How to Rank in ChatGPT and Perplexity: What the Evidence Supports

TL;DR: There is no ranking position to win in ChatGPT or Perplexity, and no guaranteed method. What you can do is make your site reachable, build the classic SEO that many answers draw on, and appear on the sources assistants already cite.

1. Let their search crawlers in

OpenAI's documentation separates OAI-SearchBot, which controls appearing in ChatGPT search, from GPTBot, which relates to model training. Perplexity uses PerplexityBot for its search results. Check your robots.txt and firewall rules aren't blocking them. Allowing a crawler makes you eligible; it doesn't earn a mention.

2. Keep doing SEO, but don't assume it transfers

Ahrefs' analysis of 15,000 prompts found only 12% of links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot were in Google's top 10 for the same prompt, while Perplexity sat closer to Google's results. Treat a strong Google ranking as helpful, not sufficient. This is one vendor study, and other studies measure overlap differently.

3. Get onto the sources they use

Run your question through the free checker and list every cited domain. In our hotel study, answers leaned on editorial sources and brand sites. Your category may differ, so use your own results.

4. Check both assistants

In that same study ChatGPT surfaced 23 brands, Perplexity 18, and 13 brands appeared in only one of the two. A gap in one assistant doesn't tell you about the other.

5. Write pages worth citing

Answer the question directly, add specific facts with named sources, and keep them current. The GEO playbook has a fuller process, and the AI visibility guide covers the whole topic.