How does ChatGPT even reach my website?

Two routes: knowledge absorbed in model training (slow to refresh), and live browsing - when a user asks something requiring current information, the engine runs a search, opens a few top results, reads them fast and composes an answer. The second route is the one you can influence today, and it leans heavily on your existing search rankings.

What is an llms.txt file?

A simple text file at a fixed address on your site that summarizes it for AI engines: who the business is, what the services are, which pages matter. A machine-friendly ID card. It is a young standard whose adoption is still forming, but it costs nothing - early adopters signal an AI-friendly site.

What is the difference between being a "source" and being a "recommendation" in an AI answer?

For information questions ("how much does repiping cost?"), the engine cites information sources - if your price range gets quoted, your name is in the answer. For recommendation questions ("who is good for repiping in Netanya?"), it leans on reviews, mentions and consistent presence. A good strategy works both: quotable content plus accumulated reputation.

Should I block AI crawlers from my site?

If you want to be found - absolutely not. Blocking AI crawlers (via robots.txt) means that when a customer asks about your kind of service, the answer gets built from your competitors' sites. Blocking makes sense only for paid-content publishers. A local service business gains from being crawled.

How ChatGPT Reads Your Website (and How to Get Quoted)

In the previous GEO post we covered why AI engines are the new customer channel. Today, practice: what exactly happens in the seconds between a customer’s question and the engine’s answer - and how to get your name into it.

What happens in those 10 seconds?

A customer asks: “How much does monthly garden maintenance cost for a private house?” Behind the scenes:

The engine formulates searches. It breaks the question into a few queries and runs them.
It picks what to open. From the results, it opens a handful of pages - usually the higher-ranked ones. (Yes, good SEO is the entry ticket here too.)
It skims fast. Not like a human: it hunts for facts, numbers and direct answers. It has a time budget; a slow or script-buried page may get skipped.
It composes and cites. Clear, factual sentences from the opened pages get woven into the answer, usually with credit and a link.

Everything follows from this process: to be in the answer you must (a) be where the engine searches, (b) load fast, (c) write sentences that can be quoted.

5 practical upgrades for this week

1. Write sentences a machine can quote

Compare: “Our prices are especially attractive!” versus “Monthly maintenance for a garden up to 200 square meters costs 400-700 ILS, depending on plant density.” The second sentence is a ready-made quote. Walk through your service pages and ask: is there at least one sentence here that answers a question with numbers or facts?

2. Add FAQ pages

Question + direct answer is AI engines’ favorite format: it is exactly the shape of what they produce. The questions you gathered in keyword research are perfect raw material.

3. Implement Schema (structured data)

A hidden code layer declaring in a standard language: this is a local business, this is the address, these are the hours, these are the services, these are Q&As. Google and AI engines both read it. On the sites we build it is embedded automatically on every page.

4. Add an llms.txt file

A young, zero-cost standard: one text file summarizing who you are and what matters on the site. Even while industry adoption is still forming, the cost is nil and it signals AI-friendliness.

5. Make sure the site is fast and not blocking

Check robots.txt to confirm you are not accidentally blocking AI crawlers (happens more than you’d think, thanks to overzealous security plugins). And a fast site, as you have already measured, gets crawled more and cut off less.

Bottom line

An AI engine is a hurried reader with an excellent memory: it opens the top-ranked, skims, quotes whoever wrote clearly, and remembers who was useful. The formula follows: factual content in Q&A format, structured data, and a fast site that doesn’t block. The five steps above are a week’s work, and they serve you both on Google and in whatever comes after it.

Want us to check how your site looks through an AI engine’s eyes? Send it over ↗