How to Get Your Website to Show Up in ChatGPT and AI Search Results

Your website might be invisible to AI—and that's costing you customers.

With AI-referred website sessions jumping 527% in 2025, businesses that don't appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI search tools are missing a massive wave of traffic. Here's exactly how to fix that.

Why Your Website Might Be Invisible to AI

AI search doesn't work like Google. When someone asks ChatGPT "What's the best Ford dealership in Dallas?" or "Which marketing agency specializes in automotive?", the AI isn't crawling the web the same way traditional search engines do.

Here's the problem: 87% of JavaScript-heavy websites are completely invisible to AI crawlers. If your site relies heavily on React, Vue, or Angular without server-side rendering, AI tools literally cannot read your content.

But even if your site is technically accessible, AI tools source information differently:

• ChatGPT primarily uses Bing's index (thanks to Microsoft's partnership) plus its training data
• Perplexity crawls the web in real-time but prioritizes certain sources
• Google AI Overviews pulls from Google's existing index
• Claude relies mainly on training data with limited web access

The takeaway? You need to optimize for multiple systems simultaneously.

How AI Search Actually Works

ChatGPT's Search Process

When you enable web browsing in ChatGPT, it uses Bing to fetch real-time information. This means:

1. If you're not indexed in Bing, ChatGPT can't find you (even if you rank #1 on Google)
2. ChatGPT prefers sources it can easily parse—clean HTML, clear headings, structured data
3. Training data also matters—if your brand was mentioned in ChatGPT's training corpus, you're more likely to be cited

What AI Platforms Cite Most

Notice a pattern? Third-party mentions matter enormously. AI tools trust content about your brand more than content from your brand.

5 Steps to Get Indexed by AI Search

Step 1: Get Indexed by Bing

This is non-negotiable for ChatGPT visibility.

1. Go to Bing Webmaster Tools
2. Submit your sitemap
3. Use the URL Inspection tool to check specific pages
4. Fix any crawl errors Bing reports

Pro tip: Bing indexes slower than Google. If you've made recent changes, manually request re-indexing for important pages.

Step 2: Allow AI Crawlers in robots.txt

Many websites unknowingly block AI bots. Check your robots.txt file for these user agents:

# ALLOW these for AI visibility:
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

If you see Disallow: / for any of these, you're blocking AI from seeing your site.

Step 3: Fix JavaScript Rendering Issues

AI crawlers struggle with content loaded via JavaScript after page load, single-page applications without server-side rendering, and content behind "Show More" buttons.

Solutions:

• Implement server-side rendering (SSR) or static site generation (SSG)
• Use pre-rendering services like Prerender.io
• Ensure critical content is in the initial HTML response
• Test your pages with JavaScript disabled—what you see is what AI sees

Step 4: Structure Content for AI Extraction

AI tools parse content differently than humans browse. Optimize for extraction:

• Use clear heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3)
• Add FAQ sections (AI loves these)
• Use bullet points for lists - AI extracts bulleted information more accurately
• Include specific data - Numbers, statistics, prices, service offerings

Step 5: Add Schema Markup

Schema.org markup helps AI understand your content contextually. Essential schemas for businesses include LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Organization, and AggregateRating.

How Long Until You See Results?

The Competitive Advantage Window

Here's the reality: LLM traffic is predicted to overtake traditional search by 2027. Traditional search volume is expected to drop 25% by 2026 and 50% by 2028.

But here's the opportunity: Most businesses haven't optimized for AI yet. The dealerships, agencies, and service businesses that move now will dominate AI recommendations while competitors are still figuring out what GEO even means.

Quick Action Checklist

Track Your AI Visibility with Fairline

Implementing these fixes is just the first step. The real question is: is it working?

Fairline's AI Visibility Tracker lets you:

• Test real prompts like "best Ford dealer near Dallas" across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini
• Monitor your visibility over time to see if your optimizations are paying off
• Compare against competitors to see who's winning AI recommendations in your market
• Get actionable insights on what to improve next

Stop guessing whether AI recommends your business. Start tracking your AI visibility →