Business Listings in Singapore That ChatGPT and Perplexity Read

The business listings ChatGPT and Perplexity read in Singapore are a short list, and a different one for each trade: clutch.co for accounting firms, sgcarmart.com for car workshops, qanvast.com for interior designers, whatclinic.com and fresha.com for clinics. At rankr, the Singapore SEO agency that writes this blog, we found them by sorting all 3,912 links the two assistants gave when we asked who to hire in 11 trades on 5 October 2026.

The directories that top Google for "business listing singapore" barely featured. Yellow Pages, SGPBusiness and Times Business Directory appeared in none of the 330 answers.

Which listings do ChatGPT and Perplexity cite most?

These 10 sites took the most links across both assistants. The count includes "best of" lists and directories, and leaves out lists a business wrote about its own trade.

The most cited list site was one person's blog. terris.sg, a freelance web designer's site, was a Perplexity source 99 times across all 11 trades, more than any magazine. Perplexity leaned on lists and directories for most of its answer: 42 of every 100 links went to "best of" lists and 19 to directories and review sites.

ChatGPT used listings far less, 19 of every 100 links, because 57 went to the businesses' own websites and 19 to government sites. The listings it did use most were threebestrated.sg (15 links), bestinhood.com (14), the Law Society of Singapore's site (13, of which 9 were its "Find a lawyer" page), misslobang.com (10) and thebestsg.com (10).

Our study of 330 answers about 11 Singapore trades, 5 October 2026. The Google column is each trade's top 10, from Ahrefs.

Which listing matters for your trade?

The two sites each trade's answers cited most, counting both assistants:

For some trades one site dominates: qanvast.com took 70 of the 183 list and directory links for interior design, and sgcarmart.com 80 of 187 for car workshops. For aircon servicing and tuition, no site took more than 16, so a business has to be on several lists to show up often.

How do you get onto each kind of listing?

It depends on who builds the page.

• Directories you sign up for. Clutch says a company profile is free and takes 10 minutes or less to create. ThreeBestRated has a form for updating a listed business; it says no payment is required and that its team checks each change by hand within 3 business days. Fill in your price range, the areas you cover and real photos.
• Marketplaces that come with software. Fresha's marketplace profiles are published by businesses that take online bookings through Fresha's software. For a physiotherapy or aesthetic clinic, that is a choice of booking system as much as a listing.
• Lists that writers choose. misslobang.com, sethlui.com, sassymamasg.com and thehoneycombers.com publish "best X" articles picked by their writers. Find the article the assistants cite for your trade, and send its writer what a reader needs: your price range, the areas you cover and the reason to pick you. Ask whether a placement is editorial or paid before you agree to one.
• Professional registers. ChatGPT linked the Law Society of Singapore's "Find a lawyer" page 9 times, and Perplexity linked the Law Society's site 15 times. If your profession keeps a public directory, keep your entry complete.

Nobody can promise a writer will add you, which is why we start with the directories you control. At rankr, our brand mentions work begins with this table for your trade: which sites the assistants read, which already carry you, and who to ask for the rest.

Should you still list on Yellow Pages?

Not for AI answers, on this evidence. Yellow Pages, Yellow Pages SME, SGPBusiness, Times Business Directory, companies.sg, listing.sg and yourbusinesslisting.sg, all on Google's first page for "business listing singapore" or "business directory singapore" on 26 October 2026, got 0 links between them out of 3,912. streetdirectory.com was the one exception, with 15 Perplexity links. A listing there can still bring calls from people who search those directories, which our study did not measure.

Does writing your own "best of" list work?

Not in the clearest case we saw. One Singapore law firm's "best lawyers in Singapore" page was a source in all 10 Perplexity answers to "can you recommend a good lawyer in Singapore?", and the firm was named in none of them. Of the 1,311 lists Perplexity cited, 105 were written by a business about its own trade. Where ChatGPT gets its information has the full breakdown.

How we counted

We asked both assistants through their APIs on 5 October 2026: ChatGPT is OpenAI's model with its web search, and Perplexity is its sonar model. Each of the 11 trades got 5 questions, each asked 3 times, for 330 answers and 3,912 links, and every link was labelled by type. The answers and labels are on the study page. The ChatGPT app can show more than the API, such as map cards with star ratings, so treat these counts as what the assistants read, not everything a user sees.

Frequently asked questions

Which business listing sites in Singapore do ChatGPT and Perplexity use?

It depends on the trade. In our study of 3,912 links, the most cited were terris.sg, whatclinic.com, sgcarmart.com, threebestrated.sg, fresha.com, qanvast.com, misslobang.com and clutch.co. Each trade had its own leader, such as clutch.co for accounting firms and qanvast.com for interior designers.

Are business listings free in Singapore?

Some are. Clutch says its company profile is free, and ThreeBestRated says updating a listed business needs no payment. Lists on lifestyle sites are chosen by their writers; ask whether a placement is paid before you agree to one.

Does a Yellow Pages listing help you show up in ChatGPT?

Not in our study. Yellow Pages appeared in none of the 3,912 links ChatGPT and Perplexity gave across 330 answers about Singapore businesses.