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ServicesSEO & AI answers

When ChatGPT answers, be the source it quotes.

Visibility in ChatGPT & AI

When ChatGPT answers, be the source it quotes.

No one can guarantee you a mention. ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Google's AI answers write from pages they find in search indexes, and they favour facts they can check. That is where we can work: being found, being read correctly, and being confirmed by others.

Tell us about yours
2025
Since 8 October, Google's AI Mode answers in Greek, in Greece. AI Overviews, the summaries above the results, support Greek as well.Google Greece blog and Search Help
0
special files or markup are needed for a page to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet.Google Search Central
2
separate robots.txt decisions for OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot decides whether ChatGPT search reads your pages, GPTBot whether they are used to train models.OpenAI crawler documentation
2026
Since 31 August, Google has opened to all sites a Search Console report on their impressions in its AI features, and a setting to leave them.Google Search Console Help

First it searches, then it writes.

When someone asks an AI about something local or recent, the model usually does not answer from what it learned in training alone. It turns the question into a few searches, reads the pages that come back and writes an answer that points to some of them.

Google calls this technique query fan-out; OpenAI writes that ChatGPT rewrites a question into one or more targeted searches. So every answer has two sources: what the model learned in training, which is general, often dated and not easy to correct, and what it finds in a search index at the moment of the question.

For a small business, and for questions about opening hours, prices or availability, the second counts most, and it is the one you can influence. But each platform searches a different index, and a page that is not in it cannot become a source, however good it is.

  • Google: AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini

    Built on Google's index. Any page that is indexed and eligible to show a snippet can be used; Google says nothing more is required. The Gemini app also draws on Google Search.

  • Microsoft Copilot

    Built on Bing's index. Bing's webmaster guidelines now cover Copilot explicitly, and IndexNow tells Bing when pages are added or changed.

  • ChatGPT and Perplexity

    Each has its own search crawler, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, and ChatGPT also works with other search providers. A site that blocks them generally does not appear in their search answers.

A glass sphere on limestone projects a small, inverted image of the window: the whole room condensed into one bright answer.

Search is one thing, training another.

In your site's robots.txt you make two decisions that are often confused. One is whether AI search tools may read you, so they can recommend and cite you. The other is whether your pages may be used to train future models.

The companies now separate these uses with different crawler names, and the settings are independent: you can keep your pages out of training and still appear in answers. The mistake worth avoiding is a blanket block on “all AI”, in robots.txt or in the hosting settings, that cuts off search as well.

One technical point matters too. A Vercel study found that the crawlers of OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity did not execute JavaScript. Anything important, from opening hours to your services, should be in the page's HTML rather than loaded later.

  • OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot

    OAI-SearchBot brings your site into ChatGPT search; block it and your content is not used in answers, although a bare link with the page title may still appear. GPTBot collects pages for training. ChatGPT-User opens pages when a user asks, and robots.txt may not apply to it.

  • Google-Extended

    Not a crawler but a robots.txt setting. It covers training Gemini models and using your pages in the Gemini app's answers. It does not affect Google Search or AI Overviews.

  • The Search Console setting

    Since August 2026 you can take a site out of AI Overviews and AI Mode without changing its place in the rest of the results. For a business that wants customers, this rarely makes sense.

  • Bing and Copilot

    The NOARCHIVE directive keeps a page out of Copilot's answers; NOCACHE limits them to the title, URL and snippet.

  • PerplexityBot

    Reads for Perplexity's search, not for training. Perplexity-User, which opens pages on a user's behalf, generally does not follow robots.txt.

  • llms.txt

    A 2024 proposal for a file of guidance for language models. Google says Search ignores it and that it neither helps nor harms. We have not seen published evidence that it brings mentions.

Facts that can be checked, from more than one side.

As far as we know, AI tools prefer what they can confirm. Bing says so in its guidelines: answers and citations depend on content it can clearly interpret and verify. Google, for its part, writes that its AI answers can show what is being said about products and services across the web, in blogs, videos and forum discussions.

Studies point the same way, with caveats. In a laboratory test, adding sources, quotations and figures to a page raised its presence in answers by up to about 40%, but only once the page had already been found. Another study found that AI search engines cite independent, third-party sources far more often than businesses' own pages.

In practice, that means six things.

  • Be findable

    A site in Google's and Bing's indexes, with a sitemap, correct redirects and pages that do not duplicate each other.

  • The answer first

    What customers ask, written clearly near the top of the page: what you do, where, when, for whom, how to book or order. One page per topic.

  • The same details everywhere

    The same name, address and opening hours on your site, on Google Business Profile, on Bing Places and in directories. Google writes that a Business Profile helps your services appear in AI answers too.

  • Others speaking for you

    Reviews from real customers, with replies. Mentions in local press, in guides and by partners. They are earned, not bought: Google writes that chasing inauthentic “mentions” is not as helpful as it may seem.

  • Pictures with words

    Photographs and video help, as long as the words are there too: descriptive alt text, captions, and the key facts in the text itself.

  • Structured data, in proportion

    Organization or LocalBusiness markup that says exactly what the page says. Google does not require it for its AI features; Bing says it may help, without guaranteeing anything.

What the business does, what the AI writes.

A visitor asks an AI about pottery workshops on Santorini. Switch on what Skyphos has done and see which sources the answer is written from, whether it names the workshop, and whether it links to the workshop's own page.

AI assistantAnswer 1 of 101/10

Is there a pottery workshop on Santorini I can visit?

