AI visibility
How to appear in ChatGPT
Appearing in ChatGPT means it names or recommends your brand when someone asks a buying question. ChatGPT answers from what it learned in training and, when it searches the web, from live pages it retrieves and links.
How ChatGPT picks and cites its sources
ChatGPT decides question by question whether to search. When it does, OpenAI has said its search draws on third-party search providers and partner content (Microsoft Bing is one it names) and then shows the pages it used as links. When it doesn't, the answer comes from training, where brands the model saw described often and consistently are the ones that tend to surface.
OpenAI runs three crawlers with different jobs: OAI-SearchBot lets sites appear in ChatGPT search, GPTBot gathers content that may be used for training, and ChatGPT-User fetches a page when a person asks for it. They are independent. Blocking GPTBot does not remove you from search answers; blocking OAI-SearchBot does. OpenAI notes a robots.txt change can take about 24 hours to apply.
- Memory: brands described consistently across many reliable pages surface from training without any search.
- Retrieval: for fresh or specific questions it searches, and pages that rank for the question and answer it plainly get pulled in.
- Corroboration: mentions on third-party sites (reviews, directories, press) give it independent evidence to name you.
Action plan: get ChatGPT to cite you
Say who you are in one sentence
Write a plain sentence on your homepage covering what you sell, for whom and where. Repeat it word for word on your About page, profiles and directory listings.
Check crawler access
Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt if you want to be in search answers. GPTBot is a separate decision that only concerns training. Keep key pages server-rendered so the text is in the HTML.
Answer the buying questions
List the 10 to 20 questions a buyer asks before choosing: best X for Y, X vs Y, price ranges, alternatives. Give each a page that opens with the answer and then supports it.
Get described outside your site
Earn accurate listings and reviews on the third-party sites your category relies on. When ChatGPT cites sources, note which domains repeat; those are where you want to be present.
Make pages easy to quote
Use descriptive headings, short paragraphs, tables for comparisons and dated facts. Add Organization and FAQ structured data only where it truthfully matches the page.
Re-run and compare
Ask the same questions every week in fresh chats and log whether you are named, cited and how. One answer varies; the trend over several runs tells you whether the work paid off.
What SeoWave measures for ChatGPT
- Mention rate: how often ChatGPT names your brand across your buying questions, run with web search on.
- Cited sources: which domains it links, grouped as your own site, competitors, community and review sites, and editorial media.
- Competitors it names instead of you, and the tone of each mention.
SeoWave asks each buying question through the engine's API with web search on, so results approximate what people see in the app rather than replicate it. Read trends over weeks, not single answers.
Common mistakes
- Blocking OAI-SearchBot when you only meant to opt out of training. GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot are different bots.
- Judging by a single chat. Answers change between runs and users, so one screenshot proves little.
- Publishing only on your own blog. Without third-party corroboration there is little independent evidence to name you.
- A homepage of slogans that never states your category, so the model can't place you.
See if ChatGPT recommends your brand
Run a free scan to see how AI engines answer questions about your brand, and who they name instead.
Scan my site freeFrequently asked questions
Does ChatGPT use my website?
In two ways. When ChatGPT searches, it can retrieve and link your pages. Separately, content crawled for training may have shaped what the model already knows about you. Only the first is something you can move quickly.
How do I let ChatGPT crawl my site?
Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt (and its published IP ranges if you use a firewall), keep pages fast and server-rendered, and optionally add an llms.txt. llms.txt is a proposed convention, not a guarantee that any engine reads it.
How long until I appear?
Search-based answers can reflect a new page within days once it is crawled; what the model recalls from training changes far more slowly and is not in your hands. Measure weekly instead of guessing.
Can I pay to be mentioned in ChatGPT answers?
You can't buy a place inside the answer itself. Mentions are earned by being clear, corroborated and useful; advertising, where it appears, is labeled separately.