If you commented WEBSITE — this is the thing. Bookmark it.
Search changed. Google doesn't hand people ten blue links anymore — the AI reads the web and recommends a business directly. And it's not reading the pretty front of your site. It's reading the code underneath. Here's exactly what needs to be there, and what each piece does.
1. robots.txt — permission to even be seen
This little file tells crawlers what they're allowed to read — including the AI crawlers. Most sites silently never invite them. Explicitly allow them:
``` User-agent: GPTBot Allow: / User-agent: ClaudeBot Allow: / User-agent: PerplexityBot Allow: / User-agent: Google-Extended Allow: / ```
If GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot aren't allowed, the AI can't even see you. You're invisible before the race starts.
2. Schema — telling the AI who, what, and where you are
Structured data (JSON-LD) in your `<head>`: a `LocalBusiness` (or `Organization`) block, a `Service` block per service, and a `FAQPage`. Your name, address, phone, hours, what you do, where you do it — in a format the AI trusts. This is how it knows you're a real business it can confidently recommend.
3. llms.txt — a plain-language brief for AI
A plain-text file at `/llms.txt` that summarizes your business in clean prose the AI can ingest directly. It's a new standard and almost nobody has one yet — which means it's an easy edge while it lasts.
4. Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone)
The exact same name, address, and phone on your site **and** every directory — Google, Yelp, Bing, Apple Maps, the rest. Mismatches make the AI (and Google's map pack) distrust you and rank you lower. One source of truth, everywhere.
5. Direct-answer copy
Write the answers to the questions people actually ask — pricing, "repair vs. replace," insurance, service area — in plain text on the page. If that info is trapped inside an image or a PDF, it doesn't exist to AI. Say it plainly so the AI can extract it and quote *you*.
6. Clean, fast, semantic HTML + a sitemap
No heavy JavaScript walls, no page-builder bloat. AI and Google both reward fast, readable code and punish the opposite. Add a `sitemap.xml` so every page gets found.
The honest part
Any one of these is a config file. Doing all of them right — valid schema, the AI-crawler rules, consistent NAP across twenty directories, the direct-answer rewrite, the speed — *that's* the work. Every layer has ten gotchas this list doesn't have room for.
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