What should be on my website so AI tools understand my business?

Most advice about showing up in AI answers starts with technical files. Start with your pages instead. An AI tool reading your site is a lot like a smart stranger skimming it at 10pm: it wants to know what you do, who it's for, who's behind it, and whether the details hold up.

Why does my website matter so much to AI tools?

Because it's the one source about your business that you fully control. AI assistants pull from many places, including listings, reviews, and articles, but your website is where the definitive version of you should live. When other sources are out of date or disagree, a clear, current site gives people and AI tools a reference point. If you haven't checked what AI tools say about you yet, start with this audit so you know what you're fixing.

What should each page say?

Work through your site in this order. Each step is something you or your web person can do this month.

1. Homepage: one plain sentence. At the top, before any scrolling, say what you do, for whom, and the result. "Bookkeeping for independent veterinary practices in Ohio, so owners know their numbers every month" beats "Empowering your financial journey." Use the same sentence, or close to it, everywhere you describe yourself.
2. A page for each service. Each one should say what the service is, who it's for, what's included, how it works, and how to start. If you share pricing, even a "starting at," put it in text. One page listing six services in a sentence each gives an AI tool very little to work with.
3. An about page with real people. Full names, roles, relevant credentials and experience, and where you're based or who you serve. "A passionate team" tells a reader nothing. "Founded by a CPA who ran finance for a veterinary group" is something a tool can repeat.
4. Answers to the questions buyers ask. An FAQ section, or better, a short page or post per big question, with the answer in the first two sentences. Use your buyers' words, not your industry's.
5. Contact details that match everywhere. The same business name, email, phone, and location or service area on your site, LinkedIn, and every directory. Then send yourself a test inquiry through your own contact form.
6. Real text, not pictures of text. Your key sentence, services, and bios should be ordinary text on the page, not baked into images, slide graphics, or a PDF. Google's guidance for its AI features specifically lists making sure important content is available in textual form.
7. Crawler access. Confirm your site isn't blocking the automated visitors that search and AI tools send to read it.
8. Basic structured data. A small block of labels in your site's code that states your business name, website, logo, and official profiles.

The last two need a little explaining.

How do I know AI tools can actually read my site?

Most websites have a small settings file called robots.txt that tells automated visitors, called crawlers, what they may read. Sometimes a security setting, a plugin, or an old instruction blocks crawlers you'd actually want.

Each AI company documents its own. OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot crawler is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features, and that sites which opt out of it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Perplexity says PerplexityBot is used to surface and link websites in its search results. Anthropic says blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce your site's visibility and accuracy in Claude's search results. Google lists letting its crawler reach your pages as a basic step for its AI features, the same as for regular Search.

You don't need to read the file yourself. Ask whoever manages your site: "Are we blocking Google, Bing, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, or Claude-SearchBot?" These companies use separate crawlers for gathering model training data (OpenAI's is GPTBot, Anthropic's is ClaudeBot), so you can decline training and still allow search if you prefer.

What is structured data, and do I need it?

Structured data is a short block of code, invisible to visitors, that labels facts on your page so machines don't have to guess: this is the business name, this is our logo, these are our official profiles. The shared vocabulary most sites use for it is called schema.org.

For a service business, the sensible starting point is Organization markup on your homepage or about page. Google says it can help Google understand your organization's details and tell you apart from others in search results. Google lists no required properties; it suggests adding the ones that apply, such as your name, website, logo, description, contact details, and "sameAs" links to your profiles on other sites. Those links are especially handy if your name is shared with another business.

The honest caveat: Google says no special structured data is needed for its AI features, and any structured data should match what's visible on the page. Treat it as tidy labeling of facts you've already written plainly, not a shortcut.

Do I need an llms.txt file?

No, though it can help in specific cases. llms.txt is a proposed format, first published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024, for a plain-text file that gives AI tools a short, readable guide to a website. It's optional. Google says you don't need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in its AI features.

We publish one at Seats at the Table for a particular reason: several unrelated organizations share a near-identical name, so our file spells out which one we are and which ones we're not. If your name is unique and your pages are clear, your time is better spent on the checklist above.

What can I skip?

• Hidden text or keyword lists stuffed in for robots. If a visitor can't see it, don't count on it.
• A separate "AI version" of your site. One clear site serves people and machines.
• Paying for markup nobody can explain to you. Ask to see what it says about your business.
• Rewriting everything in one weekend. Do the homepage sentence first, then work down the list.
• Blocking every bot out of caution. You may be blocking the ones that would show you to buyers.

What did we learn from fixing our own site?

Two lessons, both from our own website. First, changing a page doesn't instantly change what the internet says about you. After we updated our positioning, search results kept showing our old homepage title and retired positioning for a while. Saying the new version consistently everywhere gave it the best chance to replace the old one, and checking again later is part of the job.

Second, test the parts nobody tests. In August 2026 we discovered our own website contact form had never worked: a placeholder setting meant inquiries silently went nowhere. The site looked fine the whole time. We fixed it on August 14. However clearly AI tools understand you, the last step still happens on your site, so make sure it works.