On 27–28 September 2026 we asked Perplexity "best <profession> in <town>, UK" 496 times, covering 456 distinct questions across 105 professions and shop types, and read every source it cited. This is what it cited, in basic mode with only the inline citation links counted (the full source panel was not expanded).
Every answer names a source somewhere: a website, a listing, a page with the fact on it. Across 496 answers, the median was 15 sources cited per answer. What those sources were, and how consistently they repeated by trade, is what the rest of this article sets out.
Directories and review sites come first
410 of the 496 answers cited at least one of the 19 general directory and review sites on our list: Yell, Bark, Trustpilot, thebestof and similar (the list is in the full study). The median answer named 5 firms (anywhere from 0 to 14); 3 of the 496 answers named no firm at all. The most-cited domains were trustpilot.com, in 190 of 496 answers (the main domain only; country sites such as ie.trustpilot.com add 14 more), followed by yell.com in 87, yelp.com in 82, whatclinic.com in 60, checkatrade.com in 59, and doctify.com, fresha.com and trustatrader.com in 54 each.
For 8 of the 496 answers, those 19 sites made up more than half of the sources. The list does not include profession-specific sites such as fresha.com, getagent.co.uk or houzz.co.uk (below), so both numbers are a lower bound.
Each profession has its own catalogue
The single most-cited source changes by trade. Among physiotherapist answers, fresha.com was cited in 31 of 55. Among accountant answers, businessfinancing.co.uk led with 26 of 48. For dentists, mynextdentist.co.uk and bestdentists.uk tied, each in 21 of 31. For estate agents, getagent.co.uk, 24 of 26. For architects, houzz.co.uk, 23 of 25.
The same pattern shows up outside local trades. Asking "best SEO agency in <city>" for 30 UK cities on 28 September 2026 (one run each), Clutch was cited in 17 of 30 answers, The Manifest in 11, and DesignRush in 9. A comparison run on 25 September, a different set of 30 cities with two runs each, put Clutch in 33 of 60 answers. The Manifest was cited in 12 of 60 answers on 25 September; DesignRush was not counted in that comparison run.
Registers, other people's lists, and what's almost absent
67 of the 496 answers cited a professional register, regulator, professional body or gov.uk page (ICAEW, SRA, CQC, FCA, Law Society, RICS, RIBA's Find an Architect, Companies House and similar; the full list is in the full study). For 6 of them the only such link was a local council, parish or nidirect page. That is a smaller share than the directories; it is still worth checking the listing is current and matches the name and address used elsewhere.
52 of 250 answers with full source URLs cited a third-party "best/top ... in <town>" list page: someone else's roundup, not a directory profile and not the business's own site. Facebook or Instagram pages were cited in 38 of 496 answers, and nhs.uk (including NHS trust sites) in 41. Two sources were close to absent by comparison. Reddit appeared in 3 of the 496 answers. None linked to Google Maps or Google Search; one linked to a Google Business page (business.google.com) and one to a site hosted on Google Sites (sites.google.com).
This is Perplexity only; we have not run the same questions through Google's AI Overviews, so we make no claim about what it cites. The counts are from two days of runs, 27 and 28 September 2026, and from basic mode: only the inline citation links in each answer were counted, not the full source panel.
What to check if you run a local business
Start with the directory your customers already use for your trade, and make sure the listing is complete and current: address, opening hours, services, price range. Then find the catalogue specific to your profession and check your entry there too. In this run, the top source by profession was:
- Physiotherapists: fresha.com, cited in 31 of 55 answers.
- Accountants: businessfinancing.co.uk, 26 of 48.
- Dentists: mynextdentist.co.uk and bestdentists.uk, tied at 21 of 31 each.
- Estate agents: getagent.co.uk, 24 of 26.
- Architects: houzz.co.uk, 23 of 25.
Check your register or regulator listing separately, and search for "best <your trade> in <your town>" yourself to see which roundup pages already mention you. Roundup pages can change, so repeat the check every few months.
As one Perplexity answer about choosing an estate agent put it: "Review scores can be useful, but they are not enough to select an agent." Another, about choosing an accountant, made a similar point: "A review directory lists several highly rated accountants near Chelmsford, but review rank alone should not decide a tax or corporate-advice appointment."
Method
- 496 answers to "best <profession> in <town>, UK", 456 distinct questions, 105 professions and shop types, 27–28 September 2026, Perplexity basic mode, only inline citation links counted.
- SEO agency comparison: "best SEO agency in <city>", 30 UK cities, one run 28 September 2026; a second comparison run on 25 September used a different set of 30 cities, taken from Clutch's own list, with two runs each. The two city lists do not overlap.
- Quotes are word for word from the answers and name no business.
If you want to see what Perplexity currently cites for your own listings, request a free audit.