When Perplexity answers a question, it puts numbered sources underneath. Google's AI Overviews also shows a few links next to the answer. On both, being one of those links means winning back some of the visitors who come from search.
The two platforms choose their sources in different ways. A setting that works on one may change nothing on the other. In this article I put what each platform says in its own official documentation side by side. I covered the ChatGPT side separately in the ChatGPT SEO guide.
| Google AI Overviews | Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the sources come from | Google's own search index | Pages crawled by PerplexityBot |
| Technical requirement | Being indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet | Allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt |
| Extra file or markup | Not required | No such requirement in the documentation |
| Where you see the results | Search Console, within the "Web" search type | GA4, perplexity.ai referral |
Based on official documentation, October 2026.
According to Google's documentation on AI features, for a page to appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, it needs to be indexed in Google and eligible to be shown with a snippet in search results. The documentation states clearly that there are no additional technical requirements beyond that, and no need to add a special file or structured data.
So there's no separate "optimization" for AI Overviews; everything you do for regular search applies here too. The documentation lists the following:
No. Google's documentation says Google-Extended limits use for AI training and grounding in some of Google's other systems, but that it is not a search control. The controls for search and AI Overviews are Googlebot rules and snippet settings. So blocking Google-Extended in robots.txt won't remove you from AI Overviews.
Google's May 2025 guide says that in AI experiences, users ask longer, more detailed questions and follow-up questions, so content that's unique, genuinely useful and not generic stands out. The same guide also considers it important that the page displays properly on every device, loads quickly and has main content that's easy to distinguish from other elements.
Perplexity's crawler documentation defines two separate visitors:
| Visitor | What it does | Does it follow robots.txt? |
|---|---|---|
| PerplexityBot | Crawls sites, shows them in Perplexity's search results and links to them. According to the documentation, it doesn't collect content to train AI foundation models. | Yes |
| Perplexity-User | When a user asks a question, it can open a page and link to it in the answer. It isn't used for crawling or training. | Generally no, since the user requested it |
The documentation recommends that sites wanting to appear in Perplexity's search results allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt. A settings change can take up to 24 hours to be reflected. If your server or firewall has bot blocking, you may need to add the IP lists published in the documentation to your allowlist.
3 technical checks for Perplexity
Open robots.txt
At yoursite.com/robots.txt, check whether there's a line blocking PerplexityBot. If you see Disallow, allow it.
Check your firewall
If you use bot protection, add PerplexityBot's official IP list to your allowlist.
Wait a day, then test
The change can take up to 24 hours to be reflected. Then ask your target question in Perplexity and look at the sources.
Technical permissions open the door, but they don't get you chosen. Both platforms cite the page that best supports their answer. In practice, that means:
Setup time depends on the systems being connected. The top sources:
Is my site open to both platforms?
0/6Check the six items on your own site; every item you don't check off is a to-do.
In our GEO service, we check these technical doors first, then shape the content around the target question list and measure the results regularly on each platform. If you'd like, we can look together at whether your site is open to both platforms today.
No. Google's documentation says no additional structured data is needed for AI Overviews. If you use structured data, it should match the visible text on the page.
No. Every AI company has its own crawler, and each one is managed separately in robots.txt. Blocking PerplexityBot doesn't affect OpenAI's or Google's crawlers.
According to Perplexity's documentation, PerplexityBot doesn't collect content to train AI foundation models; it crawls to show sites in search results and link to them.
For some questions, users may read the answer in the overview and leave without clicking. Google says clicks from AI Overviews tend to be higher quality, meaning visitors spend more time on the site. You can check this on your own site by looking at engagement time in GA4.
Google says no such file is needed for AI Overviews. Perplexity's documentation doesn't mention this file either; for Perplexity, what matters is allowing PerplexityBot.
According to Comscore's September 22, 2026 report, ChatGPT's share of prompts across AI assistants fell from 70% to 50% in six months. Being a source and being named in the answer now need to be measured separately.
I explain in plain language what GEO is, what information AI tools look at when they recommend a brand, and what you need to change on your site. I've also flagged the parts that get overhyped.
Using Google's own guide to hiring an agency, we boiled down to eight questions how to spot an agency that promises guarantees, hides its method or sells "Google-approved" tools.
We use cookies to improve the site and measure advertising performance. Analytics and advertising cookies run only if you accept them. Details are in our Privacy Policy and Data Protection Notice.
