How to Show Up in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Answers

The short answer: there is no separate trick for AI search. Google says that to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, a page has to be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet, the same as for a normal result. ChatGPT and Perplexity find pages with their own search crawlers and, in ChatGPT’s case, with the help of other search engines, so those crawlers have to be let in. Beyond that, what gets a page cited is what has always made it worth citing: a clear answer, real expertise, and other people talking about you.

A lot of what is sold as “GEO” or “AEO” mixes documented facts with guesswork. Below we separate what Google, OpenAI, Perplexity and Microsoft have actually published from what is sensible practice, and from what is speculation. Nobody outside these companies knows exactly how sources are chosen for an answer.

Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: still SEO

Google published a guide to optimizing for generative AI features in May 2026, and its position is plain: “optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.” The technical requirement is the one that applies to every result: the page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet.

The same guide lists what Google does not need: special AI text files such as llms.txt, breaking content into tiny chunks, writing in a particular way for AI, and special schema.org markup. It also warns that seeking inauthentic mentions across the web “isn’t as helpful as it might seem.”

Two practical consequences:

• Blocking Google-Extended in robots.txt does not take you out of AI Overviews. According to Google, that token controls whether your content is used to train Gemini models and for grounding in some other Google products, and it does not affect inclusion in Google Search. Search, including its AI features, is controlled through Googlebot and the usual snippet and indexing rules.
• Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in the normal Search Console Performance report. Since mid-2026, Search Console also has a Generative AI performance report that shows how often your pages appeared in these features.

ChatGPT: let the search crawler in

OpenAI runs several crawlers with separate jobs:

• OAI-SearchBot finds pages for ChatGPT’s search features. OpenAI says sites that opt out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from plain navigational links.
• GPTBot collects content that may be used to train OpenAI’s models. Blocking it says you do not want your content used for training. It is controlled separately from OAI-SearchBot.
• ChatGPT-User visits a page when someone asks ChatGPT a question that needs it. Because a person triggers it, OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, and it is not used to decide what appears in search.

So you can allow OAI-SearchBot and block GPTBot if you want to be found but not used for training. OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours for its systems to pick up a robots.txt change. Also check that your host, CDN or firewall is not blocking these bots before they ever reach robots.txt: some security settings block “AI bots” as one group, without separating search from training.

ChatGPT does not rely on its own crawler alone. OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers as well as content from its partners, and its help centre names Bing as a search engine ChatGPT sends queries to. So Bing matters too: verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and check which pages Bing has actually indexed. Bing also supports IndexNow, a simple way to tell it when a page is added or changed.

Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot

Perplexity documents two user agents. PerplexityBot finds and links websites in Perplexity’s search results and, according to Perplexity, is not used to collect content for training AI models; Perplexity recommends allowing it. Perplexity-User fetches a page when a user’s question needs it, and generally ignores robots.txt because a person asked for the page. Changes can take up to 24 hours to apply.

For Microsoft Copilot, the place to look is Bing. Since February 2026, Bing Webmaster Tools has had an AI Performance report that shows when your pages are cited in Copilot, in AI-generated summaries in Bing and in some partner integrations. Bing notes that the figures are a sample, so read them as a trend rather than an exact count.

Make your pages easy to quote

None of these platforms publishes a list of AI ranking factors, so what follows is sensible practice, not a formula. It is also what makes a page better for the person reading it.

• Answer the question near the top, in plain sentences, then explain.
• Use headings that match the questions people actually ask, and keep to one topic per section.
• Be specific: prices, timelines, locations, what is and isn’t included. A vague page has nothing worth citing.
• Put the main content in the HTML the server sends. Googlebot renders JavaScript, but there is no guarantee that every other crawler does.
• Keep structured data for the things it describes: Organization or LocalBusiness, Article, Product, BreadcrumbList. Google says it isn’t required for AI features, but recommends continuing to use it as part of your overall SEO.
• Show who is behind the content: an author’s name on articles, an about page that says who you are and where you work, and a real way to contact you. Google’s guidance on helpful content asks exactly these questions.
• Show when a page was last updated, and actually update it when the facts change.

Be cited where people already look

AI answers lean on what the web says about you, not only on what your own site says. That is slow to build, and it cannot be bought honestly in bulk.

• Real profiles and reviews on the platforms your customers use, such as industry directories and review sites.
• Mentions in articles, on partner pages and in local press that exist because there was something worth saying.
• For a local business, a complete and accurate Google Business Profile. Google’s guide says Business Profiles can help your products and services appear in AI responses. Keep your business name, address and phone number identical on your site, your profile and every directory listing, so every system sees one business, not three.

llms.txt: optional, not a standard

llms.txt is a Markdown file at the root of a site that summarises it for language models. Jeremy Howard proposed it in September 2024 at llmstxt.org. It is a proposal open for community input, not an adopted standard. Google says Google Search ignores these files, and that creating one for other services will neither harm nor help your visibility in Google. We have not found documentation from OpenAI, Perplexity or Microsoft saying their search products read it. We keep one on our own site because it takes minutes, but it would be the last item on this list.

How to measure it

• Search Console: the Performance report and the Generative AI performance report described above.
• Bing Webmaster Tools: the AI Performance report.
• Google Analytics 4: since May 2026, the default channel group has an AI Assistant channel for visits from sources such as ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot and Grok. Google’s own AI Overviews and AI Mode are not in it; those visits show up as Google organic traffic. ChatGPT also adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends, so its visits are easy to find in your source reports.
• A fixed list of 10–20 questions your customers actually ask, checked once a month in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, noting whether and how you are mentioned. Answers vary between users and sessions, so look at the trend over several months.

Keep in mind that many AI answers end without a click, and not every visit carries a referrer. Treat the numbers as a lower bound.

Where to start

Check the basics first: that your important pages are indexed in Google and Bing, that robots.txt and your firewall let OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot in, and that each key page answers its main question clearly. Our free website audit reads up to 25 pages in about a minute and checks indexability, the sitemap and structured data, which covers a good part of that list. Our technical SEO launch checklist covers the rest of the foundations.

If you want someone to do this work every month, our SEO service covers technical SEO, content, local search and Google Business Profile, with a monthly report, from €400 a month. We will not promise you a place in ChatGPT or in an AI Overview, because nobody honestly can. What we will do is make sure that when these systems look for an answer in your field, your site is one they can find, read and trust.