Looking to Appear in Perplexity? Here’s How to Get Your Website Indexed by Perplexity AI

Looking to appear in Perplexity AI search results? You’ve found your answer. Learn how to get your website indexed in Perplexity using the following steps:

How to get your website indexed in Perplexity

Get your website indexed in Perplexity by:

1. Allowing Perplexity’s crawlers to crawl your site

First, ensure your robots.txt file does not block the following crawlers:

• PerplexityBot
• Perplexity-User

By not blocking these crawlers, you’re allowing Perplexity to crawl your site’s content, which is foundational to making a website appear in Perplexity AI results.

2. Making pages indexable

Second, ensure pages that should appear in Perplexity answers are indexable. You can bulk-check your website using a search engine optimization tool like Screaming Frog (which is free for up to 500 URLs).

3. Following SEO best practices

As demonstrated by the first two steps, SEO is foundational to getting a website indexed in Perplexity AI and helping that website appear in Perplexity responses.

The reason SEO is foundational to what people are calling generative engine optimization (or the practice of optimizing a website’s or brand’s visibility in AI-generated results) is because answer engines (like Perplexity) use search engine results to generate answers.

That’s why it’s important to follow SEO best practices like:

• Developing helpful content
• Attracting reputable backlinks
• Optimizing a site’s code and speed for crawlers and users
• Interlinking pages using descriptive anchor text
• Maintaining an XML sitemap
• Claiming local listings and maintaining an accurate name, address, and phone number

4. Providing relevant and helpful content

For Perplexity to index and rank your pages, your pages must provide users with human-centric answers to their queries. Your content must match the search intent to ensure Perplexity AI presents users with answers quickly and succinctly.

Helpful content also makes it easy for the platform to crawl your page and boosts your visibility on Perplexity AI. Following Google’s Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-E-A-T) guidelines improves rankings on Perplexity AI and other search engines, like Google and Bing.

Perplexity relies on curated datasets, making it crucial to keep content accurate and up-to-date. Current content with topical credibility also increases your ranking potential and ensures you can be cited on the platform.

5. Keeping content fresh

Like other AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity favors “fresh” content, which is often content written or updated within the last 30 to 60 days. For businesses, this preference means refreshing content regularly.

It’s important to note, though, that these refreshes should focus on adding value. What has changed, for example, that readers should know? Or, what has your team learned that enhances your advice?

Note: For the best results, ensure the published date is visible.

6. Attracting reputable backlinks

A strong backlink profile (which is often built through helpful content) demonstrates to search engines and answer engines like Perplexity that your brand is trusted and reputable within its given area of expertise.

That’s why it’s important to build an authoritative backlink profile via:

• Shareable content, like a research study or interactive tool
• Publisher outreach, like by suggesting your URL to replace a broken link on the publisher’s site
• Targeted advertising, like by promoting a recent study to relevant users in order to build backlinks

7. Building brand authority

Similar to an authoritative backlink profile, online discussions around your brand (like through reviews or forums) help large language models like Perplexity understand your company’s:

• Purpose
• Features, like being affordable or durable
• Service area
• Reputation
• And more

This understanding can lead to brand mentions in Perplexity — which is another way to appear in Perplexity AI results. These mentions often happen when users are getting closer to a purchase decisions, which makes them immensely valuable.

You can focus on building your brand’s authority (and AI’s understanding of it) by:

• Attracting detailed online reviews
• Participating in online forum discussions as a helpful vs. promotional resource
• Creating an “About Us” page on your website
• Claiming local listings or directory listings
• Applying for relevant awards in your industry
• Completing relevant certifications in your industry
• Building relevant partnerships in your industry

Bonus: Track when your website appears in Perplexity AI search results

One of the biggest gaps businesses have when optimizing their website to appear in Perplexity AI search results is then tracking and monitoring those appearances over time to understand:

• When does Perplexity cite their website?
• When does Perplexity mention their brand?
• How does Perplexity mention their brand?
• What competitors are being cited or mentioned within the same conversations?

That’s why it’s important for companies to invest in AI search visibility software.

There are plenty of options (though we’re partial to OmniSEO®, our platform for tracking not only citations but also brand mentions and sentiment).

If you’re considering purchasing this kind of software, our best advice is to take the time to try the platform, whether through a free or paid trial, so you can see how it integrates within your workflows and meets your business needs.

FAQs about appearing in Perplexity AI results

Get answers to the most common question about appearing in Perplexity AI results:

What is Perplexity AI?

Perplexity AI is an answer engine, or generative AI search engine, revered for offering users concise, conversational, and verifiable answers to their queries (backed with citations).

How does Perplexity AI index pages?

When Perplexity AI indexes your web pages, they are stored in its vast database of information and can be retrieved and presented to users when they conduct related searches.

Perplexity uses industry-leading natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning models to crawl the Internet and find pages that match a query’s intent, providing users with the most relevant and accurate information.

The Perplexity Merchant Program also powers its index, providing the AI search engine with product listings that include product price, features, reviews, and more.

Why get a website indexed by Perplexity?

Getting a website indexed by Perplexity offers the advantage of being discovered where your audience searches, whether as a linked citation or branded mention.

Make your website appear in Perplexity AI results with GEO pros

Like other AI search experiences, Perplexity is revolutionizing how people solve problems that lead to purchases. For businesses across industries, that’s a challenge teams are struggling to solve.

At WebFX, we’ve been problem-solving generative search engine optimization since ChatGPT’s release and have helped companies grow their visibility dramatically.

Discover how our award-winning team (and AI search visibility software) can help your website appear in Perplexity AI results by contacting us online today about our AI search optimization services!