Perplexity
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the web for each question and writes a direct answer with numbered citations linking to the sources it used. Founded in 2022, it was one of the first consumer search products built around generated answers with citations rather than a list of links.
Perplexity uses its own crawler, PerplexityBot, to build an index of pages it can surface in answers, and a separate agent, Perplexity-User, to fetch pages live when a user’s question needs them. Perplexity says neither is used to train foundation models. Blocking PerplexityBot in robots.txt is the way to keep pages out of its search results; Perplexity recommends allowing it if you want to appear.
Because every answer shows its sources prominently, Perplexity is a useful place to see how AI citations work: which pages are chosen, in what order and how often your brand is named.
Why Perplexity matters for SEO
Perplexity’s users tend to be researchers, professionals and early adopters, often asking detailed or commercial questions. Its citations are visible and clickable, so being cited sends referral traffic you can measure (perplexity.ai as the referrer in analytics).
It also tends to cite a wide range of sources, including smaller sites, forums and recent articles, which can make it easier to break into than results dominated by large brands.
How to get cited by Perplexity
- Allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt and don’t block it at your CDN or firewall.
- Publish pages that answer specific questions directly, with current dates and concrete facts.
- Search your important questions on Perplexity, note the sources it cites and see what they include that your page doesn’t.
- Track a fixed set of prompts over time, since answers change between runs.
Perplexity example
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /Perplexity FAQ
How does Perplexity choose its sources?
Perplexity hasn’t published its ranking method. It searches its index and the web for each question and cites the pages its system judges most relevant, so clear, specific and current pages tend to do well.
Does Perplexity respect robots.txt?
Perplexity says PerplexityBot follows robots.txt. Perplexity-User fetches pages on behalf of a user’s live request, and Perplexity’s documentation treats it differently, so check their current crawler page for the details.
Related SEO terms
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is optimising content so search features and AI assistants use it to answer questions directly.
AI citations are the links an AI assistant shows as sources for its answer. Being cited means your page helped build the answer.
ChatGPT search is the feature that lets ChatGPT search the web and answer with up-to-date information and links to its sources.
AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot)
AI crawlers are bots that AI companies use to collect web content for model training or for AI search answers, such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot.
AI visibility is how often and how prominently AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity mention your brand or cite your site.