A public website may be eligible for ChatGPT search when the page is crawlable and the useful answer is in public HTML. OpenAI does not promise that a site will appear, be cited, or send traffic. Eligibility is not a ranking or citation guarantee for ChatGPT, Google or Bing.
Method
Publish one durable source URL. Put the definition or method in HTML first. Keep the URL on 200, canonical and in the sitemap. Do not add a special ChatGPT markup layer. WordPress-specific eligibility is documented on WordPress AEO eligibility. For a manual service that prepares agreed source pages and evidence, see AI Citation Optimisation.
For publisher and crawler rules, use OpenAI’s official Publishers and developers FAQ.
Eligibility checks
| Check | Pass | Fail |
|---|---|---|
| Public HTML | The page returns useful text at a stable public URL. | The answer exists only in a private app, blocked PDF or empty shell. |
| Bot access | robots.txt and firewalls do not block OAI-SearchBot on the URLs you want discovered. | The useful routes are disallowed or challenged before HTML is served. |
| Canonical page | One canonical URL holds the answer you want cited. | Several thin variants repeat the same claim with different dates. |
| Visible facts | Names, dates and methods appear in the HTML a person can read. | Claims exist only in meta tags or unused JSON-LD. |
| Referral measurement | If traffic is later reviewed, it is checked as an identifiable referral only when analytics access exists. | ChatGPT visits are counted from unverified brand mentions. |
Limits
These checks cannot prove that ChatGPT will retrieve, quote or recommend the page. Referral hits, when they exist, are a traffic signal only. They are not a citation count. Measurement of those referrals requires access to the relevant analytics property.
Sources
Record
Author and reviewer: The Dot Dev. First published 23 August 2026. Review when the cited publisher guidance changes.
