It's built retrieval-first: it searches for every question and cites sources as a matter of course. The consequence: you can't be visible on Perplexity without external sources — reviews, press, listings. Your own site isn't enough.
Below: what happens if you block the AI crawlers, why engines say different things about the same brand, and why original data raises citability.
Updated 2026-07-14 · Websem, AEO questions base
If you want visibility, yes — blocking them removes you from training data and, on some platforms, from live answers too. It's a strategic decision (visibility versus control over your content), but for a commercial brand, blocking is almost always a net loss.
Each platform has a different model, a different cutoff, a different search engine, and different preferred sources. There's no single AI — visibility has to be built and measured platform by platform.
For questions like how do I choose or which one is better, models cite decision guides built around criteria, not product grids. A category page sells after the click; a guide gets you into the answer. You need both, linked to each other.
They're among the strongest assets: unique figures — studies, surveys, internal benchmarks — force the model to cite you as the origin, rather than just paraphrase you. One good study a year can bring more citations than dozens of articles.
This question is part of a base of 124 answers about AEO across 12 categories — from how LLMs work to budget, measurement and deliverables.