We published the first installment of industry AI search rankings
At GEO Meter, we have been observing the AI search visibility of tax accountant offices across 5 Tokyo wards (Shibuya / Minato / Chiyoda / Shinjuku / Chuo) × 5 specialties (startup financing / inheritance tax / IT & SaaS / sole proprietors & freee / international taxation) = 25 rankings. As the first installment, we are publishing the Top 20 Tax Accountants Strong in Startup Financing in Shibuya Ward.
This ranking aggregates, on an observed basis, "which offices ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini mention most when asked 'Which tax accountants are strong on startup financing in Shibuya ward?'" Separate from SEO, this is an increasingly noted metric as a lead channel via AI search.
How we observed it
A concise summary of how the ranking was built:
- Automatic query generation: 30 natural Japanese questions that combine "Shibuya ward," "startup financing," and "tax accountant" and reflect realistic demand were generated with Claude Haiku.
- Observation across 3 AIs: Each query was sent to ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini, and the response bodies were collected.
- Entity extraction: Office names mentioned within the responses were structurally extracted with an LLM.
- Aggregation: Across 30 queries × 3 AIs = 90 observations, the number of mentions per office was summed to produce the ranking.
- Noise removal: Public agencies (the Japan Finance Corporation, credit guarantee associations, chambers of commerce, etc.) and AI engine names (ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini, etc.) were excluded from the ranking.
This produced a ranking that contains "only real tax accountant offices." The top firm, "蔵田経営会計事務所 (Kurata Management Accounting Office)," was mentioned 368 times, and through the Top 10, real-world firms line up clearly.
What we learned from the observations
We share three cross-industry patterns that emerged through the observation.
1. Top offices are cited across all 3 AIs
4 of the Top 5 firms (Kurata / Up Village / Hatama / Shibuya Financing Support Office) were mentioned across ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini. Offices regarded as "strong" in AI search tend to be evaluated broadly rather than skewing to a particular AI.
This is likely because their structured information on the web (Schema.org, llms.txt, FAQ pages, etc.) meets a certain standard. It suggests that, before varying tactics by AI, cross-cutting foundational work is what pays off first.
2. "Generic firm names" also rank highly
Service names that directly include the region and specialty — such as "渋谷融資サポートオフィス (Shibuya Financing Support Office)," "渋谷区創業融資センター (Shibuya Ward Startup Financing Center)," and "渋谷区創業融資ラボ (Shibuya Ward Startup Financing Lab)" — also ranked highly.
This suggests AI rates sites whose domain or office name contains "region + specialty" keywords highly when those keywords appear in the query. This is similar to SEO keyword strategy and shows that domain name / firm name design matters in AI search as well.
3. Gemini citations are noisy
In the citation source domain aggregation, vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com
(Google's internal AI search redirect URL) was the most frequent at 333 instances
(out of 725 total citation sources). This is because Gemini presents URLs in its
responses as intermediary URLs rather than as the actual domains, which affects
how the original citation source is identified.
GEO Meter has implemented logic that reverses Gemini's redirect URLs back to
actual domains; in other tools, the "Gemini ranking" may end up dominated by
vertexaisearch. Please use this as a reference point when selecting a tool.
Data quality in numbers
The overall numbers for the ranking:
- Total observed queries: 30
- Unique cited domains: 97 domains
- Total citation sources: 366 (after excluding redirects)
- Total mentioned entities: 4,934
- Observed AIs: 3 (Claude / ChatGPT / Gemini)
- Observation date: May 28, 2026
The 97 citation source domains include, besides tax accountant office homepages, comparison articles, financial institution guides, and startup support portals. The structure is one in which the structured implementation of office homepages is the key to acquiring citations.
What's next
The Shibuya × Startup Financing ranking we published this time is one of 25 rankings. We will progressively publish the remaining 24 (Minato / Chiyoda / Shinjuku / Chuo × 5 specialties).
Industry rankings will not be limited to the tax accountant industry — we plan to roll them out progressively in every industry where "public information + specialty + region" is established, including the professional services as a whole (lawyers / administrative scriveners / labor & social security attorneys / SMB consultants), medical (clinics / aesthetic medicine), and real estate.
If you want to be listed in industry rankings or want to know your AI search visibility, please start with the 60-second free diagnostic.
→ Try the free diagnostic → See the Shibuya × Startup Financing Tax Accountant Ranking