Can AI assistants read your website?

Whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and the like can read the site and quote it correctly.

• A file assistants can readA plain summary of the site at /llms.txt. Cheap to add. Evidence that AI tools read it is still mixed.
• Nothing pretending to be an answerSome sites return a normal web page where the file should be. An assistant reads that as broken.
• Assistants are allowed inIf robots.txt blocks AI crawlers by name, assistants answer about you from other people's pages.
• Structured data that parsesMachine-readable facts (name, products, prices, hours) that search engines and assistants can quote exactly.
• The words are in the pageIf the text only appears after scripts run, many crawlers and assistants see an empty page.
• A sitemap to crawlA list of every page, so crawlers find all of them, not just what the menu links to.

The basics a search engine reads first: title, description, headings and links.

• Title tagThe title is the headline in search results and the first thing an assistant reads.
• Meta descriptionThe summary under the headline in search. Too long and it gets cut off.
• One H1One main heading tells search engines what the page is about.
• Title and H1 agreeWhen the title and the main heading share words, the page states its subject twice.
• Title matches the pageA title that names what the page is mostly about ranks better and gets quoted correctly.
• Canonical URLTells search engines which address is the real one, so duplicates do not split the ranking.
• Social cardControls the preview image and title when the page is shared or linked.
• Enough text to rank onSearch engines and assistants need words to understand a page. Images and video alone do not count.
• Internal linksLinks between your own pages help crawlers find and weigh them.
• Images describedAlt text describes images for screen readers and for search.

How much the page costs to load, and Google's own speed test on a phone when it is available.

• Server responseHow long the server takes to start sending the page. Slow starts slow everything.
• HTML weightA heavy page takes longer to arrive, especially on a phone.
• Third-party codeEvery outside script is something you do not control that slows the page down.
• Render-blocking scriptsScripts that stop the page from showing until they load.
• Modern image formatsWebP and AVIF images are much lighter than JPEG and PNG at the same quality.
• Google PageSpeed, mobileGoogle's own speed test on a phone. Speed affects ranking and how many visitors stay.

Encryption, a few security headers, language and phone layout.

• HTTPSAn encrypted connection. Browsers warn visitors away from sites without it.
• HSTSTells browsers to always use the encrypted connection.
• MIME sniffing offA one-line header that stops browsers guessing file types, a small security gap.
• Content Security PolicyLimits which scripts can run on the page, which blocks a common kind of attack.
• Language declaredTells browsers, screen readers and search engines what language the page is in.
• Mobile viewportWithout it, the page shows as a shrunken desktop page on a phone.
• AccessibilityWhether people using screen readers and keyboards can use the site.