Getting your business into AI answers: ChatGPT, Perplexity and Bing
Is your business ready to be found when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for a product, a service or a professional?
The way people search online is changing. Google is still essential, but it is no longer the only place where a brand can be discovered.
Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity search the web and can show websites as sources right inside AI-generated answers. ChatGPT Search, for example, can automatically search the web when a question benefits from online information, and it shows citations and links to the sources it used.
That creates a new competition for visibility. A business can rank well on Google and still be barely visible in AI answers, because traditional search engines and generative systems do not select sources in exactly the same way.
So, beyond Google rankings, businesses need to start understanding how to show up in AI search. There is no button or setting that guarantees a citation. The work combines technical SEO, crawling, indexing, content, authority, clear information and brand presence across the web.
This is where the concept of GEO — Generative Engine Optimization comes in.
Can a business appear in ChatGPT?
Yes. OpenAI states that public websites can appear in ChatGPT search, and it recommends that site owners who want this visibility allow OAI-SearchBot, the crawler used by ChatGPT’s search features.
That means company pages, articles, products, services and other public content can potentially appear as sources. But there is a fundamental difference between being technically available to ChatGPT and being chosen as a source for a specific question.
OpenAI itself says ChatGPT Search uses several factors to find relevant, reliable information, and that there is no way to guarantee a top placement. Allowing the crawler is the start of the strategy, not the end of it.
Does ChatGPT use Bing?
Bing can be part of the searches ChatGPT runs. OpenAI’s documentation says ChatGPT Search sometimes works with third-party search providers. When that happens, the user’s question may be rewritten into one or more targeted queries and sent to those providers — and Bing is among the providers OpenAI names.
Someone might ask: “Which agency can improve my company’s visibility in AI search?” The system can turn that into more objective search queries before retrieving information from the web. That makes your presence on Bing especially relevant for an AI-focused search strategy.
But avoid oversimplifying: ChatGPT is not simply Bing. Ranking first on Bing does not mean a business will automatically come first in ChatGPT. Bing is one of the possible sources within a broader search ecosystem.
Why add your business to Bing Webmaster Tools?
Many companies set up Google Search Console and ignore Bing entirely. That makes less and less sense.
Bing Webmaster Tools lets you add and verify a domain, submit sitemaps, inspect URLs and see how Bing discovers and indexes your site. Microsoft recommends submitting sitemaps to help Bing find new and updated content.
A more complete strategy covers Google Search → Bing Search → AI-powered search and answers. Not because they all work the same way, but because information published on the web can travel between different discovery systems.
What is OAI-SearchBot?
OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI’s crawler dedicated to search. According to the official documentation, it is used to surface websites in ChatGPT’s search features. Sites that block it will not appear in ChatGPT Search answers, although some navigational links may still show up in specific cases.
One of the first places to check your site’s permissions is yoursite.com/robots.txt. An explicit permission looks like this:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /The bot may also already be allowed through a general rule, for example:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/Here the block targets the admin directory, not your public content. So searching for the word “OAI-SearchBot” is not enough — you need to read robots.txt as a whole. OpenAI also recommends that servers, firewalls and CDNs allow traffic from the crawler’s official IP ranges.
Are OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot the same thing?
No, and the distinction matters. OAI-SearchBot is for ChatGPT search. GPTBot crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI’s generative models. OpenAI explains that the two settings are independent, so a business can allow search:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /and, if it wants to opt out of training:
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /In other words, letting a page take part in ChatGPT search is not the same as allowing it to be used for training.
How to get your business into Perplexity
Perplexity also uses its own crawlers. The main one for search is PerplexityBot. Its documentation says it was built to find and link websites in Perplexity’s search results and that it is not used to crawl content for training foundation models.
Perplexity recommends allowing:
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /and allowing its official IP ranges whenever a firewall or WAF interferes with access. As with ChatGPT, this does not guarantee a citation — it makes your content technically accessible to the search system.
Do I need to submit my site to ChatGPT?
There is currently no “ChatGPT Webmaster Tools” equivalent to Google Search Console where you register your domain and request indexing. OpenAI’s guidance for site owners is mainly to make sure OAI-SearchBot is not blocked and that your infrastructure allows the crawler’s official IPs.
That makes the strategy more distributed: instead of registering in a single platform, a business needs to work on several parts of its digital presence.
How to get your business found in AI search: a checklist
There is no guaranteed formula, but there is a working framework that improves a site’s ability to be discovered and understood:
- Set up and monitor Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Keep a valid, up-to-date XML sitemap.
- Check robots.txt and make sure your key pages can be crawled.
- Don’t block OAI-SearchBot if you want to take part in ChatGPT search.
- Allow PerplexityBot if you want your site available to Perplexity.
- Review firewalls, CDNs and anti-bot systems.
- Create specific, complete pages for your main services.
- Make it clear who the business is, where it operates and what it offers.
- Publish content that answers your audience’s real questions.
- Use structured data consistently.
- Build internal links between related content.
- Work on authority, backlinks and brand presence beyond your own site.
- Track which queries already generate impressions on Google and Bing.
- Monitor traffic coming from AI tools.
