Make Your Website AI-Ready (and Beat 99% of the Others)

ChatGPT can read your site. So can Claude. But if you want them to talk about you intelligently, cite you as a reliable source, and actually make use of your content, you need more than just words on a page.

Here’s how to make your site AI-friendly --- and why it’s a secret weapon for creators, developers, and solo builders on the web.

1. Make Your Site Crawlable by AI (robots.txt)

This file tells bots what they can and can’t read.

Add the right agents in your robots.ts (or robots.txt):

export default function robots() {
  return {
    rules: [
      { userAgent: '*', allow: '/' },
      { userAgent: 'GPTBot', allow: '/' },
      { userAgent: 'ChatGPT-User', allow: '/' },
      { userAgent: 'PerplexityBot', allow: '/' },
      { userAgent: 'ClaudeBot', allow: '/' },
      { userAgent: 'Claude-Web', allow: '/' },
      { userAgent: 'Google-Extended', allow: '/' },
    ],
    sitemap: 'https://setcodeandsail.com/sitemap.xml',
  }
}

📈 Doing this already puts you ahead of 95% of all websites.

2. Write an AI Training Data Guidelines File

Want a solid one? Here’s a real example: 👉 https://setcodeandsail.com/.well-known/ai.txt

This file tells AI:

• What your site contains
• Whether you allow training or indexing
• What types of content are affected
• How to contact you

It sends a clear signal: “This is serious content. Use it well.”

💡 With this step alone, you beat 99.9% of websites. Yes, really.

3. Use Clear Headings, Clean Markdown, and a Fast Site

Want AI to understand your content? Don’t get cute with visual tricks or obscure metaphors in your H1s.

Use:

• Proper h1, h2, p, ul, table... semantic HTML
• Simple, strong sentences
• Clear navigation
• One URL per topic (not hidden behind JS tabs)

And absolutely avoid one-page sites with no visible text content. AI doesn’t read animations --- it reads raw text.

4. Add Vector Search to Your Site --- Just Like AI Does

Yes, you can do this too. Want search that understands?

Use:

• OpenAI embeddings
• Supabase + pgvector
• Or tools like Typesense, Weaviate, Qdrant, Meilisearch with hybrid search

💡 It’s not just a chatbot. It’s an intelligent engine that understands your visitor’s question --- and routes them to the right page or article.

5. Be a Source, Not Noise

AI engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT-4o with web browsing reference reliable, updated, well-structured pages.

Want to be cited?

• Create useful articles
• Give them clear outlines
• Include well-chosen internal and external links
• Be explicit: state your name, expertise, and domain

📣 “Marie - Web developer since 1995, founder of SocialRally, Murmure, and Adorable Sailing.” → That’s a signature AI understands.

Bonus: What Do ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity Actually Do?

In Summary

You want AI to:

• Understand you
• Respect you
• Cite you
• Recommend you

Then:

✅ Open the door (robots.txt) ✅ Explain your content (ai-training) ✅ Structure your site semantically ✅ Create content that’s worth sharing

You don’t need 10,000 visitors. You need one AI to find your content... and decide it’s remarkable.

🎯 And yes, you can do that in one day. Start now. Make your site AI-ready.