How to appear in AI Overviews and ChatGPT

What Google officially says

According to Google, there are no additional requirements or special optimisations for appearing as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The page has to be indexed and eligible for Google Search. The familiar basics still apply: allow crawling, including at CDN and hosting level, use internal links, provide a good page experience and keep important content in text form.

Also important: Google’s spam policies apply to these answers too. Mass-produced content is no shortcut.

Step 1: Find out where you stand

Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google the ten questions your customers would ask. Record who gets named, whether you appear and whether the details are right. Answers vary, so repeat this on a fixed schedule rather than overrating a single run.

Step 2: Let the crawlers in

Check your robots.txt and whether a firewall blocks bots. For ChatGPT, the main one is the search crawler OAI-SearchBot; Perplexity uses PerplexityBot. You can treat training crawlers separately. Also check that your content appears in the HTML without JavaScript, since not every crawler runs it.

Step 3: Say clearly who you are

Many websites never explain in one sentence what the company does, for whom and where. That is exactly what language models need. These help:

A sentence like “X is a web agency in Barcelona for…” on the home and about pages
A consistent name, address and phone number across platforms
Structured data that matches the visible text
A recognisable person with a verifiable background

Step 4: Write paragraphs people can cite

Answer the question in the first sentence. Limits and details come after. Give numbers with a source and date. A paragraph should make sense on its own, without “as mentioned above”. That also makes the text better for people.

Step 5: Get mentioned elsewhere

Models also lean on what others write about you. That means entries in relevant directories, real reviews, trade articles, talks and local press. Bought links are no substitute.

What you can skip

llms.txt as a priority: Google does not use it for Search.
Special “AI text”: machine-only versions help nobody and can stray into cloaking.
Mass-generated pages: the risk from Google’s rules against scaled content abuse is real.

How to measure it

Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in Search Console’s overall totals. In your analytics you can see visits from ChatGPT and Perplexity by referrer. And simply ask new customers how they found you. For the difference from classic SEO, see GEO vs SEO. For help with the work: AI search with tob-apps.