How to get your brand cited in AI answers

Most advice on getting cited by AI reads like a cheat sheet. Add this file. Chop your pages into chunks. Rewrite everything for robots. Google's own guide to its AI search features says you don't need any of that.

Your real questions are simpler. Why does ChatGPT name three competitors when someone asks for a recommendation in your category, and not you? And what can you actually change? That shortlist is often where buying starts. If you're not on it, you may not get a look.

This guide explains how AI answers pick their sources, then walks through five steps to get your brand cited. It's based on what Google, OpenAI and Perplexity publish for site owners, plus a large study of what AI-visible brands have in common.

What it means to be cited in an AI answer

Being cited means an AI tool names your brand in its answer, links to your page as a source, or both. That happens in Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, in ChatGPT when it searches the web, and in Perplexity.

The two parts do different jobs. A mention puts you on the shortlist the reader sees. A citation link sends the click and tells the reader where the claim came from. You want both.

Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the work of earning them. You'll also see it called generative engine optimisation (GEO). It's the same idea, and it builds on search engine optimisation (SEO) rather than replacing it.

How AI answers choose their sources

Most AI answers that use the web search first, then write. They pull pages from a search index, pick the ones that best answer the question, and cite them. So the pages that already do well in search start with an advantage.

Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode may use "query fan-out", according to Google's documentation on AI features. That means they run several related searches across subtopics to build one answer. A page that answers the follow-up questions as well as the main one has more chances to be picked.

ChatGPT works in a similar way. OpenAI's help centre says ChatGPT search rewrites your question into targeted searches and sometimes works with other search providers.

The takeaway: AI answers rarely rescue a brand that's weak in search and absent from the rest of the web. They mostly reflect what's already there.

Step 1: Check what AI says about you today

Before you change anything, find out where you stand. List the questions your buyers ask, put them to the AI tools, and record who gets named.

1. Write 10 to 20 buyer questions. Mix category questions ("best CRM for small teams in Singapore"), problem questions ("how do I lower my Google Ads costs") and comparisons ("HubSpot vs Pipedrive"). Use your customers' words, not your internal ones.
2. Ask each one in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google. Where you can, use a fresh or logged-out session so your own past chats don't shape the answer.
3. Log what comes back. Note the brands named and the pages cited.
4. Run each question more than once. AI answers aren't fixed. The same question can name different brands on different days.

The "pages cited" column is the useful one. It shows which sites the tools trust for your topic. That list becomes your outreach plan in step 4.

Step 2: Make sure AI tools can reach your pages

If a tool can't crawl your site, it can't cite it. Check this first. It's the step most fully in your control, and the fastest to fix.

• Google: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Check indexing in Search Console, and don't use a nosnippet tag on pages you want quoted.
• ChatGPT: OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, according to OpenAI's crawler documentation. Allow it in your robots.txt file, and check your host or content delivery network (CDN) isn't blocking OpenAI's traffic.
• Perplexity: Perplexity's crawler guide asks sites to allow PerplexityBot so they appear in its search results.
• Your content itself: put key answers in the page text. Answers that only sit in images, PDFs or behind a login are harder for any crawler to use.

Step 3: Make your pages worth quoting

You don't need to write for robots. Google's guide to optimising for its generative AI features says you don't need special phrasing, content chunking, AI text files or special schema. It asks for original, useful content that goes beyond what everyone else has already said.

What gets a page quoted

• Lead with the answer. Put a one or two sentence answer straight under each heading. Readers who skim get what they came for, and any tool gets a clean sentence to quote.
• Answer the next question too. Because AI answers run related searches, a page that covers the obvious follow-ups has more chances to be picked.
• Add what only you know. First-hand experience, your own data, real prices and local detail. Google calls this non-commodity content.
• Be specific and current. Dates, sourced numbers and named options give an answer something to quote. Vague pages don't.
• Use tables for comparisons. They're easier for readers to scan and easier to lift into an answer.

What you can skip

Google says you don't need an llms.txt file, Markdown copies of your pages, content split into tiny pieces, or a separate version written for AI. Structured data is still worth keeping for rich results, but there's no special schema for AI features.

Step 4: Get mentioned on sites AI already trusts

What other sites say about you carries a lot of weight. In Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands, branded web mentions had the strongest link to AI Overview visibility of any factor tested, with a correlation of 0.66. Backlinks came in at 0.22.

Ahrefs is clear that correlation doesn't prove cause. But the pattern makes sense: brands that get talked about get recommended. Publishing more on your own site won't close that gap on its own.

Where to earn mentions

1. The pages from your log. The "best of" lists, comparison posts and review sites the AI tools already cite. Ask to be considered, and give the author what they need: a clear description, pricing and what you do differently.
2. Industry and local media. Offer something worth covering, such as your own data, expert comment or a useful tool, rather than asking for a link.
3. Communities your buyers use. Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook groups and industry forums. Take part as yourself and answer questions properly. Google notes its AI features can show what's said about products in blogs, videos and forums.
4. Profiles and listings. Your Google Business Profile, review platforms and partner directories. Use the same name, description and category everywhere, so every source describes you the same way.

Step 5: Track progress every month

Re-run the same question list every month and compare. You're looking for a trend, not one good day.

• Share of questions: how many of your questions name you, in each tool.
• Your cited pages: which of your pages get linked, and for which questions.
• New sources: sites that start citing competitors. Add them to your outreach list.
• Google's own data: the Generative AI performance report in Search Console.

Expect access fixes to show first, typically within weeks once the tools recrawl your site. Mentions on other sites take longer, usually months, because you're relying on other people to publish.

Where to start this week

If you only have a few hours, work in this order. Each step tells you where the next one matters most.

1. Write 10 buyer questions and run them through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google.
2. Check your robots.txt for OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, and Search Console for indexing problems.
3. Rewrite the opening of your three most important pages so each one answers its question directly.
4. Pick two sites from your log and pitch them.

Every market has one gap that keeps you off the shortlist. Close that one first. If you'd rather not run the check yourself, our free AI search visibility check compares you with three competitors and lists the five fixes we'd make first. When you're ready to act on it, our SEO and AEO service covers the pages, the technical checks and the outreach.

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About the author Guy Sanohlam, Founder

Guy founded Wincon Marketing in Bangkok after nearly ten years in SEO, content and paid media, both agency-side and in-house. He moved early into AEO as AI assistants started answering buyers' questions, and now helps brands get found on Google and in AI answers.

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