Want to show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity? Here’s the Playbook.

There’s no organic way to guarantee that your brand or website will show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity, or any AI search results. Full stop.

What you can do to improve your odds is make your site crawlable, indexable, and understandable. Those three pillars will help your brand show up in good ole Google and Bing, as well as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and whatever’s next.

Crawlability: Can AI find your content?

A page has good crawlability when bots like Googlebot, OAI-Searchbot, Perplexity’s crawler, or Gemini’s crawler can reach your page and read the words on it. Seems simple, right? However, you’d be surprised by how many websites actually block themselves from being found. It’s like throwing a party and then locking the door. Whether it’s an abundance of caution or simply not understanding what blocking some of these bots does, it happens, and it happens a lot.

If your site doesn’t have good crawlability, then it’s invisible. Period.

4 things that ruin crawlability:

1. Have you accidentally blocked crawlers in your robots.txt file on your web server or in the settings of your cPanel? Crawlers don’t go where they aren’t wanted.
2. Is your content loading only after JavaScript runs? Ruh roh…crawlers will bail if they have to wait too long.
3. Are you using login walls, popups, or members-only gates? Crawlers can’t get through and move on.
4. Do you have broken links or redirections that loop? Crawlers will hit those dead ends and loops, then roll out like they got something better to do.

How to fix crawlability issues

1. Check your site with tools like Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. Better yet, check it in both. You should be using both of these tools to gain a more comprehensive view of your website’s performance across these two major search engines. See what’s indexed, what isn’t, and work toward fixing them. There’s too much to include in this article, but if you’d like us to conduct a deep dive, let us know and we’ll get on it.
2. Put on your web developer hat and take a look at the robots.txt file on your web server. Make sure it does not block legitimate bots. As you look at your robots.txt file, remember that a stray / on the Disallow: line under the User-agent line will block that bot. That’s a common mistake. Another is not having a Sitemap XML file. Without a Sitemap XML file (a map of your site and how the pages relate to one another), the bots are left wandering aimlessly and will eventually give up. Sitemap files can be generated for free here: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
3. Improve your crawlability by using normal HTML text on your pages. If your page is full of images, videos, and fancy graphics and scripts, the bots probably can’t read it. That’s not to say you can’t use those things, but to also provide a bot readable option if you want mission critical content to be crawlable.

Here’s a quick list of bots and crawlers we think hold value for most businesses:

Search Engine Bots

• Googlebot – Absolutely essential
• Googlebot- Image, Googlebot-Video, Googlebot-News – If you use images, videos, or publish news, include this one.
• Bingbot – This is a big one, don’t skip it.
• DuckDuckBot – Optional, but provides more coverage.
• YandexBot, Baiduspider – Russian/Chinese search bots. Add only if you care about these markets.

AI/LLM Crawlers

• GPTBot – ChatGPT/OpenAI – Indexes ChatGPT and other GPT-based tools
• OAI-SearchBot – Used for live web citations – ChatGPT w/search
• CCBot – Common Crawl Bot – Used by lots of AI models for model training
• ClaudeBot/Anthropic-AI – Claude
• Google-Extended – Controls whether Gemini can use your content – Gemini/Bard
• FacebookBot, Meta-ExternalHit – Meta, Threads, Facebook
• PerplexityBot – Perplexity.ai
• AppleBot – Apple search and Siri suggestions

The Salty Marketer says:

If you block the bots, you’ve basically ghosted the internet. It’s like setting up a lemonade stand in the middle of the desert. Don’t come crying to me when nobody shows up.

Indexable: Can AI store your content?

Being indexed means your website was crawled and made it into the database that powers most engines and AI tools. YAY! It’s like being on the menu – if you’re not on the menu, you don’t get ordered. Cool in the case of secret restaurant menu items, not cool in the case of your brand wanting to increase awareness and authority.

If your site isn’t indexed, you flat-out don’t exist to AIs.

Here’s what kills the indexing of your site:

1. You’ve got “noindex” tags on your site. Thesetags tell the bots to “ignore this page”. There might be some use cases for using “noindex” tags, but in general, if you want the page and its content to appear in search results and AI, don’t use “noindex”. It will look like this: name=“robots”, content=“noindex”.
2. Low quality content, duplicate content, and spammy content will hurt the indexing of your website. Google and others will skip AI slop and trash content.
3. If no one links to your site, crawlers often assume that your content is unimportant.
4. Slow pages that take a long time to load or have weird redirects confuse bots.

And here’s how you fix indexing issues on your website:

1. Having a sitemap makes a big difference in how the bots navigate your website. As we mentioned before, have one, then make sure you submit it to both Google and Bing.
2. Use internal links on your site to show the bots what’s important and how the pages and content relate to each other.
3. Seek out and secure legitimate backlinks (that’s people linking to your content). Shoot for real mentions and collaborations, not cheap spammy ones you can buy.
4. Publish something worth indexing. Writing the 1000th article on the benefits of SEO won’t do much good unless it’s a unique and valuable take on the subject. Be unique, be authentic to your brand, and give value to readers whenever possible.
5. You’ve got about 10 seconds to convince a bot that your content is valuable, unique, and trustworthy. Otherwise, they toss it and move on. Keep that in mind as you craft every single page you want indexed.

The Salty Marketer says:

If your site isn’t indexed, it might as well not exist. Not to Google, not to GPT, not to anyone but your mom.

Understandable: Can AI understand your content?

Your site is crawlable and now it’s indexed – awesome! But if the bots can’t understand what your content actually means, you’re just noise. Your content being understood means that AI can tell what your page is about, who it’s for, what it offers, and when to use your page. Don’t get me wrong, bots are pretty smart, but they are also easily confused. 

