AI assistants learn about your business from what they can read on the web. If they can't access your site, they can't recommend it. Here's how to make your website AI-crawler friendly.
Common AI crawlers
Several companies run crawlers with their own user-agent names, for example GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI), Google-Extended (Google AI training control), PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and others. Some collect training data; some fetch pages live to answer questions.
Controlling access with robots.txt
Your robots.txt file can allow or block each crawler. For most businesses that want visibility, allowing search-focused AI crawlers is sensible:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
Blocking everything may protect content but removes you from AI answers.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed standard: a plain Markdown file at /llms.txt that summarises your site and links to key pages for language models. It is not yet an official or widely confirmed ranking signal, so treat it as a low-cost extra, not a magic fix.
Making content easy for AI to read
- Server-render your pages — many AI crawlers don't run JavaScript.
- Use clear headings and short paragraphs.
- Put key facts in text, not only in images.
- State your business name, services and location plainly.
- Add structured data.
- Keep pages fast — slow pages may be skipped.
Summary
Decide which AI crawlers you welcome, keep your pages readable without JavaScript and write clear factual content. That's what gets you into AI-generated answers.