How to get cited by ChatGPT

ChatGPT answers in one of two modes. For general knowledge, it may answer from what the model learned in training, with no citations. When a question needs current or specific information (products, prices, news, local businesses, comparisons), it searches the web, reads several results, and writes an answer with inline citations and a list of sources. Users can also force a search.

Search is where citations come from. OpenAI's documentation names the crawler behind it: OAI-SearchBot, which "surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features". OpenAI has said ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers alongside its own crawling; Microsoft's Bing is widely reported to be one of them.

Check your robots.txt. If you use a template or a security plugin, it may block AI bots by default. To be eligible for ChatGPT search, allow OAI-SearchBot:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

# Optional: opt out of training only
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

Also check your CDN or firewall. Cloudflare and others offer one-click AI bot blocking, which can block search crawlers along with training crawlers. OpenAI says robots.txt changes for search take about 24 hours to apply. More in AI crawlers and robots.txt.

Finally, make sure the content is in the HTML. Crawlers read text the server sends; prices or descriptions that only appear after JavaScript runs may be missed.

ChatGPT turns the user's question into one or more search queries, then reads the top results. If your page does not rank for those queries, it is unlikely to be read, however good it is. In practice:

• Submit your site to Bing Webmaster Tools as well as Google Search Console. Many sites only ever set up Google. Bing's index feeds Copilot and is reported to feed ChatGPT search.
• Target the questions buyers type into ChatGPT, which are longer and more specific than search keywords: "best press release service for a seed-stage SaaS", not "press release service".
• Earn links and mentions from relevant sites, which is what makes pages rank. See backlinks for a new website.

When ChatGPT reads a page, it extracts the passages that answer the question. Pages that get cited tend to:

• state the answer directly under a heading that matches the question;
• contain specific facts: numbers, prices, dates, names, with their sources;
• use tables and lists for comparisons and steps;
• say who they are for and when they were updated.

See how to write content AI assistants cite for a page template.

For commercial questions ("what's the best…", "alternatives to…", "which… should I use"), ChatGPT's citations skew toward third-party pages: list articles, review sites, comparison directories, Reddit threads and news. Your own site is rarely the main source for whether you are good. So the work is getting named on those pages:

• News coverage and press releases. A press release distributed to news sites puts your brand, category and key facts on many indexed pages at once.
• Directories and comparison sites. AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, G2, Capterra, Product Hunt and niche directories are frequent sources for "alternatives to" questions. See best startup directories.
• List articles. Find the "best X tools" articles ChatGPT cites for your category, and pitch the authors.
• Communities. Genuine answers on Reddit and forums where your buyers ask for recommendations. See Reddit and AI answers.

Write down 10 to 20 questions a buyer would ask ChatGPT about your category. Ask each one with search on, in a fresh chat, and record whether you are mentioned, which competitors are, and which URLs are cited. Repeat monthly. The cited URLs tell you exactly which sites to get onto next. Full method: how to check what ChatGPT says about your brand.