How to Get “Indexed” by ChatGPT

In 2028, traffic from AI search is estimated to surpass traffic from search engines like Google. This is already starting to happen this 2025. 

If you’ve been watching your analytics, you may notice that you’re getting fewer clicks from Google. Fewer clicks mean fewer visitors. Current data suggests that ChatGPT and other LLMs are the primary culprits. 

SEO teams must now think beyond traditional rankings and start optimizing for LLM visibility—a process known as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). 

In this article, we’ll explain:

• How ChatGPT’s indexing really works.

• How to show up in answers (with and without links).

• How to make sure your content gets seen by these new engines.

  
  

How Does ChatGPT's “Indexing” Work?

ChatGPT doesn’t crawl and index the web in the same way Google does. Instead, it combines three approaches:

1. Trained knowledge: GPT-4 was trained on publicly available and licensed data. If your content appeared in high-authority sites, forums, or Wikipedia before the cutoff, it may already be part of the model's base knowledge.

2. Search-integrated answers: With browsing and search-enabled modes, ChatGPT pulls in real-time information using Bing’s index and its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot.

3. Citations via real-time crawling: In ChatGPT’s Search mode, it cites pages fetched by OAI-SearchBot based on relevance and factual quality, not just SEO rank.

While ChatGPT doesn’t crawl or index your site the way Google does, it’s still important to optimize your site to make sure that you show up on ChatGPT and other LLMs. 

Showing Up as a Brand on ChatGPT’s Answers (Without Links)

So, how exactly do you appear in ChatGPT’s answers? 

Many ChatGPT answers mention brands without linking to them. This happens when the brand is part of GPT-4’s trained knowledge or widely discussed online. For example, if users ask for advice on a particular product, such as a project management system tool, it will provide a curated list for you. 

To increase unlinked brand mentions:

• Ensure your site allows GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot in the robots.txt file.

• Strengthen third-party mentions: Get discussed on Wikipedia, Reddit, Quora, and industry blogs.

• Create a detailed About page: ChatGPT often pulls brand summaries from About and author pages.

• Use Q&A content: Publish FAQs and solution-focused blog posts that match how people phrase questions to AI.
  
  

Even without links, these mentions build brand trust and drive direct searches. While traffic from ChatGPT won’t show up in Google Analytics (when the mention is not linked), you might see an increase in direct traffic once you start optimizing for ChatGPT.

Please note that LLMs are updated frequently, and the way they retrieve information may change. It’s crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest trends.

Pro Tip: Make sure to visit Anvil’s blog for the latest updates on how ChatGPT and LLMs affect your website traffic and brand mentions.

Showing Up as a Citation on Web Search

Citation-based answers (like those in ChatGPT Search or Perplexity) display clickable links. This usually occurs when you enable “web search” or “deep search.”

To show up in these:

• Answer questions directly: Use headers that match user questions (e.g., “How do I get cited by ChatGPT?”) and answer them succinctly.

• Use structured data: Add FAQ and HowTo schema to help AI systems extract answers.

• Back up claims with data: AI prefers citing pages that use research, statistics, or authoritative references.

• Refresh your content: LLMs prefer up-to-date answers. Regularly update key posts.
  
  

Well-formatted, current content with evidence has a much higher chance of being cited.

How to Get Your Website Indexed by ChatGPT

Here's how you can increase your chances of showing up in ChatGPT’s answers: 

Step 1: Allow OpenAI’s Crawlers in robots.txt

This is the first and most essential step.

ChatGPT uses several crawlers:

• OAI-SearchBot: Responsible for real-time indexing used in ChatGPT search responses.

• GPTBot: Used for training ChatGPT’s core model (optional to allow).

• ChatGPT-User: Used for real-time browsing and plugin actions.
  
  

To be included in ChatGPT search, you must allow OAI-SearchBot at a minimum. It’s the same principle in SEO. Google’s crawlers must find your site, so they can rank the pages. If ChatGPT’s crawlers can’t “see” your site, then it doesn’t exist in its eyes. 

Step 2: Submit and Verify Sitemaps

While OpenAI doesn’t offer a Webmaster Console (yet), you can still:

• Add your XML sitemap to your robots.txt file.

• Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools.

Since ChatGPT relies heavily on Bing for discovery, keeping Bing up to date helps improve your ChatGPT visibility. 

