5 Ways to Optimize Content for Perplexity AI

A recent analysis from Metehan Yeşilyurt, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at AEO Vision, uncovers information on how Perplexity may rank content.

Knowing about potential Perplexity ranking factors means you can now shape your content to improve the chances of being cited.

Before we get into what you can do to optimize your content for Perplexity’s AI, let’s go over what Metehan found.

How Does Perplexity Rank Content?

Perplexity uses a three-layer (L3) reranking system for searches related to entities (people, organizations, places, etc.), according to Metehan’s research.

Here’s how it works:

Initial results are retrieved and scored
The reranking layer refines the quality of results
The result set can get discarded if it doesn’t meet the quality benchmarks

And here’s a deeper look into some specific Perplexity ranking factors Metehan identified:

Freshly published or updated content gets a significant ranking boost
Content that’s associated with domains approved as authoritative by Perplexity may see more citations
User engagement with new content heavily influences future ranking potential

Based on Metehan’s research, it seems that Perplexity weighs recency and user interaction patterns more heavily in its source selection process than Google does.

For example, imagine you wrote a detailed blog post about “electric vehicle battery innovations” that Perplexity retrieves when a user searches for “latest EV battery breakthroughs.” As it closely mirrors the prompt language.

Before showing your article, Perplexity applies the reranking level that evaluates your content against other factors.

If your post didn’t get much early traction and hasn’t been updated recently, there’s a very real possibility Perplexity will exclude it from the results.

5 Tips for Creating & Optimizing Content for Perplexity AI

Here’s how you can create content with the best chance of earning citations in Perplexity:

1. Choose High-Performing Topics

Perplexity’s ranking system prioritizes content in certain categories, so writing about certain topics that Preplexity deems as high-value (like business/analytics) gives you a better chance of being discovered and cited.

Metehan’s analysis notes, “content in top-tier categories receives exponentially more visibility than default topics.”

So if you want to increase rankings in Perplexity, consider writing pieces on topics related to AI, technology/innovation, science/research, and business/analytics.

For example, you could create a piece with commentary on AI use within your niche. Or publish a report featuring research your company has done. Our study on whether ChatGPT adoption is affecting Google’s popularity covers both.

Semrush's article on whether ChatGPT is replacing Google shows that ChatGPT is actually expanding search.

2. Include Semantic Keywords in Your Content

Including semantic keywords (related terms) helps Perplexity’s AI match your content to user queries.

For example, an article about “email marketing automation” could include related terms like “drip campaigns,” “behavioral triggers,” “lead nurturing,” and “conversion funnels.”

Here are some more tips:

Include both technical terms and common synonyms naturally (i.e., “content management system” and “website platform”)
Address multiple subtopics within your main theme
Connect your topic to related concepts through clear explanations
Use question-and-answer patterns that mirror how users actually search

Find semantically related keywords with Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. Enter your topic’s keyword, adjust your country (optional), and click “Search.”

Keyword Magic Tool start with keyword entered, country dropdown highlighted, and arrow to Search button.

Click “Related” to find related keywords. And consider using the keyword group filter on the left to drill down to specific topics.

Keyword Magic Tool results filtered by Related keywords and keyword group filters highlighted.

Then, write content and include your chosen semantic keywords.

The key to using semantic keywords is natural integration. Keyword stuffing (forcing keywords within the text) creates unnatural language patterns. And can actually harm your performance.

Instead, write as an expert who naturally uses the full range of relevant terminology.

3. Reference & Get Featured in Content from Perplexity’s Trusted Domains

Metehan’s research shows Perplexity maintains a manually curated list of reputable domains that can influence rankings, so referencing content from them or being mentioned in them can improve your visibility in Perplexity’s search results.

The trusted domains seem to align with what you would expect.. For example, sources like booking.com and Airbnb are seen as reputable in the travel space.

That said, the full list of manually approved domains isn’t published.

You can get a sense of which domains Perplexity favors by searching for niche-related topics and noting which domains Perplexity frequently references.

On a client’s website, SEO consultant Ross Kernez began adding links to some of the trusted sources Metehan discovered. And tripled the number of times the site’s developer content was featured in Perplexity answers.

“In developer-focused articles, we began including GitHub code snippets from popular open-source projects relevant to the topic. Instead of summarizing documentation ourselves, we linked directly to GitHub repos and incorporated issues or discussions from those projects.”

Ross did something similar for another type of content:

“For our consumer tech and product review content, we started adding links to Amazon product pages, customer reviews, and Reddit discussions to back up what we were saying.”

4. Write Compelling Meta Titles & Descriptions

Writing enticing title tags and meta descriptions encourages people to click on your citation within Perplexity’s output to increase the chances of establishing long-term visibility.

Why? Because Metehan’s research shows that early engagement is important. And users don’t have much beyond the citation snippet (which can show your title tag and meta description) to inform their decision of whether your content is worthy of their interaction.

Perplexity dashboard with three highlighted sources about dog treats for dogs with chicken allergies.

Make sure your titles contain your keyword and are accurate. Users should also know what your content is about from the title alone.

And your meta descriptions should give users a preview of your content. And what they gain by clicking to it from Perplexity.

5. Build Topical Authority

Perplexity may reward sites that demonstrate comprehensive topic expertise. So covering all angles of a topic could help you rank higher.It seems that Perplexity doesn’t evaluate content in isolation.

Instead, it considers how your content connects to existing articles and what collective expertise your site showsLet’s see this in action.

Here are some of the sources Perplexity shows to a user looking for advice on how to train a puppy to sit. The American Kennel Club appears twice. Because they’ve written multiple articles covering different angles of this topic.

Perplexity results with highlighted sources on how to train a puppy or dog to sit, showing AKC article links.

American Kennel Club also outperforms all its main competitors when we look at how much traffic Semrush’s AI Traffic dashboard estimates drive from Perplexity.

Traffic split table highlighting perplexity.ai with cited domains and traffic percentages.

One great way to build topical authority is to create topic clusters.

A topic cluster contains one pillar page (main page) that covers a broad topic and multiple cluster pages (subpages) that cover more specific angles. And they’re all connected through internal links.

For example, a blog post for the keyword “what are LLMs” might link out to other blog posts about ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode, and Perplexity. Like this:

Semrush’s Keyword Strategy Builder automatically creates pillar pages and subpages for you.

After you enter a few seed keywords (main topics), you’ll get lists of pillar pages and subpages.

Pillar page and subpages about healthy eating in Keyword Strategy Builder.

Create content for these topics—and link between related pages—to potentially improve citations within Perplexity.

Measure Success in Perplexity and Adapt

Measuring how your content performs in Perplexity helps you determine what you need to do to further optimize each piece. So you can continue to increase citations.

Here’s how:

Head to the Narrative Drivers tool within Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit. Enter your domain and click “Analyze.”

Select “Perplexity” in the dropdown. You’ll see how many mentions you have compared to your top competitors. You can add or remove competitors if needed.