PerplexityBot

PerplexityBot is the user agent that builds Perplexity's own index, the one its answer engine searches before writing a response. A second agent, Perplexity-User, retrieves a specific page when a user asks about it or pastes its URL. The first respects robots.txt; the second generally does not, on the basis that a human requested that page.

Perplexity is relevant to UK businesses because it is citation-heavy: nearly every answer shows numbered sources, and users click them. It also draws noticeably on community and review sites, so the domains it cites for your prompts are worth studying. If a forum thread or a directory page is cited repeatedly for "best accountant in Sheffield" and you are not on it, that gap is more actionable than any on-page change.

Pages that do well in Perplexity answers tend to state the answer in the first paragraph, use descriptive headings and carry dates so the engine can judge freshness.

Seoptist queries Perplexity through its official Sonar API, records the citations it returns, and reports both your visibility and the most-cited domains per prompt. The audit confirms PerplexityBot is allowed in robots.txt and is not blocked upstream.