ChatGPT and Perplexity answer questions directly and cite their sources with links. To be one of those sources, your page needs to be crawlable by their bots, genuinely authoritative, current, and easy to extract. Unlike Google AI Overviews, they draw from a wider slice of the web and lean heavily on trusted third-party pages.
How do they differ from Google?
Google AI Overviews are assembled from Google's own index and sit above the classic results. ChatGPT and Perplexity are standalone answer engines: they retrieve from the live web and show citations on most answers, Perplexity almost always, ChatGPT whenever it searches. Because they are not tied to Google's ranking, a page on the second page of Google can still be cited if it is the clearest, best-sourced answer. If you are new to this, start with what AEO is and how it differs from SEO.
How do they choose sources?
They favour content that is authoritative, recent and well-structured, and they weight trusted third-party pages more than Google does. The same three levers from AEO apply, structure, authority and presence, but authority and freshness carry extra weight here. Trust is central: Google's guidance on people-first content calls it the most important part of E-E-A-T, and the same logic, clear authorship and transparent sourcing, is what makes any engine comfortable quoting you.
How do you let their crawlers in?
You cannot be cited by a crawler you have blocked. Each engine runs its own, and they behave differently:
- ChatGPT. Per OpenAI's crawler documentation, the bot that surfaces sites in ChatGPT search is OAI-SearchBot, and pages that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers". GPTBot is a separate crawler used for model training, which you can allow or block independently, and ChatGPT-User handles user-initiated fetches.
- Perplexity. Per Perplexity's crawler documentation, allow PerplexityBot, which surfaces and links sites in Perplexity results and respects robots.txt. A separate agent, Perplexity-User, fetches pages on a user's request and generally ignores robots.txt.
The practical takeaway: do not accidentally block OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, and make sure your content is server-rendered so their crawlers see it without running JavaScript.
How do you get cited?
- Allow OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot in robots.txt.
- Lead each page with a direct 40 to 60 word answer, in real, server-rendered text.
- Structure with headings that mirror the question, plus tables and lists.
- Show authority: a named author, cited sources, and dated figures.
- Keep pages current. Recency counts for more here than on Google.
- Build honest third-party presence, covered next.
- Measure your citations across engines, then repeat.
Why does presence beyond your site matter?
This is where ChatGPT and Perplexity differ most from classic SEO. Much of what they cite is not your website at all: Wikipedia, active Reddit and community threads, reputable review platforms and honest industry roundups. A consistent, accurate description of your brand on pages these engines already trust often moves the needle more than another page on your own domain. Keep your entity information accurate, take part in relevant communities honestly, and earn mentions in credible roundups.
How do you measure it?
Track it across engines rather than guessing. Limecube's AI Search Hub checks the questions your customers ask and records whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity name your brand and cite your domain, alongside Google AI Overviews, using the same brand and competitor matching, so you see share of voice in one place. The features tour shows the report, and pricing starts with a 7-day trial.