AEO for customs brokers: AI search visibility ranking
How AI search engines rank customs brokers by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured quarterly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Customs brokers that help importers and exporters manage compliance, customs clearance, duties, and cross-border trade documentation. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
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When AI engines are asked about Customs brokers, Livingston International emerges as the leader, cited in 12.5% of mentions. Expeditors and Clearit also rank among the top brands buyers inquire about, although they trail behind Livingston. If you're evaluating a provider, it's important to note these brands' prominence in AI-generated responses.
The rankings reflect the brands most often cited on sites like YouTube and aggregator platforms such as GoodFirms and Clutch. This suggests that reviews and external validations heavily influence AI engines. Content and reviews from these domains significantly contribute to how brands appear in AI answers.
For a buyer, this highlights the importance of considering how brands interact with AI's preferred sources. Look for entities with strong third-party validations and updated reviews. A brand's topical authority, especially in Customs brokerage, enhances its visibility in AI-generated queries, making it a crucial factor in selection.
At a glance
What we observed in this category
Livingston International, Expeditors, and Clearit each hold a 12.5% visibility score, placing them well above the category average of 1.9%. All three share an identical composite score of 8.8, meaning no single brand has broken away from the pack at the top. The gap between these three and the rest of the field is sharp: fourth-ranked A.N. Deringer scores 7.5 and every brand from rank 5 downward scores 3.8 or zero, confirming a two-tier structure in this category's AEO performance.
A clear divergence exists between being named in AI responses and being cited as a source. A.N. Deringer holds zero visibility but leads all brands on citation rate at 25%, and its own domain appears in the top cited sources list. Livingston International, Expeditors, and Clearit are named frequently but carry a 0.0 citation rate, meaning Google AI Mode surfaces them as answers without linking to their sites. This named-but-not-trusted pattern is a defining characteristic of how AI Mode handles customs broker queries.
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in this dataset, with no other engine registering a contribution. The cited sources Google AI Mode anchors on skew heavily toward third-party review and directory platforms: goodfirms.co, customsbrokerindex.com, clutch.co, and reddit.com all appear alongside youtube.com. Expeditors is the standout mover, jumping from rank 6 to rank 2 with a visibility delta of 12.5 points, though its citation rate remains at zero, mirroring the pattern seen at the top of the category.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
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Expeditors 0% → 12% · rank #6 → #2+12pp
The AEO ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
livingstonintl.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Livingston International shares the top composite score of 8.8 and a 12.5% visibility rate, but holds a 0.0 citation rate, meaning AI names it without linking to its domain. |
||||
| 2 |
expeditors.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Expeditors is the category's biggest riser, gaining 4 rank positions and moving from 0.0% to 12.5% visibility, yet it still records zero citations in the same period. |
||||
| 3 |
clearitusa.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Clearit matches the top two brands on both visibility (12.5%) and composite score (8.8), making it a co-leader, though its 0.0 citation rate mirrors the same structural gap. |
||||
| 4 |
anderinger.com
|
0% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
A.N. Deringer is the only top-5 brand with a meaningful citation rate (25%), despite zero visibility, and its domain appears directly in Google AI Mode's cited sources list. |
||||
| 5 |
flexport.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Flexport scores 3.8 composite with a 12.5% citation rate but zero visibility, placing it below A.N. Deringer on trust signals while outperforming the 2.5% category average for citations. |
||||
| 6 |
chrobinson.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
dhl.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
home.kuehne-nagel.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
nnrglobal.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
fedex.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
mohawkglobal.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
ups.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
oecgroup.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
jas.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
mainfreight.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
pcbgtm.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
chbusa.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
acbusa.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
albawheelsup.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
geodis.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on customs brokers, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this AEO ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →
AEO rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 90 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Run an AEO audit on your own customs brokers brand
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same answer engine optimisation measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about AEO for customs brokers
Who leads AEO in the customs brokers category?
Livingston International, Expeditors, and Clearit share the top position, each with a composite score of 8.8 and a 12.5% visibility rate, all driven exclusively by Google AI Mode.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for customs broker queries?
The most cited sources include youtube.com, goodfirms.co, customsbrokerindex.com, clutch.co, and reddit.com, with A.N. Deringer's own domain also appearing in that cited sources list.
Which brand has the highest citation rate in customs brokers AEO?
A.N. Deringer leads on citations at 25%, despite recording zero visibility, meaning AI Mode references its content as a source without naming it prominently in direct answers.
What is the difference between visibility and citation in this category's AEO data?
Visibility measures how often a brand is named in AI responses, while citation measures how often its domain is linked as a source. The top three brands score 12.5% visibility but 0.0% citation, showing AI names them without crediting their sites.
Which brand improved its AEO performance the most in the latest period?
Expeditors is the biggest riser, moving from rank 6 to rank 2 with a visibility gain of 12.5 percentage points, though its citation rate remained at zero.
How concentrated is AEO performance across the customs brokers category?
Performance is heavily concentrated: the top three brands each sit at 12.5% visibility against a category average of 1.9%, and seven of the ten tracked brands score a composite of zero.