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How to get your company cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews

Generative engine optimisation explained: how AI assistants choose their sources, the on-site and off-site work that makes a company citable, and how to measure whether it is working.

SaaS & technology · 4 min read · 7 October 2026

A growing share of buyers never see a results page. They ask an assistant — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google's AI Overviews — and act on the answer. If the answer names you, you are in the shortlist. If it doesn't, you don't exist for that buyer.

Being named is not luck. Assistants pick sources in predictable ways, and most of what earns a citation is the same discipline that earns a search ranking, with a few additions. This is what is sometimes called generative engine optimisation, or GEO.

01How assistants choose their sources

Two routes feed an answer. Training data: what the model absorbed when it was built, which changes slowly and rewards companies mentioned consistently across many sites. Live search: the assistant runs a web search as you ask, reads the top results, and synthesises. ChatGPT's search runs on Bing; Google's on Google; Perplexity and Claude on their own or partner indexes.

The live route is the one you can influence this quarter. It rewards pages that are indexed, that answer a question directly in plain language, that name the company clearly, and that carry structured data an engine can trust. In other words: good pages, with the answer near the top.

02On your site

  1. Let the crawlers in. Robots rules should allow the AI engines' crawlers — GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and the rest — not just Googlebot.
  2. Be indexed in Bing as well as Google, with a sitemap submitted to both. Bing powers ChatGPT's search.
  3. Write answer-first pages. One question per page, a direct answer in the first paragraph, then the detail. Assistants quote paragraphs that stand on their own.
  4. Use the words people use. Brand language — your product names, your slogans — is for people who already know you. Pages that should attract strangers need the plain terms: "duplicate payment detection", not "financial intelligence layer".
  5. Add FAQ sections, phrased as real questions, with structured data (FAQPage) so engines can lift them intact.
  6. Mark up the entity. Organisation, founder, services and products in structured data, consistent with what every other site says about you.
  7. Publish an llms.txt file: a plain-text summary of who you are and what each page covers, at the root of the site.
  8. Keep the facts static and quotable. Prices, locations, founding details and what you do should read identically everywhere.

03Off your site

Assistants trust consistency. A company that appears on LinkedIn, a business directory, an industry listing and a couple of third-party articles, with the same name, description and address each time, is an entity. A company that exists only on its own domain is a claim.

  • A company page on LinkedIn with the same description as the site, and founders linking to it
  • Listings on the directories your buyers use (industry bodies, review sites for your category)
  • Guest articles and interviews that mention the company by name and link to the relevant page
  • Press releases for real news, with the entity details intact
  • Answers in public forums where your buyers ask questions, signed with the company name

04Content that gets quoted

  • Definitions ("what is X") with a one-paragraph answer up front
  • Comparisons that are fair to both sides
  • Checklists and step-by-step methods
  • Honest limits: "when this is not the right choice" sections are quoted often because they read as trustworthy
  • Original observations from your own work, stated generally

05How to measure it

  • Ask the assistants your buyers' questions monthly and record whether you are named, and in what position
  • Watch referral traffic from the assistants' domains in your analytics
  • Track branded search volume; being cited raises it
  • Track impressions for the plain-language queries in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

Expect weeks for live-search citations and months for training-data presence. Both compound.

In short

  • AI assistants cite pages that are indexed, answer directly, use plain words and carry structured data.
  • Bing matters as much as Google: it powers ChatGPT's search.
  • Entity consistency across LinkedIn, directories and third-party mentions is what makes you citable.
  • Measure by asking the assistants your buyers' questions every month.

Questions

Is GEO different from SEO?

It is SEO with extra emphasis on answer-first writing, entity consistency and being indexed in every engine the assistants use. Almost everything that helps one helps the other.

Should we block AI crawlers to protect our content?

If you want to be cited, no. Blocking GPTBot or ClaudeBot removes you from the answers your buyers read. Block them only for content you genuinely don't want summarised.

Does llms.txt actually help?

It is a young convention and support varies by engine. It costs little, keeps your own description of the site in one place, and some assistants read it directly. It is not a substitute for good pages.

Sounds like your problem?

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