Looking for export customers? AI answers can change more between countries than Google search does.

Google's AI sources vary more across borders than its rankings

Geeky Tech ran the same 613 B2B questions in the US and the UK. Google's top 10 results overlapped between the two countries about twice as much as the sources in Google's AI Overviews. (Geeky Tech, 11,000+ citations, 2026).

Our own test: 9 export markets, 119 websites

Our own data agrees. For a company selling in, or expanding into, 9 export markets, we asked Gemini a buyer question naming each country. It cited 119 different websites. 114 were cited for only one country, and Germany and the UK shared none. (GEO Close, Gemini, one question per market, 3 runs each, September 2026).

How local the sources are depends on the engine and the country

Gemini took 51.7% of its citations from local-country domains in Brazil, but only 16.6% in Spain, where ChatGPT was the most local. (Aleyda Solís, ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode in 4 markets, October 2026).

Language moves it a lot

Asking in a country's own language instead of English raised local citations in Google's AI Overviews 3.5 to 13.5 times. (arXiv study, 1,920 health questions, 12 countries, September 2026).

What to do in each export market

  • Get onto the local directories, distributors and trade sites that market's AI already cites.
  • List on global B2B directories that cross borders. In our test, Kompass and Europages were each cited in 3 countries. (More on how B2B and trade directories feed AI answers.)
  • Give each market its own page on your site.
  • Publish in the buyer's language where they don't search in English.

How we work

At GEO Close we measure which sites Gemini cites in each market your buyers are in, then build your presence there.

Exporting? Get a free GEO audit and we'll show you which sites Gemini cites for what you sell in your target market.

First posted on LinkedIn.