Perplexity SEO: how to be cited by Perplexity

Perplexity is an AI answer engine that retrieves live web content for every query and grounds its answers in named sources. Unlike ChatGPT (which is primarily a generative model with optional search) or Gemini (which surfaces AI Overviews above blue links), Perplexity's entire UX is "give the user an answer with citations" — making it the AI engine where being cited is the primary acquisition lever. As of mid-2026, Perplexity processes >50M weekly queries; being cited on even niche queries is meaningful referral traffic.