Perplexity AI SEO: How to Get Your Site Cited
Perplexity is not a search engine like Google. It synthesizes answers from sources and cites them inline. That means a different optimization model entirely.
Your goal is not to rank for keywords. It's to become a source Perplexity selects when answering questions in your niche. Here's how that selection works and what you can do about it.
How Perplexity Selects Sources
Perplexity evaluates sources across four criteria before including them in an answer. Credibility comes first: publisher authority and expert authorship matter. A bylined article from a known domain beats anonymous content.
Recency is weighted heavily. Fresh content outperforms older pages for time-sensitive queries. Relevance is the semantic match between your content and the user's question. Clarity matters too: structured formatting with headings, tables, and lists helps Perplexity extract and cite specific passages.
Under the hood, Perplexity uses an XGBoost scoring model to rank candidates. Real-time retrieval fetches pages on demand during queries. Optimizing for these four dimensions (credibility, recency, relevance, and clarity) increases your odds of being cited.
PerplexityBot vs Perplexity-User: Two Crawlers, Two Jobs
Perplexity runs two distinct crawlers. PerplexityBot handles scheduled indexing and respects robots.txt. It builds the index Perplexity uses for discovery. Perplexity-User fetches pages on-demand during live queries. It doesn't appear in your server logs as often, but it's the one pulling your content when someone asks a question.
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)
That's the PerplexityBot user-agent string. IP ranges are published at perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json.
Block PerplexityBot and you drop out of the scheduled index. Block Perplexity-User and you block real-time fetching. Most sites want both crawling. Only block if you explicitly don't want Perplexity citing your content.
5 Steps to Optimize for Perplexity Citations
a) Ensure Bing indexing
Perplexity pulls from Bing plus its own index. If you're not in Bing, you're invisible to a major source pipeline. Submit your sitemap, use ShowUpInAI using IndexNow for fast updates, and verify indexing in Bing Webmaster Tools.
b) Structure content with clear headings, tables, and lists
Perplexity extracts and cites specific passages. Headings, tables, and bullet lists make extraction easier. Dense walls of text are harder to parse and rank lower.
c) Answer questions directly in the first paragraph
Perplexity looks for direct answers. Lead with the answer, then expand. Front-loading the key point improves relevance and citation likelihood.
d) Keep content fresh
Recency is a ranking factor. Update dates, add new sections, and refresh statistics. Stale content gets deprioritized.
e) Build topical authority
Perplexity prefers established sources. Publish consistently in a niche, earn backlinks, and demonstrate expertise. Authority compounds over time.
What Makes Perplexity Different from ChatGPT and Copilot
Perplexity always cites sources. It's mandatory. Every answer includes inline references. ChatGPT cites selectively when it uses web search. Copilot is Bing-native and inherits Bing's indexing and ranking.
Perplexity uses multiple search backends. That means optimization priorities differ. You need to be in Bing, but you also need to satisfy Perplexity's own scoring model. Structure, recency, and direct answers matter more here than they do for traditional SEO.
For a deeper look at the technical pipeline, see how Perplexity AI finds sources. If you want actionable tactics, read our Perplexity citation playbook. For the broader framework, check our guide to generative engine optimization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Perplexity use Bing or Google for sources?
Perplexity uses multiple backends including Bing, its own crawler, and potentially others. Being indexed by Bing is essential since it's a primary source for Perplexity's retrieval pipeline.
Can I block Perplexity from crawling my site?
Yes. Add PerplexityBot to your robots.txt disallow list. Changes typically take effect within 24 hours.
Does Perplexity AI train on my content?
No. PerplexityBot is used for search indexing only, not model training. Your content is retrieved at query time, not ingested for training.
How often does PerplexityBot crawl my site?
Crawl frequency varies based on site popularity, content freshness, and relevance to common queries. High-authority sites with frequently updated content tend to be crawled more often.
Get Cited by Perplexity Faster
ShowUpInAI uses IndexNow to submit updates and keep your Bing index fresh. Fresh Bing data feeds directly into Perplexity's source pool. Less lag between publishing and discovery.
Start Your Free Trial