How do I get my website cited by Perplexity?

How Perplexity finds sources

Perplexity runs searches for each query, reads the most promising pages and writes an answer with numbered citations. According to its documentation, PerplexityBot crawls sites to surface and link them in its answers, and Perplexity-User fetches pages live when a user asks.

That makes it more transparent than most assistants: you can see exactly which pages it relied on. Search your own customers’ questions and the citations show you which sites it trusts for your topic.

Be crawlable and readable

Check your robots.txt and any hosting firewall to make sure PerplexityBot isn’t blocked. Then confirm your important content appears in the page’s HTML.

Sites built entirely with client-side JavaScript can look empty to crawlers that don’t render scripts. Prerendering or server-side rendering solves that by sending finished HTML. Fast pages help too, since live fetches have little patience.

Write the passage it wants to quote

Perplexity appears to favour pages that answer the question directly and specifically. A page titled “How much does a basement development cost in Calgary?” that opens with the main factors, then explains each one, is far more quotable than a generic “Our services” page.

Include specifics that are hard to find elsewhere: local permits, timelines from your experience, what changes the scope. Keep dates and facts current. Show who wrote it and why they know. Pages with original, concrete detail are easier to cite than pages that repeat what everyone says.

I’d search ten of your customers’ real questions in Perplexity and write down every cited source. That shows you whether it’s citing business sites, directories or publications in your field.

Then I’d check that PerplexityBot can reach your site, and write or rework one page per question so the answer sits right under a clear heading. I’d re-run the same questions a couple of months later. It’s slow, honest work, but it tends to help across AI tools.