Perplexity is an AI search engine that answers questions with a written summary built from information on the web. The difference from a classic search engine is clear: you don't get a list of ten links, but an answer in running text. Perplexity also shows the sources the answer is based on every time, with numbered references you can click.
That emphasis on citing sources makes Perplexity interesting for businesses. If you appear as a source, you get not only visibility but also a chance of a visit from someone who has just asked a concrete question.
When you ask a question, Perplexity searches the web for relevant pages, extracts the useful passages and has a language model turn them into an answer. That principle is known as RAG, retrieval-augmented generation. So the LLM doesn't make up the answer entirely by itself, but relies on retrieved sources. Perplexity uses its own crawler for this and probably other search indexes as well. Exactly how sources are selected isn't fully public.
Users can ask follow-up questions, which makes a search feel more like a conversation. There are also more extensive search modes that consult more sources for complex questions.
Suppose someone asks: "Which driving school in Manchester offers lessons in an automatic car and has good reviews?" Perplexity looks for pages that answer that question and names a few driving schools, with links to their websites, review platforms or local articles. If your site clearly states that you offer lessons in an automatic, in which areas and on what terms, you make it easier for a system like this to find and mention you. If that information only sits in a PDF brochure or an image, it's more likely to be overlooked.
This approach ties in with GEO, optimising for generative search engines. There are no guarantees: which sources are chosen differs per question and can change from day to day.
Perplexity is one of several AI search services. ChatGPT Search and Gemini work on a similar idea, but with their own sources and their own choices. A business can show up often in one system and hardly at all in another. That's why it makes sense to look at your presence in each of those systems separately, and to check per question whether you appear as a citation.
Manually entering dozens of questions and comparing the answers is time-consuming and not very reliable. By tracking your visibility in AI search engines, you can see which questions your brand is mentioned for in Perplexity and other assistants, and which competitors do appear.
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