 | Trend: 1.54 in Jul 2026, 0.71 in Oct 2026, high 1.54. |
| 9 | Down 1 |  Facebook | 0.70 | Trend: 1.42 in Jul 2026, 0.18 in Oct 2026, high 1.42. |
| 10 | Up 3 |  Wikipedia | 0.70 | Trend: 1.69 in Jul 2026, 0.10 in Oct 2026, high 1.69. |
Rank change: rank among the platforms cited in October 2026 against September 2026 (new: not cited in September 2026). A dash: fewer than 1'000 answers in one of the two months in this scope, or not cited in October 2026. 12 months: monthly rate per 100 answers, hollow points for months under 1'000 answers.
AI models compared
AI assistants do not agree on the first source in IT Services: ChatGPT cites cnil.fr first; Gemini and Claude cite pagesjaunes.fr first; Perplexity cites LinkedIn first.
How to read it: left, how the citations split between the five models; right, each model's citations per 100 answers over time.
First source of each AI model in IT Services
| Model | First source | per 100 answers | Second source |
|---|---|---|---|
 ChatGPT | cnil.fr | 11.10 |
|
 Gemini | pagesjaunes.fr | 10.77 |
|
 Perplexity | LinkedIn linkedin.com | 3.10 | ohinformatique.fr |
 Claude | pagesjaunes.fr | 9.37 | newp.fr |
Finding a provider or understanding the technology: two kinds of prompts
IT services prompts split into two families. The first is provider search: "web agency in Bordeaux for an e-commerce site", "IT support contract for a small accounting firm", "freelance developer for a WordPress migration". These prompts behave like local search and favour sources that list businesses with an address, a specialty and reviews.
The second family is technical or regulatory: "what is HDS certification for health data hosting", "Azure or AWS for a small company", "how much does a custom website cost". Here the AI looks for explanations and official rules, and it cites documentation and public bodies rather than agencies.
A provider usually needs to exist in both families. The first brings direct leads; the second builds the expertise signals that make an AI comfortable recommending a company.
What types of sources do AI models cite for IT services?
- Business directories and agency marketplaces: PagesJaunes in France, agency platforms such as Sortlist and freelance marketplaces such as Malt answer "who" prompts with structured listings.
- Technology vendors and their documentation: Microsoft and Microsoft Learn, Azure, Amazon Web Services, OVHcloud, SAP, IBM or Odoo are cited when a question names a platform or asks how a service works.
- CMS and no-code platforms: WordPress, Webflow and Shopify appear in website projects; in English answers, website builders come up often in "who can build my site" questions.
- Public bodies: the CNIL, the national cybersecurity agency, health data authorities and government programmes for the digital transition of small businesses are cited for security, hosting and compliance rules.
- Integrator and agency websites: from large groups like Capgemini, Atos or Orange Business to local web agencies with a strong page on their city and service.
Why precise local pages decide who gets recommended
For an agency or an IT support company, an AI rarely knows the firm's reputation from training data alone. When it searches the web, it needs a page that states plainly what the company does, for whom and where. Many agency sites cited in this industry are small businesses whose main asset is a precise page such as "website creation in Brest" or "IT maintenance for medical practices in Lyon".
Consistency matters as much as precision. If directory listings, the LinkedIn page and the website give different service names or addresses, the model has less confidence in the match and may fall back on marketplaces that aggregate several providers.
Certifications and technical proof as trust signals
IT buyers delegate risk: hosting sensitive data, keeping systems running, protecting access. AI models mirror that caution and look for verifiable facts. Partner badges from cloud vendors, ISO 27001 certification, health data hosting certification, published service levels and named case studies are the kind of statements an AI can quote.
Vague claims such as "experienced team" or "tailor-made solutions" give a model nothing to cite. A sentence like "ISO 27001 certified, support available 24/7 with a 4-hour response commitment" does. In GEO (Generative Engine Optimization, the work of making a site citable by AI assistants), this kind of factual density is what separates a cited provider from an ignored one.
GEO actions for IT service providers
- Create one page per service and location you truly cover ("IT support for law firms in Nantes"), with the address, service area and response times written in plain text.
- Keep your PagesJaunes, Sortlist, Malt and LinkedIn profiles identical to your website in company name, address, services and specialties.
- List partner certifications, security standards and hosting locations on a dedicated page, with the year obtained and the scope covered.
- Publish case studies that name the client sector, the technology stack and the measurable outcome, so an AI can match you to similar requests.
- Answer the technical questions prospects ask (migration costs, cloud choice, compliance) in explanatory guides that reference the official rules.
- Collect reviews on directories after each completed project; on local prompts, recent reviews often separate two otherwise similar agencies.
Related industries
Sectors sharing the most domains with IT Services among their 20 most cited, then sectors with a similar number of answers.
Frequently asked questions
How do AI assistants choose which web agency to recommend?
They match the request to pages that state a service, a location and some proof. When an AI searches the web, it typically retrieves agency directories, marketplaces and agency websites with a dedicated city or specialty page, then summarises the options. Agencies with consistent listings, reviews and precise service pages are easier for the model to select.
Why are Microsoft and cloud documentation pages cited for IT services questions?
Because many IT services questions are really technology questions. When a prompt asks how to migrate to Microsoft 365, configure Azure or choose a hosting model, the vendor documentation is the most authoritative explanation available, so AI models cite it. Service providers appear in the same answers when their own content adds context such as costs, timelines or sector constraints.
Does being listed on PagesJaunes or Sortlist help an IT company appear in ChatGPT?
It helps for provider-search prompts. ChatGPT search and Perplexity both retrieve directory pages when a question asks for a provider in a city or a sector. A complete listing with categories, description and reviews gives the model structured information, and it works best when your own website confirms the same details.
Which websites do AI assistants cite for IT Services businesses?
microsoft.com (6.00 citations per 100 answers), pagesjaunes.fr (5.29) and cnil.fr (4.25), across 14'619 answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity about IT Services businesses since July 2026.
Which platforms do AI assistants cite in IT Services?
Microsoft (6.65 citations per 100 answers), WordPress (3.21) and Amazon (1.76).
Method and sources
498'158 answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity, from August 2025 to October 2026, to the questions Sorank asks every week to follow its clients' visibility (87% of them in French). A citation is a source domain given in an answer; the rate is the number of citations per 100 answers. Data snapshot of 2 November 2026.
Full methodology · Raw data (JSON)
How to cite this page: Sorank Data, “Websites AI cites most in IT Services (Oct 2026)”, sorank.com/data, data snapshot of 2 November 2026.
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