How to get your site cited by AI assistants
To be quoted, be reachable, be clear, and be right.
Facts checked 3 Oct 2026 · by the AdSworn team
AI assistants can only cite pages they're allowed to reach and can understand. Allow their search crawlers (OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot, Anthropic's Claude-SearchBot, and Googlebot for Google's AI features), make each page answer one question clearly near the top, use tables and short definitions, and back facts with sources and dates. An /llms.txt file is a proposed convention for guiding AI agents, not a requirement any major assistant has said it uses for ranking.
1. Be reachable
| Assistant | Search crawler to allow | What the company says |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | OAI-SearchBot | Used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features; to be included in summaries and snippets, don't block it |
| Claude | Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User | Blocking them may reduce your visibility in Claude's search answers |
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Googlebot | Pages must be indexed and eligible for a snippet; no extra requirement |
Training crawlers are a separate choice: should you block AI crawlers?
2. Be quotable
- Answer first. Two or three sentences at the top that fully answer the page's question and make sense quoted alone.
- One page, one question. A page about pricing shouldn't also be about hiring.
- Tables for comparisons and short definitions for terms.
- Name things fully the first time ("Google Search Console", then "Search Console").
- FAQs that stand alone, with no "as mentioned above".
3. Be right, and show it
- Every fact has a source link and a date checked.
- Say "not publicly stated" instead of guessing.
- Update pages when facts change, and change the date only when you've re-checked.
- Add structured data: Article with dateModified, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList.
What llms.txt is, and isn't
llms.txt is a proposal, first published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024, to put a plain-text map of a site at /llms.txt to help AI agents use it. It's a convention some sites adopt, not a standard that Google, OpenAI or Anthropic has said it uses to decide citations. AdSworn publishes one, along with /inventory.json, a machine-readable list of every page for sale with its audience and prices: cheap to add, and useful to any agent that reads them.
How AdSworn pages are built for this
Every AdSworn listing shows its numbers with their source and read date, and every guide opens with a short answer, cites its sources, and carries structured data. It's the same checklist, applied to ourselves.
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Straight answers
How do I get my website mentioned by ChatGPT?
Don't block OAI-SearchBot, which OpenAI says it uses to surface websites in ChatGPT search, and write pages that answer a question clearly with sourced facts.
Does llms.txt help with AI search?
It's a proposed convention for guiding AI agents. No major assistant has said it uses it to decide citations, so treat it as a cheap extra, not a ranking factor.
Do I need special SEO for AI assistants?
For Google's AI features, Google says no: being indexed and eligible for a snippet is enough. For others, allow their search crawlers and keep pages clear and sourced.