Bing not only helps you get discoverable on ChatGPT. It can also become another source of organic traffic on top of Google. Either way, it’s a must to have Bing Webmaster Tools. 

Step 3: Optimize Site Architecture and Performance

Make your website AI-crawler-friendly:

• Ensure clean, logical site navigation.

• Use static HTML or server-side rendering.

• Avoid hiding key content behind login walls.

• Fix 404s and broken redirects.
  

OpenAI's bots do not run JavaScript, which means anything rendered client-side is “invisible” to them. For example, when creating FAQs at the end of a blog post, make sure that they're readable with specific headings. Essentially, if your human readers can read it on a page, then OpenAI’s bots can read it. 

Step 4: Meet Technical SEO Best Practices

The good news is that most classic SEO rules still apply:

• Use descriptive title tags and meta descriptions.

• Structure content with proper H1, H2, and H3 tags.
  

Add FAQ and Article schema where applicable.

You can easily monitor your site’s health with tools like Ahrefs. For example, if you have a score of 99/100, it indicates that your SEO structure is well-optimized. The links are working. There are no broken images or pages.

You also need to stay on top of your Google Search Console and Bing crawl reports, so you’ll know if there are pages that were blocked during the last crawl. 

Step 5: Leverage Other AI Search Integrations

Lastly, keep an eye on Perplexity AI, Claude, and Google’s Gemini (SGE) — they’re also part of the new AI search ecosystem. Optimizing for ChatGPT will often benefit your presence in these tools as well.

For example, if you ask the same question in different LLMs, you’ll get slightly different answers. For example, Grok might integrate X posts as part of its answers, while Perplexity might reference more industry and academic sites. 

Step 6: Focus Your Content Strategy on "Answerable" Pages

AI doesn’t just want content — it wants clear answers.

Structure your content so that it's easy for ChatGPT to extract snippets and cite them:

• Use FAQ sections.

• Write how-to guides or step-by-step content.

• Include lists, tables, and data summaries.

• Target specific questions users are asking (and answer them directly).

• Include original data, research, or stats for increased citation value.

For example, if you run an e-commerce site, an article titled “Which laptops are best for design work in 2025?” can be picked up by ChatGPT when users ask related queries.

AI loves structured, scannable content that mirrors how users phrase their questions. 

Step 7: Monitor Your Presence in ChatGPT and Other LLMs

Unlike Google, ChatGPT doesn’t give you a ranking report. Instead, you need to track brand presence and citations manually or with tools.

You can:

• Ask ChatGPT and Bing Chat your core queries and look for your brand.

• Check web analytics for referrers, such as chat.openai.com, or direct traffic spikes.

Use a tool like Anvil to track:

How often your brand is mentioned in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.

• Where competitors are cited but you're not.

• Which keywords or queries you’re brands are showing up for.

• Visibility trends and share-of-voice over time.

Once you have the data, you can take the steps in the right direction, so your brand shows up in the answers the right way. 

Indexing is Just the Start 

ChatGPT may not index the web like Google, but it still shapes what millions of people see and trust every day. If your brand isn’t showing up in its answers—or worse, if your competitors are—you’re missing out on valuable visibility in a rapidly growing search channel.

By combining strong SEO fundamentals with GEO-specific strategies like structured Q&A content, accessible HTML, and citation-worthy insights, you can position your site to be both discovered and quoted by LLMs. Tools like Anvil make it easy to track your mentions and uncover missed opportunities, so you can stay ahead of the curve.

FAQs about How ChatGPT Indexes Sites 

How do you make your website appear on ChatGPT?

Allow ChatGPT's crawler, publish content that answers specific questions, and ensure it's structured clearly (headers, bullet points, FAQ schema). Promote it on public sources that ChatGPT may use (e.g., Reddit, Quora, Wikipedia).

What kind of content do LLMs use to generate answers?

LLMs like ChatGPT use:

• Publicly available training data (for base answers).

• Web content indexed via OAI-SearchBot and Bing (for citations).

• Forums, wikis, and well-linked blog content (for context and brand mentions).

  
  

How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO is about ranking in Google. GEO is about being mentioned or cited in AI answers. They overlap but require different formats. GEO favors structured answers, FAQs, and conversational content that AIs can easily understand and quote.