Perplexity is an answer engine: you ask a question, it searches the web, writes a summary and lists numbered sources. Being one of those sources can send visitors, and it can also put your name in front of readers who never click.
Perplexity publishes two things we can rely on: how its bots behave, and a general description of how answers work. Everything about ranking is outside what it has said.
How does Perplexity find pages?
Perplexity's help page says it searches the internet in real time, gathers information from authoritative sources such as articles, websites and journals, and gives each answer numbered citations that link to the original sources. It does not explain how sources are ranked or selected, and it does not say how a publisher gets included.
Its bots guide describes two bots. PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in Perplexity search results. Perplexity-User supports user actions: when a person asks a question, it may visit a page to help answer and may link to that page in the response.
What does Perplexity say about training and robots.txt?
Perplexity says PerplexityBot is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models, and that Perplexity-User is not used to collect content for training. It recommends allowing PerplexityBot in your robots.txt file so your site can appear in search results, and permitting requests from its published IP ranges. Perplexity-User is different: because a user triggers the visit, Perplexity says it generally ignores robots.txt rules. Changes to these settings may take up to 24 hours to apply. Both pages were read on 12 November 2026, and neither states a date.
What is not published?
How Perplexity ranks pages, which signals it weighs, how it decides between two pages that answer the same question, and how often a given site is cited. We found no Perplexity statement on these. Guides that list 'Perplexity ranking factors' are working from observation or guesswork. Observation can still be useful, as long as it is labeled and rechecked, because Perplexity can change how it works at any time.
How do you make your pages easy for Perplexity to use?
The steps follow from what Perplexity documents and from ordinary good practice.
- Allow PerplexityBot. Check robots.txt, your CDN and any firewall or bot-protection rules, which sometimes block unfamiliar crawlers without you noticing.
- Answer first. Put a direct answer to the page's question in the first two sentences, so a summary can use it and a reader can verify it.
- Be a source worth citing. Give original information, name the author and why they know the subject, cite your own sources with dates, and keep facts current.
- Keep pages plain and fast. Put the content in text, make the page quick on a phone, and give each page one clear topic.
- Keep details consistent. Business name, prices, hours and service areas should match across your site and your profiles.
Is Perplexity different from Google here?
In outline, no. Google says its AI features follow the same SEO best practices and need no special markup or files, and the steps above also help there. The differences are practical: a different crawler to allow, a different set of citations to check, and a different, smaller audience. We have no verified figures for Perplexity's share of searches, so we give none.
For Google's own features see our guide to Google AI Mode and AI Overviews. For ChatGPT see how to rank on ChatGPT search.
How do you check if Perplexity cites you?
Ask Perplexity the questions your buyers ask, the same way each month, and record whether your page appears among the numbered sources. Check your server logs or your bot-protection reports for PerplexityBot visits to confirm it can reach you. Count visits from perplexity.ai in analytics as a partial floor. Our guide to tracking AI search visibility gives the method and its limits.
What should you avoid?
Avoid anyone who promises citations in Perplexity, who sells a secret formula for its ranking, or who recommends publishing many thin pages to cover every question. Avoid blocking the crawler by mistake and then wondering why you are absent. And avoid treating one engine as the whole picture: work that helps Perplexity usually helps every other search too.
Conclusion
Perplexity tells us how its bots behave and that it cites sources, and says nothing about how it ranks them. Allow the documented crawler, make clear and attributed pages, and measure what reaches the business.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. See our AI search service.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.