SEO for ChatGPT means making your site something ChatGPT search can find, read and cite: letting OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawl it, being present in the search indexes ChatGPT draws on, serving your text in plain HTML and writing pages that answer questions clearly. There is no ranking list to climb and no submission form; OpenAI says any public website can appear. This guide walks through each step with what OpenAI documents, what is common practice and how to see whether it works. It is part of the wider guide to generative engine optimization.
Quick answer
- Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and at your firewall. OpenAI says sites that block it are not shown in ChatGPT search answers. Changes take about 24 hours.
- GPTBot is a separate choice. It collects training data; blocking it does not affect ChatGPT search.
- Be indexed in Bing as well as Google. ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers alongside OpenAI's own crawling, and Bing has been its partner since 2023. Submit your sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Put the answer in the HTML. OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User do not run JavaScript.
- Write pages worth citing: direct answers, specific facts with numbers, clear headings and a date.
- Measure with
utm_source=chatgpt.comin analytics and ChatGPT-User hits in your server log; there is no ChatGPT webmaster console.
How ChatGPT search finds and cites pages
ChatGPT answers many questions from what its model learned in training. When a question needs current or specific information, it searches the web, reads a handful of pages and writes an answer with inline citations and a list of sources. That search step is where you can appear.
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT search in October 2024, it said the feature "leverages third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by our partners". Since then OpenAI has built up its own crawling. Three OpenAI user agents matter for publishers, each documented on OpenAI's crawler overview page:
| User agent | What it does | Affects ChatGPT search? |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | Crawls pages so they can be shown and cited in ChatGPT search | Yes: block it and you are not shown in answers |
| ChatGPT-User | Fetches a page when a user's request in ChatGPT or a custom GPT needs it | Indirectly; OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to it |
| GPTBot | Collects content that may be used to train OpenAI's models | No |
OpenAI also documents OAI-AdsBot, which only visits pages submitted as ChatGPT ads.
One detail from OpenAI's publisher FAQ: if a page is disallowed but OpenAI learns its URL from a third-party search provider or from links, it may still show just the link and page title. Blocking OAI-SearchBot keeps your content out of the answer, not necessarily your name.
Step 1: let OAI-SearchBot in
Most sites that are missing from ChatGPT search block OAI-SearchBot without knowing it: a blanket AI block copied from a blog post, a Disallow: / under User-agent: *, or a CDN setting. If you want to stay out of training but be cited, write separate groups:
# https://example.com/robots.txt
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xmlThen check the layers robots.txt does not cover. Cloudflare's AI bot blocking, security plugins and hosting firewalls can refuse OAI-SearchBot even when robots.txt allows it. OpenAI publishes the IP ranges of each bot (openai.com/searchbot.json, openai.com/chatgpt-user.json, openai.com/gptbot.json) so you can allow-list them. AI crawlers and robots.txt covers the full robots.txt decision for every AI operator.
Check what your robots.txt says to each OpenAI bot:
Step 2: be findable in the search indexes ChatGPT uses
OAI-SearchBot has to find your pages before it can crawl them, and ChatGPT's third-party search providers only return pages they have indexed. Microsoft and OpenAI announced Bing as ChatGPT's search partner in 2023; OpenAI does not list its current providers, but being well indexed in Bing is the practical step most site owners have skipped.
- Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. You can import it from Google Search Console in a few clicks.
- Submit your XML sitemap in both Bing and Google, and list it in robots.txt.
- Turn on IndexNow if your CMS or CDN supports it, so Bing hears about new and changed URLs at once.
- Fix indexing problems Bing reports: blocked pages, redirects, duplicates without a canonical.
Good Google indexing helps too: it is the base of classic SEO and many of the same signals, links from other sites above all, make a page more likely to rank anywhere.
Step 3: serve your content without JavaScript
An analysis of AI crawler traffic by Vercel and MERJ in December 2024 found that OpenAI's crawlers, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User and GPTBot, fetched JavaScript files but did not execute them. Whatever your server sends as HTML is all they read. For a single-page app that builds the page in the browser, that can be an empty <div>.
