PLATFORMS

ChatGPT Optimization Checklist

IN ONE SENTENCE

Optimising for ChatGPT runs in four layers: fix crawlability first, then content and evidence, and finally third-party sources.

The order matters: while the crawl layer is broken, better content will not enter answers. On ChatGPT one thing deserves particular attention — OpenAI states that blocking OAI-SearchBot removes pages from citation candidacy. Blocking the retrieval crawler while allowing the training crawler is the worst of both worlds: you contribute corpus and switch off exposure.

OUR POSITION

Do not write platform-specific rewrites. Google's own guidance lists 'AI-specific rewrites' as unnecessary, and the three things with real evidence behind them — statistics, cited sources, quotable lines — work across every platform.

01

Layer 1 — crawl

Allow OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, confirm nothing is blocked at the CDN outside your site config, and confirm key content does not depend on client-side rendering — what the crawler reads is the HTML you return.

Structured data must appear in server-rendered HTML. If a front-end script injects it, crawlers that do not execute scripts never see it.

02

Layers 2 and 3 — content and evidence

The Princeton paper (KDD 2024) tested this across 10,000 queries: adding statistics, adding cited sources, and adding quotations produced a 30–40% relative lift on visibility metrics — the three best-evidenced actions available.

One clear position per page, and every paragraph readable on its own — what gets taken is a passage, not the site.

The same paper found an 'equaliser effect': pages ranked around fifth gained most, while first-ranked pages on average lost ground. The method pays off more for brands not yet in the top tier.

03

Layer 4 — third-party sources

Industry estimates put roughly three quarters of citation weight on sources you do not own, so owned content alone hits a ceiling.

In the English ecosystem Reddit, YouTube, trade media and B2B review sites carry the most weight, and each platform weights them differently.

Data behind this page

30–40%

Relative visibility lift from adding statistics / citations / quotations

Source：Princeton GEO paper, KDD 2024, GEO-bench 10,000 queries，2024

40.1%

Reddit's share of citations in AI answers

Source：Semrush, 150,000+ citations across 5,000 keywords，2025-06

Sources

  1. [1]GEO: Generative Engine Optimization．Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024．2024
  2. [2]Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search．Google Search Central．2026-05-15

Updated 2026-08-06