This page is about ChatGPT. The same work helps with other AI assistants: see the full GEO checklist.
How ChatGPT Finds Sources
For questions that need current or specific information, ChatGPT searches the web, reads pages and shows the sources it used as links. Without a search, it answers from what its model learned in training, which you cannot update quickly. So the part you can work on is the search: being found, read and quoted.
1. Let OAI-SearchBot In
OpenAI runs separate bots. OAI-SearchBot finds pages for ChatGPT search, and OpenAI says sites opted out of it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." GPTBot collects training data, and blocking it does not remove you from search answers (OpenAI, crawlers).
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /That example allows ChatGPT search and opts out of training. Drop the GPTBot lines if you do not mind training. Check your CDN or firewall too: a bot rule can block OAI-SearchBot even when robots.txt allows it.
2. Be Findable in Web Search
ChatGPT can only cite pages its search finds. Make sure your key pages are indexed in Google and in Bing: add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap. Pages that rank on page 1 or 2 for a question are the ones most likely to be read.
3. Write Answers ChatGPT Can Quote
- Open each key page with a 2 to 3 sentence answer to its main question.
- Use buyer questions as headings, each with a short answer right below.
- Publish prices, ranges, specs and comparisons in plain text and tables.
- Keep the main text in the HTML, not added later by JavaScript.
- Show a visible updated date and keep facts current.
4. Get Mentioned Where ChatGPT Looks
Ask ChatGPT the questions your buyers ask, like "best [your service] in [your city]", and look at the sources it links. Those are the sites to be listed on, reviewed on or corrected on. A business several independent sites mention is easier for ChatGPT to name with confidence.
5. Check What ChatGPT Says About You
To score one page first, run it through the free ChatGPT SEO analyzer. Each month, ask your buyer questions in a fresh chat with search on, and log whether it named you and which URL it cited. Ask "what does [your brand] do" and "[your brand] prices" too: wrong facts usually trace back to one outdated page you can get fixed. In analytics, visits from chatgpt.com show which answers send people to you.
How to Use This with an AI Assistant
Connect SEOmatic at https://seomatic.ai/mcp and ask: "Sign me in with connect_seomatic. Use ai_citations (scan_results) to show which of my tracked questions ChatGPT answers with my business and which with a competitor, and ai_citations (observed_citations) for answers that cited my site." Reading your data changes nothing on your site.
Let the Agents Do the GEO Work
SEOmatic tracks whether ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Overviews name your business for the questions you choose, then its agents work on the pages those answers should quote:
- See which questions name you and which name a competitor
- Rewrite key pages to open with clear, quotable answers
- Add FAQ blocks and schema that match the page
Each change can wait for your approval, one click undoes it, and the agents check it against how the rest of your site did. What they can change depends on your platform, and you see the full list before anything runs.
14-Day Trial for $1, credited to your first payment.