How to get recommended by Perplexity
Perplexity is a search engine that answers: every answer comes with numbered sources. If your site is one of them, you get clicks from people who already know what they want.
How it decides who to recommend
PerplexityBot crawls the web for Perplexity's own index, which is where the sources in its answers come from. Perplexity-User visits when someone asks it for a specific page.
It favors pages that answer the question directly, with clear and up-to-date information. According to Perplexity, Perplexity-User may not follow robots.txt when it's a person asking for the page.
The crawlers that need to get in
- PerplexityBot
- Perplexity-User
If robots.txt or your firewall turns them away, they can't read you. The free analysis checks each one.
What to do, step by step
Let PerplexityBot in
It's the first thing and the one that fails most: a robots.txt copied from another site, a security plugin or a firewall that blocks "unusual bots" shut Perplexity out without warning. Check that robots.txt doesn't name them with Disallow and that your server doesn't answer them with a 403.
Put your text in the HTML
AI crawlers almost never run JavaScript. If your site paints its content in the browser (very common with Lovable, Bolt and other AI-built sites), Perplexity receives a blank page. Whatever isn't in the HTML your server sends doesn't exist for it.
Say clearly who you are and what you offer
A title and description that say what you do and where, a clear H1 and structured data (Organization or LocalBusiness, Product, FAQPage). AI doesn't guess: if you don't say it, it doesn't know.
Answer what your customer asks
Perplexity recommends whoever best answers a specific question: "best bike shop in Valencia", "how much does… cost". Prices, area, opening hours, comparisons and FAQs as text, not in images or PDFs.
Keep things current and dated
Perplexity gives a lot of weight to recency. Prices, hours and offers up to date, with the last-updated date visible and in your sitemap (lastmod). A page from 2021 loses to one from this week.
Frequently asked questions
Does Perplexity respect robots.txt?
PerplexityBot does, according to Perplexity. Perplexity-User, which is a person asking for a page, may not follow it.
Why does Perplexity cite my competitors and not me?
Usually because their page answers the question better, is more up to date, or yours can't be read without JavaScript. The analysis tells you which of the three it is.
Does showing up in Perplexity bring customers?
Every source is a link. Whoever arrives from there asked a specific question, and you were the answer.