Getting Found by ChatGPT and AI Assistants

"Getting found by Google" used to be the whole game. Now the question increasingly includes ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot — tools that don't all work the same way, and that a business can't simply "submit a sitemap" to in the way search engines expect. Here's how the major assistants actually source information, and what a business can realistically do about it.

The short answer: different assistants, same underlying signals

Every major AI assistant sources information a little differently under the hood, but they converge on rewarding the same things: content that clearly states facts, is consistent across sources, and stays current. There's no separate playbook needed for each individual tool — get the fundamentals right once, and it helps across all of them.

How the major AI assistants actually source information

• ChatGPT. Without browsing, it answers from training data with a fixed cutoff; with browsing or search enabled, it pulls in live web results, similar to a search engine.
• Perplexity. Searches the live web for every query and displays its sources alongside the answer, so being a cited source can drive a direct click.
• Gemini. Draws heavily on Google's own search index, so the same signals that help traditional Google visibility carry over.
• Copilot. Built on Bing's search index, rewarding similar fundamentals — clear content, structured data, an accurate Bing or Google business listing.

Does an llms.txt file help?

It's an emerging convention rather than a guarantee — a small text file at a website's root that summarises key pages in plain language for AI tools to read. Some AI crawlers reference it; others ignore it entirely, since it isn't a universal standard the way a sitemap is for search engines. It's worth adding as a low-cost extra, but it doesn't replace clear content and structured data as the fundamentals.

Outdated information is worse than no mention

An AI assistant reading a page with a disconnected phone number, a discontinued service, or last year's pricing may repeat that outdated information with full confidence — which does more damage to a business than not being mentioned at all. Keeping core facts (contact details, services, pricing, hours) current across a website and its listings is one of the simplest, highest-leverage things a business can do here.

Content written for people already does most of the work

The instinct to write special AI-only content is usually unnecessary. Content written clearly for a person — direct answers, specific facts, no padding — already serves AI assistants well, because both reward the same clarity. See our guide on how AI search engines pick businesses to recommend for the underlying mechanics. The additional layer specific to AI visibility is structured data: it doesn't change what a visitor sees, but it gives machines an explicit, unambiguous version of the same facts a person reads.

Where Gotka Technologies fits

Gotka offers Generative Engine Optimisation as an add-on to web design packages — structuring a site's content and adding schema markup so AI assistants across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and others can read and represent the business accurately. See the full package details on the package builder.