How do I make my website AI-friendly?
Being AI-friendly means AI crawlers can reach your pages, read your content without extra work, and tell facts apart from decoration. It comes down to five concrete steps: allow the right crawlers, keep key content in real HTML text (not JavaScript-only or images), use semantic HTML, add schema markup, and optionally add an llms.txt file.
ShoaibUpdated 4 min read
1. Let AI crawlers in through robots.txt
| Crawler | What it's for | Controlled separately? |
|---|---|---|
Googlebot |
Regular Google Search + AI Overviews | Default: allowed |
OAI-SearchBot |
ChatGPT's search and citations | Yes, from GPTBot |
GPTBot |
Training OpenAI's models | Yes, from OAI-SearchBot |
ChatGPT-User |
Live, user-requested page visits | robots.txt rules may not apply |
If you block GPTBot but allow OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT can still surface and cite your pages in search answers without your content being used for training.
2. Put key facts in text, not just images or JS
Google's JavaScript SEO guidance warns that hiding content behind heavy client-side rendering can stop crawlers from properly understanding your page. Prices, hours and addresses should exist as real HTML text, not only inside an image or a script that runs after load.
3. Use semantic HTML and real headings
Google's SEO Starter Guide recommends semantic HTML and a logical heading structure. It helps screen readers and also how search engines — and AI systems reading the same markup — interpret your page.
4. Add schema.org structured data
Structured data is a standardised way to label what a page is about — a service, a review, a local business. Google describes it as classifying your content so search engines don't have to guess at it.
5. Add an llms.txt file (optional, low effort)
A short Markdown file at your domain root summarising your business. Cheap to add, though Google itself says it isn't required for its own AI features.
Want this built into your site from day one? Our landing pages service covers all five.