Here’s what confuses AI and search bots:

1. Walls of platitudes and vague fluff. Garbage like “we empower next-gen solutions to accelerate growth”. Way to go! You said precisely nothing.
2. Bots can’t understand your content if it’s missing structure. Without headings and hierarchy, it’s chaos man…chaos.
3. Not using schema markup. Schema markup can help bots understand your content faster. It’s the behind-the-scenes data that tells the machine “this is an FAQ” or “this is a product.”
4. As previously mentioned, bots can’t reliably read images or PDFs for that matter. Using those instead of text makes your content nearly invisible.
5. Bots don’t like or understand your jargon and buzzwords. Many readers don’t either.
6. The aforementioned slow pages and weird redirects.

Here are 5 things you can do to help your content be more understandable to search bots and AI tools.

1. Write with clarity. Use clear sentences, short paragraphs, real facts, CITATIONS, and specific language. Write to your audience, not to sound a certain way.
2. Bots like structure, so give it to them in the form of headings (H tags) like H1 and H2. Organize your content properly using these tags. Remember that like Highlander, there can be only one…H1 tag on a page. That’s the main source that tells readers and bots what this page is about. H2 only exists under H1, H3 only exists under H2 and so on. Have as many H2 – H6 tags as you like, but only one H1. H is not about size or about style, it’s about hierarchy. Use classes in for style, H tags for hierarchy.
3. Add structured data to your site in the form of schema markup. In case that H1 doesn’t tell the whole story, you can be very specific with your schema. It’s fast and easy to do on every page. Here’s a rundown and a schema generator: https://technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/
4. Explain to the bots exactly what you do by defining any terms it might not understand and mentioning your location and niche.
5. Lastly, keep your content fresh. Outdated information makes your content look irrelevant.

The Salty Marketer says:

When a bot or a 12-year-old can’t explain your website after reading it, you’re not smart or clever; you’re confusing.

A three phase approach to show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity (among others).

Now that you know what makes your site crawlable, indexable, and understandable, let’s turn that knowledge into action. Here’s a three phased approach and timeline to take you from zero to hero in 3-6 months.

Phase 1: Crawlability and SEO Foundations

Make sure that AIs and search engines can see, navigate, and understand your content.

• Check robots.txt file as noted above and adjust.
• Ensure you do not have “noindex” tags on pages you want indexed.
• Create or confirm you have a sitemap.xml file, it is noted in your robots.txt file, and submitted to Google and Bing.
• Ensure your content is served in HTML and not hidden behind JavaScript.
• Use descriptive and hierarchical H tags as well as good internal linking.
• Apply basic on-page SEO: title tags, meta descriptions, alt text, concise URLs, and schema markup where relevant.

Phase 2: Content and Authority

AI favors content that’s seen as credible and authoritative. The more trusted references link to your site, the more chance you become part of the answer.

• Create high-quality, unique, authoritative content that answers real user questions.
• Use structured, clear writing. Be concise, factual, and leave no guesswork.
• Define names, people, places, and concepts. AI likes content with firm anchoring.
• Ensure your content is served in HTML and not hidden behind JavaScript
• Seek out and secure trustworthy backlinks and citations.
• Publish regularly and consistently. Update existing pages to keep them fresh.

Phase 3: AI Specific Optimization and Monitoring

Since you’re already publishing content, be sure you are tailoring it in ways that AI models are more likely to pick up.

• Use schema so models can easily identify knowledge bits.
• Monitor the crawler logs to see if the bots are hitting your site.
• Monitor your brand and site mentions in AI summarizations. This information is starting to appear in Google Search Console.
• Create new content to correct wrong or outdated statements.
• AI indexing is constantly evolving. Stay current and adjust your strategy.

The Salty Marketer says:

You don’t hack your way into AI search results, you earn your way in. Crawl, index, understand, the rest is just noise from marketers who don’t finish what they start.

A realistic timeline to help your site show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Month 1

• Audit your crawlability.
• Fix your robots.txt.
• Create your sitemap.
• Complete those basic SEO foundations.

Month 2

• Audit your content.
• Create core “pillar” pages that answer key questions in your industry/niche.

Month 3

• Perform outreach and track progress twoards references and links.
• Publish guest posts.

Month 4

• Add or expand structured data to your website.
• Monitor crawler activity to identify additional action items.

Month 5

• Review AI citations and systems to see how you’re appearing.
• Refine your approach.
• Adjust, produce more content.
• Correct misinformation.

7 Key Takeaways for having your content show up in search engines and AI tools

1. Don’t block AI crawlers inadvertently.
2. Avoid content buried behind heavy Javascript rendering. 
3. Be clear and structured with site hierarchy, with page structure, and with content.
4. Authority matters a lot – If you aren’t well known, get good backlinks, cites, and guest posts. 
5. Stay current. AI moves fast. What works today might not work tomorrow. Adjust as needed. 
6. Sometimes you won’t get credit. Your content may appear without visible attribution. The keyword is visible. 
7. Do not sacrifice user experience for AI bot or search bot optimization.

The Salty Marketer says:

This isn’t a one and done checklist, it’s fitness. Keep in shape or get buried; bots don’t care about your excuses.

Showing up in AI search isn’t magic; it’s mechanics. Stop trying to outsmart the algorithms, just make it stupid-easy for them to find, file, and figure out your content. A site with good crawlability, that’s indexable and understandable, already laps half the internet. Be consistent, stay clear, and keep your content fresh.

Like SEO, this is a long game. While everyone else is bickering about keywords, your brand can own the future conversation.

Stay salty, my friend.