How to Rank in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

How to rank in ChatGPT comes down to two things: let OpenAI's search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) reach your site, and publish clear, specific pages that answer real questions better than anyone else. Neither OpenAI nor Google sells or publishes a separate ranking formula for AI answers, and Google says its AI Overviews need no special optimisation beyond normal SEO. This guide separates what OpenAI, Google and Microsoft actually document from the myths, then gives you a 10-step checklist and a simple way to measure whether AI tools cite your business.

Can you really rank in ChatGPT?

Yes and no. ChatGPT doesn't show a numbered list of results like Google, so there's no position 1 to win. When ChatGPT searches the web, it reads pages, writes an answer and links the sources it used. Ranking in ChatGPT means being a cited source, or the business it names when someone asks for a recommendation.

What you can control is narrower than many guides suggest. You can make sure the AI crawlers can reach you, make your pages easy to quote, and build the reputation that makes other sites mention you. OpenAI documents no way to pay for a citation, and nobody outside OpenAI knows exactly how ChatGPT picks its sources. Be wary of anyone who promises you a top spot in ChatGPT.

How does ChatGPT search find your website?

OpenAI runs separate bots for separate jobs, and mixing them up is the most common mistake. According to OpenAI's crawler documentation:

• OAI-SearchBot: crawls the web for ChatGPT's search features. This is the one that decides whether your site can appear in ChatGPT search answers.
• GPTBot: crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's models. Blocking it is a training opt-out, not a search setting.
• ChatGPT-User: visits a page when a user's question needs it. OpenAI says it isn't used to crawl the web automatically and doesn't decide search eligibility.
• OAI-AdsBot: only visits pages submitted as ads, to check them against ad policies.

OpenAI recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt and warns that sites that opt out of it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from plain navigational links. The settings are independent, so you can allow OAI-SearchBot and still block GPTBot if you don't want your content used for training. OpenAI also notes that a robots.txt change can take about 24 hours to show up in its search results.

Check this today. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and look for a Disallow rule under OAI-SearchBot or under User-agent: *. Security plugins, firewalls and CDN bot settings can block AI crawlers without anyone noticing, so check those too. If your developer added an AI bot block during a site rebuild, it may also be blocking search.

How to rank in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google is unusually direct about this. Its AI features and your website page says a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in normal Search to be considered, and that there are no additional requirements or special optimisations for AI Overviews or AI Mode. It also says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema markup.

In a May 2025 post, Google's John Mueller listed what helps in AI search. Google's advice for AI search boils down to this:

• Unique, non-commodity content: pages that add something people can't get from ten other sites. Google notes that AI search users ask longer, more specific questions and follow-ups.
• A good page experience: fast, clean on mobile, with the main content easy to find.
• Technical access: Googlebot not blocked, pages return a 200 status and have indexable text.
• Structured data that matches the visible page, if you use it.
• Images, video, Merchant Center and Business Profile kept up to date, because people also search with photos.

So if your site isn't on Google at all, fix that first. A page that isn't indexed can't appear in an AI Overview, and our guide to a website not showing on Google covers the usual causes.

GEO myths to ignore

Five confident claims you can safely skip:

• You need an llms.txt file for Google: Google says you don't need new AI text files to appear in its AI features.
• There's special AI schema markup: Google says there's no special schema.org markup for AI Overviews.
• Blocking GPTBot hides you from ChatGPT: it doesn't. GPTBot is the training crawler. OAI-SearchBot is the search one.
• You can buy a ChatGPT ranking: OpenAI runs ads as a separate product (its OAI-AdsBot only checks ad landing pages), but nothing in its documentation offers a way to buy a citation inside an answer. Any tool claiming to submit you directly into ChatGPT's answers is overselling.
• SEO is dead: Google's own guidance for AI search is built on its normal search requirements, so the basics matter more, not less.

A 10-step checklist to get cited by ChatGPT and AI Overviews

The first three are technical fixes. The rest is ongoing SEO.

1. Allow the right crawlers: allow Googlebot, Bingbot and OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt, and ask your developer or hosting provider whether a firewall or CDN rule blocks AI bots.

2. Get indexed in Google and Bing: verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap to both. Bing Webmaster Tools is also where Microsoft reports Copilot citations.

3. Keep key content in plain text: prices, service areas, timings and answers should be text on the page, not only inside images, PDFs or pop-ups.

4. Answer the question first: open each page and each section with a direct two or three sentence answer, then explain. AI tools quote passages, so a clear passage is easier to quote.

5. Write for the long, specific question: someone in Mumbai might ask an AI tool for a GST-registered packaging supplier in Bhiwandi who ships to Pune. A page that covers that exact situation beats a generic services page.

6. Add what nobody else has: your own prices, process, photos, FAQs from real customer calls and worked examples. That is the non-commodity content Google asks for.

7. Make your business details consistent: the same name, address, phone number and category on your website, Google Business Profile, Justdial, IndiaMART and social profiles, so every source describes you the same way.

8. Earn mentions on other sites: industry directories, trade association listings, local news, supplier and partner pages, and genuine reviews. When people ask which business to choose, it helps if other sites say good things about you, not only your own site.

9. Keep pages current: update prices, dates and offers, and show a visible updated date on guides. Outdated pages are a weak source for any answer.

10. Show who's behind the content: author names, an about page, real contact details and case studies make it easier for people and search systems to trust you.

How to measure your AI search visibility

You can't see a ChatGPT rank, but you can track whether AI tools use and send visitors to your site. Four free checks:

• Google Search Console: Google says traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the Performance report under the Web search type. It isn't shown separately, so watch overall impressions and clicks for the pages you're improving.
• Bing Webmaster Tools: Microsoft launched an AI Performance report in public preview on 10 February 2026. It shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries, which pages are cited, and sample grounding queries. Microsoft says the data is a sample and doesn't show ranking or placement.
• Google Analytics 4: in Traffic acquisition, filter the session source for chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com to see visits from AI tools.
• A monthly prompt test: ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot the ten questions your buyers actually ask, with search turned on, and note whether you're named or cited. Answers vary from run to run, so look at the trend over several months, not a single result.

A worked example of the prompt test: a dental clinic in Andheri might ask for the best clinic for root canal treatment in Andheri West, how much a dental implant costs in Mumbai, and whether a particular clinic is open on Sundays. If the third answer is wrong, its timings are inconsistent somewhere online.

How Markadding approaches SEO for AI search

We treat AI visibility as part of SEO services, not a separate product. That means technical audits (including crawler access), keyword and intent research built around the questions buyers ask, content written to rank and convert, safe authority building and plain-English monthly reports. Typical SEO engagements run ₹25,000 to ₹75,000 a month, and in a competitive city like Mumbai you should expect 3–4 months for early movement and 6–9 months for consistent leads. Our post on how long SEO takes explains why.

For an example of what durable organic visibility looks like, see our work with a homeopathy software provider that earns search-led enquiries from practitioners worldwide. If you want an AI assistant on your own site or WhatsApp instead, that's our AI integration work.

Bottom line

There's no shortcut to ranking in ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews. Let OAI-SearchBot, Googlebot and Bingbot in, get indexed, write specific answer-first pages with information only you have, and earn mentions from other trusted sites. Then measure the results. Get a free growth audit and we'll check your crawler settings and AI visibility, or book a strategy call.

Related reading: Website not showing on Google? 12 fixes, How long does SEO take? and Local SEO for Mumbai businesses.