The basics that make AI able to read, trust, and recommend your business. Work through them at your own pace — your progress saves on this device. Templates included, honest warnings where things get risky.
AI trusts a business it sees written the same way everywhere. "Street" on your site and "St." on Google can read as two different businesses — and one AI isn't sure about is one it won't recommend. Pick one correct version of your details, then make everything match it.
The most important one. Name, address, phone and category must match your master exactly. Changing the address may trigger re-verification — that's normal.
Both spots. Watch for an old address hiding on an "About" or location page.
Search your business name + phone. Claim and fix each listing you find.
Healthcare: Healthgrades, Zocdoc. Home services: Angi, Houzz. Restaurants: TripAdvisor. Pick what fits you.
An llms.txt is a plain text file on your website whose only job is to tell AI, simply, who you are and what you offer — so it doesn't have to guess. Most businesses don't have one. It takes minutes.
Keep it simple and true. Copy the block above and swap in your own info.
It must sit at yourwebsite.com/llms.txt — top level, not in a folder. Your website manager can do it in a minute.
Type your address + /llms.txt into a browser. If you see your text, it's live.
Only put what's true. If your llms.txt contradicts your website, you've created exactly the mismatch AI distrusts.
Rather not do this part yourself? We set the foundations up for you — and handle the parts a checklist can't.
Get a free auditWhen AI answers a question, it likes to quote a page that already answers that exact question. A FAQ is the simplest way to give it one. But there's a catch most people miss.
Your FAQ has to answer the questions people actually ask AI — not the ones you assume are important. "Why choose us?" is what you care about. "How much does a bathroom remodel cost in [city]?" is what your customer types into ChatGPT. Only the second kind gets you quoted. And which questions people ask shifts over time — it needs watching, not a one-time guess.
"Why choose us? We deliver world-class, tailored solutions with a customer-first philosophy."
"How soon can I start PT after ACL surgery? Most patients begin within 1–2 weeks, once cleared by their surgeon. Our Columbus clinic offers same-week evaluations."
Think of what people actually type or say before they buy — cost, timing, "is X safe", "do you do Y". Not what you wish they asked.
Lead with the direct answer. Add a number, a timeframe, the city. No sales language inside the answer.
Visible on your site, in plain question-and-answer format.
Schema is a small block of hidden code that labels what your page is — "this is a business", "this is its phone" — so AI doesn't guess. Visitors never see it. Think of it as clear labels on moving boxes.
Schema has an exact format. One missing bracket or a wrong detail and AI ignores it — or worse, reads the wrong info and repeats it. After adding it, paste your page into Google's free Rich Results Test to confirm it's valid. A broken schema is worse than none — leave it until you can check it.
Your website manager pastes it into the page code and fills in the true info.
Confirm it's valid before you trust it. If it errors, fix or remove it.
Schema and code not your thing? This is exactly the kind of thing we set up correctly, first time.
Get a free auditAI doesn't just count stars — it reads the words in your reviews and quotes them. Two businesses can both have 5.0★. AI recommends the one whose reviews name the exact service, place and result a customer is asking about.
"Amazing experience! Highly recommend. 5 stars!"
"After my ACL surgery their sports rehab in Columbus got me back on the field in 5 months."
Right after a good result — finished job, great visit — not weeks later.
One tap to the review box. Ask "what did we help with, and how did it go?" — that naturally produces service + result in their words.
"So glad the knee rehab went well!" repeats the phrase in your voice.
Never write, buy or script reviews — it breaks platform rules and backfires. Keep a steady trickle: ten in one day looks fake and can get them hidden. A few a week looks real.
The five steps above get your foundations right — and that alone puts you ahead of most. But being readable isn't the same as being recommended. A few things sit outside what any checklist can safely hand you:
AI leans heavily on other sites: best-of lists, review platforms, and communities like Reddit. Which ones matter is different for every industry, and it changes — and it's the easiest place to do damage.
AI does lean on Reddit, but not every thread — many it cites are years old and locked, so new posts do nothing. And working several accounts at once to push your name is the fastest way to get flagged and banned — which can taint your whole domain. Done wrong, this sets you back, not forward.
Don't flood your site with pages just to have content. Businesses that pump out hundreds of AI-written pages get a short spike, then a Google penalty that can take years to undo. Less, done well, wins — and knowing what to write means knowing what people actually ask AI in your market.
Your spot in AI answers isn't fixed. On busy questions, businesses lose their place about 23% of the time each month, and a competitor takes it 80% of the time.
Done with the basics? Let us run the real test — what the AI models actually say about your business — and send it over. No call needed.