● The short answer
To get cited by Perplexity, allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt and your firewall, then publish pages that answer specific questions with clear, factual, current information. Perplexity searches the web for nearly every query and shows numbered sources, so pages that state a fact plainly, cite their own evidence and come from a trusted site in the topic are the ones it quotes.
Key takeaways
- Allow PerplexityBot and its published IP ranges; Perplexity says this is how sites appear in its results.
- Perplexity searches live and shows numbered sources, so clear, specific, quotable passages win.
- Mapping the domains Perplexity already cites for your topic shows where earned mentions matter most.
How Perplexity works
Perplexity is built as an answer engine. For most questions it runs live web searches, reads the results and writes a response with numbered citations. That makes it the most citation-forward of the major assistants: it shows sources by default, and users click them.
Perplexity documents two agents. PerplexityBot crawls to surface and link websites in Perplexity search results, and Perplexity says it is not used to crawl content for training AI foundation models. Perplexity-User fetches a page when a person's question calls for it, and Perplexity says it generally ignores robots.txt because the visit is user-requested. Perplexity recommends that site owners allow PerplexityBot and its published IP ranges if they want to appear.
The how is where we come in.
What we walk through with you, for your business:
- Step by step
- What Perplexity sends back
- Our take
Every business is different, so the plan is too. Tell us where you want to show up and we will show you what it takes.
Talk to usMore questions
Does Perplexity use my content for AI training?
Perplexity says PerplexityBot is used to surface and link websites in its search results and is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. Policies can change, so review its crawler documentation periodically. If training use is your concern, decisions about other companies' training crawlers are separate from allowing PerplexityBot.
Can I block Perplexity completely?
You can disallow PerplexityBot in robots.txt, which keeps you out of its index. Perplexity says Perplexity-User, which fetches pages when a person asks, generally ignores robots.txt because the request is user-initiated. Firewall rules matching its published IP ranges are a stronger block, at the cost of losing citations.
Sources
- Perplexity Docs: Perplexity crawlers
- Cloudflare: The crawl-to-click gap, Cloudflare data on AI bots, training, and referrals
- Search Engine Land: Perplexity stops testing advertising
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