Where the answers come from
Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on the same index as regular search, and that there are no extra requirements to appear in them beyond normal SEO. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity search the web when asked about current, local things, read the pages they find, and summarize them. In every case, a page they can’t read, or a business with conflicting details across the web, is a business they’re less likely to mention.
What helps
- A site whose text is in the page. Some sites only show their text after scripts run in the browser. Many AI crawlers don’t run scripts, so they see an almost empty page. Our AI visibility check shows how much of your page each one receives.
- Not blocking them by accident. Your robots.txt file can block AI crawlers. OpenAI, for example, uses separate crawlers for training (GPTBot) and for search answers (OAI-SearchBot). Blocking the training one is a fair choice; blocking the search one keeps you out of ChatGPT’s answers.
- Plain statements of what you do and where. “We repair roofs in Conway, Surfside Beach and Murrells Inlet” is easy to quote. A home page of slogans is not.
- Consistent details everywhere. Same name, phone, address and hours on your site, Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and Facebook.
- Reviews that describe the work. AI summaries often lean on what customers say.
- Prices and answers. People ask assistants what something costs. A page that says gets quoted.
What about llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed file, at yoursite.com/llms.txt, that gives AI tools a plain summary of a site and links to its most important pages. It’s a community proposal, not a standard any major company has committed to reading, and Google has said it doesn’t use it for search. It’s cheap to add and may help some tools, which is why we publish one, but it’s not a substitute for a readable site.
What doesn’t work
- Hiding text for AI crawlers that visitors can’t see. That’s cloaking, and search engines treat it as spam.
- Buying placement in “AI optimization” directories. AI tools don’t rank businesses by who paid a directory.
- Pages of AI-written filler. Assistants summarize; they don’t reward volume.
Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.