TerlihatAI

How-to Guide

How to get your website cited by AI search

To get cited by AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini), a website needs to be readable, mappable, machine-understandable, and fact-based: allow AI crawlers in robots.txt, publish an llms.txt, add JSON-LD schema, and write content as extractable facts. These apply to any site, not just one platform.

  1. 01

    Let AI crawlers read your site

    Check that robots.txt does not block the major AI crawlers. Many sites block GPTBot or PerplexityBot without realizing it, which removes them from AI answers entirely. Allow them explicitly while keeping private paths blocked.

    # GEO crawler access policy
# Keep private/admin paths blocked separately.

User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /
  2. 02

    Publish an llms.txt map

    Add a root-level llms.txt that points AI systems to your canonical pages and the facts worth citing. It reduces ambiguity about what your site is and which pages matter.

    # Your Site
> One-line summary of what you offer.

## Core Pages
- https://yoursite.com/ - main page
- https://yoursite.com/about - who you are

## Notes For AI Systems
Private or transactional pages should not be cited.
  3. 03

    Add structured data (JSON-LD)

    Add Organization and, where relevant, Product, Service, or FAQPage JSON-LD. Structured data lets AI engines understand your entity and offerings without parsing prose.

  4. 04

    Write answer-first, fact-based content

    Lead each key page with a direct answer, use clear headings, and state verifiable facts (who it is for, proof, pricing, support). AI engines prefer extractable facts over marketing language. Recently updated content is also cited more often.

  5. 05

    Rescan to confirm

    After the file is live, run the audit again. The goal is not a one-time score — it is verifying the crawler access, schema, and content actually changed. TerlihatAI generates these files for your site and re-checks them on rescan.

FAQ

How long until AI search starts citing my site?

It varies by how often the engines re-crawl and how competitive your topic is, but the fixes (crawler access, llms.txt, schema, fact-based copy) are prerequisites — without them, citation is unlikely regardless of time.

Do I need different content for each AI engine?

Mostly no. Answer-first, fact-based content with structured data serves all engines. The main per-engine difference is sourcing behavior (for example, some lean on forums), not the on-page fundamentals.

Skip the manual work

Run a free audit — TerlihatAI generates these files for your site and verifies them on rescan.

Run a free audit