OAI-SearchBot

If one bot decides whether ChatGPT can recommend you from live search, it is this one. OAI-SearchBot respects robots.txt, so an accidental disallow, often a leftover from a blanket block on OpenAI during the 2023 backlash, quietly removes you from consideration every time ChatGPT searches on a buyer's behalf. The fix costs nothing: allow OAI-SearchBot explicitly, and OpenAI notes changes are picked up in roughly a day. Verification matters too: OpenAI publishes the bot's IP addresses at openai.com/searchbot.json, so you can confirm from server logs whether it has ever actually visited, which is a fast, factual answer to the question why does ChatGPT never cite us. Seeing regular OAI-SearchBot traffic is one of the healthiest signals in an AEO audit; seeing none is the first thing to fix.