Key Takeaways
- ChatGPT uses OpenAI's web search to find and cite sources in real-time
- 100% of software tools ChatGPT recommends have Capterra reviews — review platform presence is essential
- Entity recognition through Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Google Knowledge Graph dramatically increases citation probability
- Self-contained paragraphs of 134-167 words are most likely to be extracted and cited
- Structured data (JSON-LD schema) helps ChatGPT understand and categorise your content
Understanding How ChatGPT Cites Sources
ChatGPT with web search enabled doesn't just pull from its training data. It performs real-time web searches, reads multiple sources, and synthesises an answer. When it cites sources, it's selecting from pages it found relevant and trustworthy during that search.
This means getting cited by ChatGPT requires both being discoverable through web search and being structured in a way that ChatGPT can easily extract and quote. The citation process involves several steps: retrieval, entity matching, content evaluation, source selection, and passage extraction.
Understanding this pipeline helps you optimise at each step rather than hoping your content somehow gets noticed.
Step 1: Ensure ChatGPT Can Find Your Content
Before ChatGPT can cite you, it needs to find you. This starts with basic accessibility.
Check your robots.txt file. Many sites unknowingly block AI crawlers. Ensure GPTBot (OpenAI's crawler) isn't in your disallow list. If you've blocked all bots with a blanket rule, add specific allow directives for AI crawlers you want to access your content.
Consider adding an llms.txt file. This emerging standard (similar to robots.txt) explicitly tells AI systems what content you want them to read and how you'd like to be represented. While not yet universally adopted, early signals suggest AI platforms are beginning to respect these files.
Your content also needs to be accessible without JavaScript rendering. Most AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript. If your content loads dynamically via React, Vue, or similar frameworks, ensure you have server-side rendering or static generation that makes the content visible in raw HTML.
Step 2: Build Entity Recognition
ChatGPT needs to recognise your brand as a distinct entity before it can confidently recommend you. This is where entity recognition becomes critical.
Wikipedia Presence: Wikipedia accounts for 22% of LLM training data. Having a Wikipedia article about your brand, product, or key people dramatically increases the likelihood that ChatGPT knows who you are. The article doesn't need to be lengthy — even a stub article with proper citations establishes entity recognition.
Wikidata Entry: Wikidata is the structured knowledge base that powers Wikipedia infoboxes and is directly consumed by AI systems. Create or claim your Wikidata entry. Include structured relationships: your company type, founding date, headquarters, products, founders, and official website.
Google Knowledge Graph: Google's Knowledge Graph feeds into many AI systems' understanding of entities. Ensure your brand appears with a Knowledge Panel in Google Search. This typically requires consistent information across your website, Wikipedia, Wikidata, and business directories.
Brand Search Volume: The #1 correlated factor with AI mentions is brand search volume. This isn't something you can game overnight, but it underscores the importance of building genuine brand awareness through marketing, PR, and word-of-mouth.
Step 3: Get Listed on Review Platforms
Here's a striking statistic: 100% of software tools ChatGPT recommends have Capterra reviews. This isn't coincidence. Review platforms provide structured, third-party validation that AI systems trust.
For B2B Software: Get listed on G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius. Encourage customers to leave reviews. The volume and recency of reviews matters — stale listings with reviews from 2022 carry less weight.
For Consumer Products: Trustpilot, Yelp, and industry-specific review sites matter. Amazon reviews for physical products feed into product recommendations.
For Services: Google Business Profile reviews, industry directories, and professional review sites help establish credibility.
The key is authentic reviews from real customers. ChatGPT (and users) can sense manufactured reviews. Focus on delivering value and making it easy for satisfied customers to share their experience.
Step 4: Structure Content for Extraction
ChatGPT doesn't quote your entire page — it extracts specific passages. Research on AI Overviews (which uses similar extraction logic) shows the ideal passage has specific characteristics.
Optimal Length: 134-167 words. Long enough to provide substance, short enough to quote in full.
Self-Contained: The passage must make sense without surrounding context. Avoid starting paragraphs with "It", "This", or "However" without clear references. Each paragraph should be independently understandable.
Direct Answers: Format content to directly answer questions. If your heading is "What is project management software?", the following paragraph should begin with a clear definition: "Project management software is..."
Specific Claims: "Revenue increased 40% in Q3 2025" gets cited. "Revenue significantly improved" does not. Include specific numbers, dates, and attributable facts.
Step 5: Add Comprehensive Schema Markup
Schema markup (JSON-LD structured data) is a direct communication channel with AI systems. It explicitly tells AI: this is our organisation, this is the article's author, these are our FAQ answers.
Essential Schema Types:
Complete the Schema: Partial schema is worse than no schema. If you add Article schema, include all fields: author (with Person type), publisher, datePublished, dateModified, image, and description. Missing fields create ambiguity.
Keep Schema Consistent: Don't have conflicting schema types on the same page. If a page has both Article and BlogPosting schema with different values, it creates confusion.
Step 6: Build Cross-Platform Presence
ChatGPT cross-references multiple platforms when evaluating source credibility. Being mentioned consistently across the web strengthens your entity recognition and authority.
Reddit Presence: Reddit accounts for 40.1% of Perplexity citations and is heavily indexed by ChatGPT. Participate authentically in relevant subreddits. Don't spam — contribute genuine value. When your brand is mentioned positively by community members (not your marketing team), it carries significant weight.
Industry Publications: Guest posts, expert quotes, and features in industry publications create citation trails that AI systems follow.
Social Proof: LinkedIn company pages, Twitter/X presence, and YouTube channels all contribute to entity recognition. Consistency across platforms — same brand name, same description, same website — reinforces your identity.
Step 7: Monitor and Iterate
Getting cited by ChatGPT isn't a one-time achievement. AI platforms continuously update their knowledge. Competitors publish new content. Your entity signals can strengthen or weaken over time.
Use Ansly to regularly check what ChatGPT actually says about your brand. Track your citation rate, mention position, and accuracy over time. When you make changes — adding schema, getting new reviews, publishing content — rescan to measure the impact.
Pay attention to accuracy. If ChatGPT describes your product incorrectly, that's a signal your structured data or public information needs updating. If it mentions competitors but not you, examine what they're doing differently.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Blocking AI Crawlers: Many sites have legacy robots.txt rules that block all bots. Check specifically for GPTBot and other AI crawler permissions.
JavaScript-Only Content: If your content requires JavaScript to render, AI crawlers see a blank page. Use server-side rendering for critical content.
Thin Content: Pages under 300 words rarely get cited. AI needs substance to extract and quote.
Missing Entity Signals: Without Wikipedia, Wikidata, or Knowledge Graph presence, ChatGPT may not recognise your brand as a distinct entity worth citing.
Outdated Information: ChatGPT favours fresh sources. Content with "Updated 2022" signals staleness. Maintain visible date signals and regularly refresh content.
Conclusion
Getting cited by ChatGPT requires a systematic approach: ensure accessibility, build entity recognition, establish review platform presence, structure content for extraction, add comprehensive schema, and build cross-platform signals.
The brands that invest in these fundamentals now will have a significant advantage as AI-based discovery continues to grow. Start by scanning your current AI Visibility to identify your specific gaps, then work through improvements systematically.
Sanjey Karunananthan
Founder & CEO at Ansly
Sanjey is the founder of Ansly, the AI Visibility Scanner. With a background in software engineering and digital marketing, he helps brands understand how AI platforms perceive their content.
