How do I get my Indian business cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews?
To get cited by AI search engines: publish short, declarative answers (40–80 words) to specific questions, add FAQPage + Speakable schema, maintain an llms.txt file at your root, build E-E-A-T signals (author bios, last-updated dates, citations), and earn mentions on high-trust Indian publications (YourStory, Inc42, ET, LiveMint). Most Indian sites that adopt this in 2026 see 10–25% of new traffic come from AI engines within 6 months.
Step 1 — Answer structure: AI engines extract short, declarative answers. Lead every page with a 2–3 sentence direct answer, then long-form below. Wrap key answers in Speakable schema (cssSelector targeting your answer block) and FAQPage schema for question-format content. Preevee's /answers hub follows this exact pattern.
Step 2 — llms.txt: a Markdown file at yourdomain.com/llms.txt that lists your most important URLs with one-line descriptions. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude crawl this when indexing your site. Takes 1 hour to create, immediate uplift in citation accuracy.
Step 3 — E-E-A-T: every important page needs a named author with credentials, a last-updated date (AI engines prefer fresher content), inline citations to high-authority sources, and an organisation schema marking your brand as the publisher. Anonymous content barely gets cited.
Step 4 — Brand mentions across the web: AI engines rank you partly by how often credible Indian sites mention your brand (even unlinked). Pitch HARO/Qwoted, contribute guest posts on YourStory/Inc42, get listed in 'best of' roundups, and ensure your Crunchbase/LinkedIn company pages are complete.
Measurement: Search Console doesn't show AI traffic clearly yet. Use referrer analysis in GA4 (chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com) plus direct-traffic spikes after AI Overview launches in your category. Indian SMEs adopting AEO in 2026 are seeing 12–28% of new pipeline come from these channels.