- Update content as search engines and search behavior evolve.
None of these actions alone guarantees your business will be cited. The goal is to build a coherent set of signals that makes your business easy to find, understand and associate with a topic.
Does SEO still matter for AI visibility?
Yes. Much of the work needed to improve visibility in generative tools is still rooted in SEO fundamentals. A site needs to be crawlable. It needs indexable pages and useful content. It needs to connect related topics and clearly identify companies, services, people, products and locations. And it needs enough authority to be considered relevant.
What’s new is that this content can now be used in interfaces beyond the traditional search results page.
Make it clear who your business is
Company websites often use creative taglines that work for branding but say little about what the business actually does. Compare:
“We create experiences that transform the future of brands.”
with:
“Fang Agency is a marketing agency based in Rio de Janeiro, specializing in SEO, website design, branding, photography, video and content production.”
The second sentence clearly identifies the company, its category, its location and its services. That clarity helps automated systems, but above all it helps the people reading the page. On strategic pages, creativity and clarity need to work together.
Create a dedicated page for each key service
A business that offers SEO, websites, design, paid media, photography and video shouldn’t rely on a single generic “Services” page. In-depth pages let you answer different intents. One person may ask “Which agency does SEO for companies in my city?”, another “Who can build a website optimized for AI search?”, and another “Which agency combines audiovisual production and marketing?”
When that information is well organized in dedicated pages, search systems have a much clearer set of content to match to each query.
Answer real questions, not just keywords
One of the defining features of AI search is conversational language. On a traditional search engine, someone might type “AI SEO company”. In ChatGPT, the same person might ask: “I run a business and want to start showing up in AI answers. What do I need to do?”
That raises the value of content that answers complete questions — How do I appear in ChatGPT? Does ChatGPT use Bing? What is OAI-SearchBot? How do I appear in Perplexity? What is GEO? — each of which can become a section, a page or a supporting article. The strategy stops chasing a single keyword and starts building authority on a topic.
Build topical authority
A single isolated page rarely makes a business a reference. A content strategy should connect related subjects. An agency that wants authority on AI SEO might publish content on: appearing in ChatGPT → OAI-SearchBot → Bing → Perplexity → GEO → structured data → crawling → brand authority.
Those pages should link to each other. Besides making navigation easier, that creates a coherent topical architecture.
Does schema help you appear in ChatGPT?
Structured data is still important for making information explicit to systems that process web pages. You can use markup such as Organization, Article, Person, Service and Product when it fits your content.
But there is an important distinction: schema is good structuring practice; there is no “ChatGPT schema” that guarantees a citation. OpenAI does not publish a ranking formula based on any specific type of structured data, and it is explicit that there is no way to guarantee a top placement in ChatGPT Search.
Authority is also built outside your website
A business doesn’t exist online only on its own domain. Information about a brand can appear on Google Business Profile, Bing, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, press coverage, interviews, directories, specialist publications and partner websites.
Backlinks still matter — not just for the link itself, but because they create new relationships between your business and other content on the web. The more consistent your brand presence, the easier it becomes to establish who the business is and which topics or services are associated with it. Genuine reviews, case studies and external mentions reinforce your reputation, and keeping your name, category, location, services and description consistent across channels matters too.
What is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization: strategies aimed at visibility in generative systems that produce answers using information retrieved from the web.
That doesn’t mean SEO and GEO are completely separate disciplines. In practice they overlap heavily: crawling, indexing, content, authority, architecture, entities, structured data, links and relevance all still matter. The difference is the goal. Before, a business might think: “I want to rank on Google.” Now the question becomes: “I want my business to be found and understood wherever my audience is searching.”
How to measure whether ChatGPT is sending you visitors
OpenAI provides a useful detail here: links from ChatGPT search results automatically include the parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com. That lets you identify visits from ChatGPT in tools such as Google Analytics.
So AI SEO shouldn’t be reduced to “Did my business show up or not?” A professional strategy tracks visibility, citations, traffic and, above all, conversions.
Should your business invest in AI SEO now?
Search is becoming more distributed. Someone may discover a business on Google, compare options in ChatGPT, check sources in Perplexity and then search for the brand name directly.
The most solid strategy is not to abandon traditional SEO to chase a new trend. It is to broaden your search strategy. Google is still relevant. Bing is still relevant. Content and technical SEO are still relevant. AI is simply creating new interfaces through which all that work can be discovered.
A useful way to think about the journey is in four stages: Found → Understood → Considered → Cited. First your content has to be crawlable; then your business has to be clearly understood; then it has to show relevance and authority; only then can it be chosen as a source or recommendation in an answer.
Get your business ready for the new search
Fang Agency works with SEO, digital strategy, website design, content, branding and audiovisual production, helping businesses build a clear, structured digital presence that’s ready for both traditional search engines and AI tools.
In practice, we monitor Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, indexing, crawler behavior and traffic from AI tools to understand what is really driving discovery and conversion. If you want to improve your presence on Google, Bing, ChatGPT and AI search, the first step is understanding how your brand is found today and what information search systems can actually interpret.
See also: Fang Agency’s AI SEO and GEO services and our digital marketing audit.
