ChatGPT and Perplexity both search the web while answering and show the sources they used. They rely on their own crawlers and on search indexes, so the basics from the rest of this track apply. A few details are specific to each, and worth checking because they are easy to get wrong.
Short on time? Comppound does this work for SaaS companies. AI-native, and a person reviews every page.
Have us do itTheir crawlers
OpenAI documents separate agents: one for search (OAI-SearchBot), one that fetches pages when a user asks (ChatGPT-User) and one for training (GPTBot). Perplexity documents its own crawler and a user-triggered agent. Blocking the search crawler is what removes you from their search results; blocking the training crawler does not.
They use search indexes
Both products draw on web search results when answering. Pages that rank well in conventional search, and that are indexed by the engines these products use, are easier for them to find. Bing Webmaster Tools is worth setting up for that reason alone.
Comppound can do this for you
Want to be named in AI answers?
Comppound checks what ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI features say about your category, opens your site to their crawlers and builds the pages and mentions they cite. AI-native, with every page reviewed by a person.
- AI visibility baseline for your buyer questions
- Crawler access and quotable pages
- Monthly tracking of where you are named
What they tend to cite
Answers to product questions often cite comparison and review pages, community threads and vendors' own pages with clear, specific information. Pages with direct answers, tables and current dates are easier to use than long marketing pages.
Check what they say about you
Ask each product questions about your category and your company. Note what is said, which sources are cited and whether the details are accurate. Wrong details usually trace back to an out-of-date source you can fix or outdo.
Worked example · an illustration, not a client result
Tallyroom's crawler and index check
Tallyroom found it had never verified its site in Bing Webmaster Tools, and that its CDN challenged Perplexity's crawler.
| Check | Finding | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt | Allowed | None |
| Perplexity crawler | Challenged by CDN | Allow verified bot |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Not set up | Verify and submit sitemap |
Do it yourself
Get found by both
- 1Check robots.txt and your CDN for OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User and Perplexity's agents.
- 2Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap.
- 3Ask both products five questions about your category.
- 4Record sources and accuracy.
- 5Fix the pages, or the third-party sources, that caused wrong answers.
Free tool for this: AI crawler access checker, Free AI visibility report
Common mistakes
Blocking the wrong bot
Blocking a search crawler to stop training removes you from answers. Block training bots separately if you want to.
Ignoring Bing
Some AI products draw on Bing's index. A site Bing does not know well is harder for them to find.
Assuming answers are fixed
Answers change as sources change. Re-check regularly.
Rather not do it yourself?
Want to be named in AI answers?
Comppound checks what ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI features say about your category, opens your site to their crawlers and builds the pages and mentions they cite. AI-native, with every page reviewed by a person.
- AI visibility baseline for your buyer questions
- Crawler access and quotable pages
- Monthly tracking of where you are named
Questions
There is no general submission. Being crawlable, indexed and well cited elsewhere is the route.
Neither product has said it uses llms.txt to choose sources. Treat it as optional.
Key terms
- ChatGPT SearchChatGPT search is the web search capability inside ChatGPT that finds current pages, writes an answer from them and links to its sources.
- PerplexityPerplexity is an AI answer engine that searches the web for each question and replies with a written answer and numbered citations to its sources.
- OAI-SearchBotOAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler for ChatGPT search. Allowing it in robots.txt is what lets your pages be surfaced and linked in ChatGPT's search answers.
- GPTBotGPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler for collecting content that may be used to train its AI models. It is controlled separately from ChatGPT's search crawler.
- User-Triggered FetchersUser-triggered fetchers are AI agents that load a page because a person asked about it, rather than crawling the web on their own schedule.
- Bing Webmaster ToolsBing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's free console for site owners. It shows how Bing crawls and indexes a site and offers SEO reports and URL submission.
- AI CrawlersAI crawlers are bots run by AI companies to fetch web pages, either to train models, to build a search index, or to answer a user's live request.
