Where AI gets its answers
When a customer asks an AI for a recommendation, the answer is built from three things: what your website says, what is said about you elsewhere, and how easily a machine can read both. The model does not know your business in advance, so it picks up whatever is clearly written and easy to find.
In practice this means search engine optimisation and AI visibility are the same work with different end results. Both reward a site that answers the question directly and states its facts unambiguously.
Why a well-made site can still be missing from the answers
- The site says who you are but never answers the question the customer actually types
- The copy sits inside images or loads only after browser scripts run, so a machine never sees it
- The same fact appears in different forms in different places, say three phone numbers or two addresses
- Prices, service area and services are described in general terms, so there is nothing concrete to quote
- The business is mentioned nowhere else, so the machine gets no confirmation beyond a single source
What the site needs
- An answer right at the top: every page opens with one paragraph that answers the page's question in full sentences
- Clear subheadings written as questions or statements, not slogans
- Facts in one place: industry, services, service area, contact details and price level in the same form on every page
- Structured data, a machine-readable description of what the business is, what it does and where
- A genuinely answered FAQ, because those are the answers that get quoted
- A working sitemap and robots file so the machine can reach everything
- llms.txt, a short summary of the business written for AI as its own file
- A visible date, so the source does not look stale
- Mentions elsewhere: registries, trade directories, news, customers' sites
How to test your own business in five minutes
- Type the same question into an AI that your customer would, for example a good roofing contractor in Helsinki
- Check whether your business is mentioned and which source the mention comes from
- Ask directly what your business does and at what price. A wrong answer means the information is unclear on your site
- Ask where the business is located and which areas it serves. A vague answer means the site does not say
- Repeat with Google's AI answers and Perplexity, because they use different sources
What we do for a client
We build the site so that every page answers one question right at the top, the facts are machine-readable, and the FAQ is written for real rather than as filler. We also produce the llms.txt file, check the sitemap and make sure the content is visible without browser scripts.
We do not promise a place in an AI answer, because it cannot be bought. We promise a site in good enough shape to qualify as a source. After that, what matters is what is said about your business.
One thing worth doing first
Write one paragraph at the top of each key page that answers the page's question without marketing language. It is the cheapest and fastest change, and it shows in both search results and AI answers.