ChatGPT SEO: how to show up in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity

What is ChatGPT SEO?

ChatGPT SEO is the work that makes your business readable and credible for AI assistants, so they cite it when a customer asks a question. It is also called GEO, for generative engine optimization.

The principle is similar to classic SEO. But the result is different. On Google, you are looking for a place in a list of links. In ChatGPT, you are looking for a place in a sentence. And a sentence only cites two or three names.

Why it has become a real issue

The numbers have changed scale. OpenAI now reports more than one billion users every week. In France, the Arcep barometer shows that 48% of the population uses generative AI, and that ChatGPT remains the main tool.

Your customers no longer just type “plumber Malakoff” into Google. They also ask ChatGPT: “Which reliable plumber near me can fix a leak tonight?” If your name doesn’t appear, you don’t exist in that conversation.

How does ChatGPT choose the businesses it cites?

ChatGPT cites the businesses it finds during a live web search, then judges relevant and reliable for the question asked. It doesn’t pick at random from its memory.

Since the launch of ChatGPT search, the tool queries the web, relies partly on partner search engines, and shows links to its sources. In practice, it reads pages. If yours is clear, precise and consistent with the rest of the web, it has a chance.

The role of its crawler, OAI-SearchBot

OpenAI uses several crawlers. The one that matters for visibility is called OAI-SearchBot. It crawls the web for ChatGPT search. OpenAI specifies that a website that blocks it can still appear as a plain link, but without a summary or snippet.

During our diagnostics, we check this first. A badly configured robots.txt closes the door without warning. We see it more often than you would think, especially after a rushed redesign.

How to spot visits coming from ChatGPT

Good news: these visits can be measured. OpenAI adds a marker to the links it shows, utm_source=chatgpt.com. Your analytics tool can therefore isolate them. We include this in our clients’ monthly report, to see whether the efforts are paying off.

What about Gemini: how does it choose its sources?

Gemini and Google’s AI answers rely on Google’s index and its usual ranking systems. For Gemini, SEO therefore remains the foundation of everything.

Google explains this in its page on its search engine’s AI features. No magic tag, no special file. A page must be indexed, accessible, and able to show a snippet. In other words, if Google doesn’t rank you, Gemini will struggle to cite you.

What Google doesn’t ask for

Google also debunks a few misconceptions. No need to rewrite your texts “for AI”. No need to chop your pages into small pieces. And the llms.txt file is not used by its search engine. We sometimes set it up for other assistants, but never as a priority for Google.

And Perplexity: how does it work?

Perplexity searches the web for every question, then writes an answer with numbered, clickable sources. It is the most transparent of the three about its sources.

Its help page on how it works confirms it: the tool runs a real-time search, reads the pages it finds, then summarizes. It even shows source labels to flag official, academic or well-known websites.

What it changes for you

Perplexity cites what it reads. A page that clearly answers a specific question therefore has a real advantage. A vague home page that talks about “tailored solutions” without saying what, where or for whom has nothing to offer for a citation.

How can you test whether ChatGPT talks about your business?

The simplest test is to ask ChatGPT the questions your customers really ask, then note who gets cited. Do the same in Gemini and Perplexity.

Here is how we do it during a diagnostic:

1. We list five to ten real questions, such as “best osteopath for back pain in Vanves”.
2. We ask them in each assistant, in a private browsing window.
3. We note the businesses cited and the sources shown.
4. We compare those sources with your website and your profile.

This test takes half an hour. It often reveals a surprise: the AI cites a directory or a competitor, because their pages answer the question better.

A tip for reading the results

Answers vary from one day to the next. Don’t draw conclusions from a single try. Repeat the test several times, and look above all at the sources that keep coming back.

Do customer reviews matter for AI?

Yes, reviews matter: they help AI judge whether a business is serious, and customers use them to check what the AI tells them. A real, precise, recent review is worth more than a nice sentence on your website.

According to a BrightLocal survey, 45% of consumers already use an AI to find a local business. And 88% of them then check the reviews cited. The AI does the shortlisting; the reviews make the decision.

What we do for your reviews

We set up a simple review request, sent at the right moment, after a successful service. We also help you reply to every review, positive or negative. A calm, precise reply is as reassuring as a five-star review. All of this stays 100% genuine: never bought reviews, never invented reviews.

Why details matter

A review that says “Very good” teaches an AI nothing. A review that says “Leak fixed the same evening in Clamart, tidy work” gives it a service, a town and a quality. You cannot write reviews on your customers’ behalf. But you can ask them a simple question when you request the review, for example: “What did we do for you?” The answers naturally become richer.

Can you pay to appear in ChatGPT?

No, you cannot buy a place in ChatGPT’s organic answers. OpenAI has indeed launched advertising, but ads remain separate and labeled as such.

So be wary of offers promising “the top spot in ChatGPT” for a flat fee. No one controls what an AI answers. What we can do is increase your chances of being chosen, then measure the result honestly.