# 10 technical SEO tips for AI search

A technical checklist to to rank in AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT.

AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, [Google](/content/blog/how-to-rank-in-google-ai-overviews/index.html) [AI Overview](/content/blog/how-to-rank-in-ai-overviews/index.html), Claude and [Perplexity](/content/blog/rank-tracking-tools-for-perplexity/index.html) copy chunks of the open web, weigh them, and weave replies in real time.

They reward sites that are fast, clear and machine‑readable.

Use the steps below as a living checklist and revisit it each quarter.

## 1\. Allow GPTBot, Bingbot & other [AI crawlers](/content/blog/top-ai-search-crawlers-user-agents/index.html)

If an AI crawler cannot fetch your HTML, it will never cite you. Open the gate in `robots.txt`:

```
User-agent: *
Disallow:
```

You can use [Airefs](/content/site-root.html)' [AEO log file analysis](/content/aeo-log-file-analysis/index.html) to check if actual AI crawlers and bots crawl your page.

## 2\. Index content ASAP

LLM‑powered results surface fresher pages first. Push every new or updated URL to IndexNow, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

**Example:**

```
curl -X POST "https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=https://example.com/new-article&key=YOUR_KEY"
```

This pings IndexNow within seconds of deploy.

## 3\. Use a clean URL path

Tokens matter. Shallow, readable URLs waste fewer tokens and tell the bot what the page is about.

**Example:**`/blog/ai-search/technical-setup` → good. `/index.php?id=1234&cat=9` → bad.

## 4\. Serve server‑side rendered or static HTML

Several AI crawlers skip JavaScript. Provide HTML they can parse immediately.

## 5\. Serve content fast

Slow pages drop out of the training set. Target **<1 s TTFB** and **<2 s LCP**.

**Example:** Deploy to a global edge (Cloudflare, Fastly), defer non-critical JS and lazy‑load images with `<img loading="lazy" ...>`.

## 6\. Add structured data

Schema.org markup turns prose into machine‑ready facts. For blog posts use `Article`, for Q&A sections, use `FAQPage`/ `Question`/ `Answer` , etc.

**Example:**

```
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "10 Technical SEO Steps to Maximise Visibility in AI Search",
  "datePublished": "2025-06-26",
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Your Name" }
}
</script>
```

## 7\. Implement hreflang and regional tags

Provide localized version of your content with `hreflang`.

**Example:**

```
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="https://yoursite.com/uk/article" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://yoursite.com/us/article" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://yoursite.com/article" />
```

## 8\. Keep an up-to-date sitemap.xml and [llms.txt](/content/blog/llms-txt-and-llms-full-txt-explained/index.html)

List every indexable URL for both classic and AI crawlers. [Learn more about llms.txt](/content/learn/llms-txt-and-llms-full-txt-explained/index.html).

**Example** [**llms.txt**](/content/llms-txt-generator/index.html) **:**

```
# Main Website Title
Brief description of your website or platform (1-2 sentences)
Primary Section

Page Title - Brief page description

Another Page Title - Brief page description

Another Primary Section

Section Page - Brief page description

Subsection Page - Brief page description

Another Subsection - Brief page description
```

## 9\. Implement crawl priorities

Guide crawlers to spend time on valuable pages with `priority`.

**Example sitemap entry:**

```
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/product/widget-3000&lt;/loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
```

Thin pages can be `noindex, nofollow`.

## 10\. Secure everything (HTTPS, HSTS)

Security signals quality to bots and users alike. Enforce HTTPS and HSTS site‑wide and audit for mixed‑content leaks.

## Wrap‑up

The reality is simple: AI engines want the same thing we’ve always valued – fast, clean, helpful content.

Get these foundations right and you’ll see your content getting cited more often. For more advanced strategies, read our guide on [how to rank in ChatGPT](/content/blog/how-to-rank-in-chatgpt/index.html) and [how to rank in AI Overviews](/content/blog/how-to-rank-in-ai-overviews/index.html).

Published Jun 12, 2025

Updated Nov 19, 2025