Different interfaces, shared foundations
AI-generated answers can combine information from multiple pages rather than presenting only a conventional results list. That changes the discovery experience, but it does not create a shortcut around useful content or accessible pages. Google’s guidance keeps established SEO practices at the centre of eligibility for its AI search features.
Make the company and service easy to identify
A business website should answer who operates the company, what each service includes, where it is available and who it is suitable for. Put these answers in visible text. A precise service page helps a prospective customer and gives retrieval systems clearer context than a set of abstract brand slogans.
Use structured data to describe what the page actually says
Organisation, service, article and breadcrumb information can support a consistent description of the site. The markup must match visible content. Google does not require special AI schema or additional AI text files for its AI search features. Adding a file called llms.txt should not be sold as a Google visibility requirement.
Separate search discovery from model-training policy
OpenAI provides distinct controls for OAI-SearchBot, used for search discovery, and GPTBot, used for model-training crawling. For our website, search access is allowed and GPTBot is disallowed. This is a crawler policy choice, not a promise that the company will appear in an AI answer. Hosting or firewall settings also need to agree with the intended policy.
Decide whether agents need information or actions
A brochure site usually needs clear pages and service information. A business with dynamic stock, booking availability or a useful workflow may benefit from an additional API or agent interface. MCP is one possible interface for a justified use case; it is not a default SEO deliverable.
Measure what you can substantiate
Check rendered HTML, internal links, indexability, canonical URLs and structured-data health before describing a site as ready. Search Console reports Google AI-feature traffic within the overall Web search reporting described in its guidance. Visits, relevant enquiries and crawl health provide a more accountable baseline than claims of guaranteed placement.
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