Is Your Website AI-Ready? A Plain English Checklist
You do not need to be technical to assess whether your website is ready for AI search. This plain English checklist walks you through the key questions - and tells you what to ask your developer if something needs fixing.
A website is AI-ready when it passes four checks: AI crawlers are permitted in robots.txt, an llms.txt file exists, key pages carry structured data markup, and the business appears credibly on third-party platforms beyond its own domain.
How to use this checklist
Work through each section. You will be able to check some items yourself. For the technical ones, the "what to ask your developer" guidance gives you the exact question to ask - even if you do not understand the technical detail behind it.
Section 1: Can AI visitors get in?
- ☐ Check yourself: Go to yourwebsite.com/robots.txt. Does the page load and show text? (Good.) Does it say
Disallow: /? (Possible problem.) - ☐ Ask your developer: "Can you check our robots.txt to make sure ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude's bots are allowed to visit our site?"
- ☐ Check yourself: Go to yourwebsite.com/llms.txt. Does a page load with information about your business? If not, ask: "Can you create an llms.txt file for our website explaining what we do?"
Section 2: Does your website explain itself clearly?
- ☐ Check yourself: Read your homepage first paragraph aloud. Does it clearly state what your business does and who it helps - in one or two sentences? If not, it needs rewriting.
- ☐ Check yourself: Search for your business name on Google. Is the information accurate and up to date?
- ☐ Ask your developer: "Can you add schema markup to our homepage so AI tools have clear, structured information about our business?"
Section 3: Does your business appear credible online?
- ☐ Check yourself: Search for your business name on ChatGPT and Perplexity. Is the information accurate?
- ☐ Check yourself: Do you have an active, complete Google Business Profile?
- ☐ Check yourself: Are you listed in the main directories for your industry?
- ☐ Check yourself: Do you have reviews on at least one trusted platform (Google, Trustpilot, etc.)?
Section 4: Is your content helpful to AI?
- ☐ Check yourself: Does your homepage answer "what do you do?" in the first sentence?
- ☐ Check yourself: Do your key pages include FAQs or Q&A sections?
- ☐ Ask your developer: "Can you add FAQ schema markup to our key pages so AI tools can read our frequently asked questions directly?"
What your score means
- 12 or more checked: Good baseline - a few targeted improvements can get you to AI-ready
- 8 to 11 checked: Average - there are gaps to address, start with Section 1
- Under 8 checked: Below average - prioritise Section 1 fixes immediately
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Sources & Further Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean for a website to be AI-ready?
An AI-ready website is one that AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can easily access, understand and cite as a source. It allows AI crawlers to visit, has structured data labels, provides an llms.txt guide file, and has a credible brand presence that AI systems can verify.
Can I make my website AI-ready without technical knowledge?
You can assess your AI readiness without technical knowledge using this checklist and a free SearchScore audit. Most of the actual fixes are technical and will need a web developer - but they are typically quick jobs once you know what needs doing.
How long does it take to make a website AI-ready?
The core technical fixes - unblocking AI crawlers, creating llms.txt, adding basic schema markup - can typically be completed in a day or two of developer time. Building brand authority and improving content takes longer. Most websites can reach a solid baseline within two to four weeks.
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