The fix is server-side rendering or static generation for anything you want cited: text, prices, specifications, answers. Can AI crawlers render JavaScript? covers which crawlers do and do not, and how to test your own pages.
Step 4: write pages ChatGPT can cite
People ask ChatGPT long, specific questions: "which leather bag maker in Split ships to Germany in under a week?" The answer gets built from sentences that state a fact plainly. Nothing here is a documented ranking rule, but it is what makes a page quotable, for ChatGPT and for every other answer engine:
- Answer first. Put the one-sentence answer directly under the heading, then the explanation.
- Be specific. Prices with currency, sizes with units, delivery times, opening hours, version numbers, dates.
- Cover the follow-up questions on the same page: cost, time, alternatives, who it is for, who it is not for.
- Show who is behind it. Author, company, contact details and an "updated" date help a reader, human or model, trust the page.
- Keep it current. Out-of-date prices and discontinued products get cited too, which is worse than not being cited.
Comparison and "best of" questions are common in ChatGPT. If you sell something, a fair comparison page with real criteria is more useful than another list of your own features.
Step 5: products and shopping answers
For shopping questions ChatGPT shows product results. OpenAI's help centre says these use structured metadata from first-party and third-party providers, such as price and product description, alongside other content. Merchants can also submit a product feed to OpenAI directly through its merchant programme. On your own pages, Product structured data with price, availability and reviews states those facts precisely; see product schema for the markup.
Step 6: measure whether it works
OpenAI has no webmaster console, so measurement is indirect:
- Analytics: ChatGPT adds
utm_source=chatgpt.comto the links it shows, according to OpenAI's publisher FAQ. Filter on it, or on the chatgpt.com referrer, and watch the trend and the landing pages. - Server logs: OAI-SearchBot visits show your pages are being indexed; ChatGPT-User visits show someone's question led ChatGPT to your page. A log that shows neither is a sign something is blocking them.
Drop an access log into the log file analyser to count each OpenAI bot's hits and the pages it fetched, in your browser. AI search visibility covers the other sources, including Google's and Bing's AI reports.
What does not help
- llms.txt. OpenAI has not said ChatGPT search reads it. It is harmless and quick, but not a ranking factor.
- Hidden text for AI. Text shown only to bots, or instructions aimed at language models, is cloaking in Google's terms and can backfire everywhere.
- Keyword-stuffed Q&A pages. Answers are built from clear sentences, not repeated phrases.
- Blocking GPTBot in the hope of more citations, or allowing it in the hope of more. It is a training decision, separate from search.
Questions people ask
How do I rank in ChatGPT?
There is no ranking position to buy or submit to. Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and at your firewall, get your pages indexed in Bing and Google, serve the main text in the HTML because OpenAI's crawlers do not run JavaScript, and write pages that answer specific questions with facts. ChatGPT then cites the pages that answer a question best.
Does ChatGPT search use Google or Bing?
OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers and content from partners, alongside its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot. It does not name its current providers. Microsoft and OpenAI announced Bing as ChatGPT's search partner in 2023, which is why being indexed in Bing Webmaster Tools matters. Good Google SEO helps too, because the same signals make a page rank anywhere.
Can I submit my website to ChatGPT?
Not as a URL submission. OpenAI has no form for adding a site to ChatGPT search; OAI-SearchBot finds pages by crawling and through search providers. What you can do is allow OAI-SearchBot, submit your sitemap to Bing and Google so the pages are discoverable, and, if you sell products, apply to OpenAI's merchant programme to submit a product feed.
How long does it take ChatGPT to find a new page?
There is no published timeline. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take effect in about 24 hours, but crawling a new page depends on when OAI-SearchBot or a search provider discovers it. Linking the page from your homepage, adding it to your sitemap and notifying Bing through IndexNow shortens the wait. ChatGPT-User can fetch a page immediately when a user pastes its URL.
Does blocking OAI-SearchBot remove my site from ChatGPT completely?
Mostly. OpenAI says sites that disallow OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, but a disallowed page may still appear as a bare link with its title if OpenAI learns the URL from a search provider or other pages. ChatGPT-User may still fetch a page a user asks for, and the model may know your brand from training data.