Searches

  • pottery workshop Santorini visit
  • ceramics studio Santorini
  • handmade ceramics Santorini

Yes. Several pottery workshops on Santorini welcome visitors:

  • , in Oia: a pottery studio with classes for beginners.
  • , in Fira: a shop selling ceramics by island makers.
  • Skyphos: a small workshop making tableware for homes and restaurants. The map shows it in Megalochori and closed, so check before you go. A recent review says they found it closed.

Named, without a link to its own page. With outdated details from the map.

What Skyphos has done

  • robots.txt lets search crawlers in, and the text is in the HTML.

  • Visits, opening hours and shipping, written clearly on one page.

  • Address and hours match on the site, the map and directories.

  • Recent reviews from real visitors, and a reply to each one.

  • LocalBusiness markup that says what the page says. It helps a little, and not on its own.

Switch on what the business has done.

The same question, ten times

Named in 2 of 10 answers, with a link to its own page in 0.

Each step raises the chance; none guarantees it. Even with everything on, not every answer is the same.

The sources it found

  1. Travel guide

    Pottery workshops on Santorini

    In the answer

    …and Skyphos, a small workshop making tableware for homes and restaurants.

  2. Map and directories

    Skyphos

    In the answer

    Megalochori. Hours: closed. Collection from the shop only.

    Outdated details

  3. Visitor reviews

    Skyphos

    In the answer

    38 reviews, most without a reply. The latest: “We went and it was closed.”

  4. Its own site

    Home page

    Not read

    The site blocks search crawlers, and its text loads only with JavaScript.

  5. Its own site

    Visits and shipping

    Does not exist

    This page does not exist yet.

A Noria study. No AI model runs here: the answers and figures are written in advance and show a tendency, not a result. The names of other businesses have been blanked out.

From the foundation up.

First being found, then being read correctly, then being confirmed by others. Seven steps you can start this month.

  1. Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and see which pages are indexed and which are not.

  2. Open robots.txt and your hosting's bot settings: allow Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, and decide separately on GPTBot and Google-Extended.

  3. Make sure opening hours, services and contact details exist as text in the HTML, not only in images or in code that loads later.

  4. Write one page for each question you hear often, with the answer in the first paragraph and specific facts.

  5. Make your name, address, phone and opening hours identical on your site, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and every directory, and add structured data that says the same.

  6. Ask real customers for reviews and reply to all of them, the unpleasant ones too, with facts. Never paid or invented.

  7. Measure every month: AI visits in Analytics, impressions in Search Console's generative AI report, citations in Bing's AI Performance, and a fixed list of questions put to each AI.

We don't sell a place. We build the sources.

A place in an AI answer is not for sale, and we don't sell one either. We make your business easy to find, to read and to verify, and every month we show you what changed.

  • Baseline

    A fixed list of your customers' questions, put to ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Google many times each: who is named today, and which sources are cited.

  • Access check

    robots.txt, hosting settings, Google and Bing indexes, and what each crawler sees without JavaScript.

  • Pages with facts

    Pages that answer the questions on the list, with specific facts you check before they go live.

  • One identity everywhere

    Name, address and hours identical on your site, map profiles and directories, with structured data that agrees.

  • Reviews and mentions

    A simple way to ask real customers for reviews and to reply. No bought reviews or mentions.

  • Monthly measurement

    AI visits, impressions and citations, and the same list of questions again, on one page.

Start with usPart of SEO & AI answers

The questions we hear.

First, do not block OAI-SearchBot, the crawler ChatGPT uses to find pages for its search; OpenAI says any public website can appear there. Then be in Google's and Bing's indexes, have pages that answer with specific facts, keep the same details everywhere, and earn reviews and mentions from others. All of this raises the chance of a mention; it does not guarantee one.

No. No platform publishes how it chooses sources, and the same question does not get the same answer every time. Bing's guidelines state that GEO does not guarantee citations in AI answers, and OpenAI states that advertisers cannot shape ChatGPT's answers. We can raise the chance and measure it, not promise it.

GEO stands for generative engine optimization: work that helps a page be used and cited in AI answers. The term comes from a 2023 research paper, and Bing now uses it in its guidelines. In practice it stands on the same foundations as SEO, as Google and Bing both say. The difference is emphasis: clear facts, the same everywhere, confirmed by others. Be wary of “GEO scores” sold as measurement: they are the tools' own indices, not the platforms'.

AI Overviews are the summaries shown above the results, with links to their sources. AI Mode is a separate tab for more complex questions, in Greek since October 2025. To be eligible, a page only needs to be in Google's index and able to show a snippet; no special markup or file is needed. Visits from both count in Search Console together with the rest of search.

It depends on what you want to protect. GPTBot and Google-Extended are mainly about training models; block them and you still appear in ChatGPT search and AI Overviews, as long as you allow OAI-SearchBot and Googlebot. Google-Extended also affects whether the Gemini app uses your pages in its answers. What we do not recommend is a blanket block on every bot, which cuts off search too.

Not as a priority. It is a 2024 proposal, not a standard the platforms have adopted. Google says Search ignores it and that it neither helps nor harms. If a service you use reads it, it is easy to add; the basics come first.

In Google Analytics, visits from ChatGPT arrive tagged utm_source=chatgpt.com, which OpenAI adds itself. Visits from perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com or gemini.google.com appear as referrals. Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode count as Google organic search, and Search Console now shows your impressions there separately. Some visits from apps arrive with no source at all, so it is worth asking new customers how they found you. And many people decide inside the answer without clicking: in a Pew study in the US, people clicked a link inside an AI summary in just 1% of visits.

It helps machines read your name, address, hours and products correctly, but it is not a magic switch. Google says no special markup is needed for its AI features, and Bing that it may help without guaranteeing visibility. Both require it to say what the page says. Note also that Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026.