Perplexity
An AI answer engine that searches the web for every query and answers with numbered citations and a source list. Requires PerplexityBot access to appear.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is an AI answer engine that retrieves web documents for a question and returns an answer with numbered inline citations plus a list of the sources it used. Instead of handing back a list of links, it assembles the answer itself and exposes the pages behind it in the same view.
How does it work?
- The question is rewritten into one or more queries and candidate documents are retrieved from the web.
- Passages worth quoting are selected from those documents.
- The answer carries numbered citations, with the source list shown alongside it.
To be cited, a site must be reachable by PerplexityBot. Domains that block the bot in robots.txt are excluded from the citation pool.
Why it matters for GEO
Citation frequency varies widely between engines for the same brand, so results from a single engine generalize poorly to overall AI visibility. Because Perplexity surfaces its sources with every answer, whether a page was cited is relatively observable — which makes it a practical surface for measuring citation share. Teams typically work in this order: secure bot access, then shape citable answer units (direct answers, statistics, sources, update dates), then measure citation rate per engine over time.
Related terms
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