How to optimize your content for AI search and agents

Want AI search engines and agents to find and use your content?

Traditional SEO isn’t enough. AI systems process information differently.

This guide breaks down key optimizations to help your content stay visible and rank in the AI era.

TL;DR: Quick AI optimization checklist

To optimize for AI search and agents:

Make content accessible with clean HTML/markdown and good structure.
Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt and firewall rules.
Return content fast, with key info high up.
Use semantic markup, metadata, and schemas.
Create an llms.txt file.
Check your content’s AI visibility.

Traditional SEO vs. AI search: The key differences

Many people ask how to optimize websites for AI search and agents instead of traditional SEO.

Through building Andi, an AI search engine, we’ve learned key differences in approach.

From the AI side, we process 30–50 million pages daily to find quality content for search, summarization, and question-answering.

But accessing and extracting useful information isn’t always easy.

Here’s what we’ve learned about making content truly AI-friendly.

Speed and simplicity are critical

Many AI systems have tight timeouts (1-5 seconds) for retrieving content.
Assume long content may be truncated or dropped completely after the timeout.

Clean, structured text wins

Many AI crawlers don’t handle JavaScript well, if at all. Logical content structure in plain HTML or markdown is ideal.

Metadata and semantic matter more

Clear titles, descriptions, dates, and schema.org markup help AI systems quickly understand your content.

Blocking crawlers can make you invisible

In a world of AI agents, overly aggressive bot protection can cut you off entirely.

Differentiate AI training vs. AI search access

Some AI crawlers collect training data, while others retrieve real-time content. You may want different policies for each.

Check your content’s AI visibility

AI search engine test: Paste a URL into andisearch.com. If options like Summarize or Explain appear, your page is accessible and useful for AI.
AI agent test: Use Firecrawl to see how AI agents perceive and access your content.

Dig deeper: How to monitor brand visibility across AI search channels

Key optimizations for AI accessibility

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

Add a robots.txt with fairly open access. Allow or disallow crawlers on a case-by-case basis.
Here’s an example that allows access for AI search/agents but disallows training data collection:

# Allow AI search and agent use
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: ChatGPT-User  
User-agent: PerplexityBot
User-agent: FirecrawlAgent
User-agent: AndiBot
User-agent: ExaBot
User-agent: PhindBot
User-agent: YouBot
Allow: /

# Disallow AI training data collection  
User-agent: GPTBot  
User-agent: CCBot  
User-agent: Google-Extended  
Disallow: /

# Allow traditional search indexing  
User-agent: Googlebot  
User-agent: Bingbot  
Allow: /

# Disallow access to admin areas for all bots  
User-agent: *  
Disallow: /admin/  
Disallow: /internal/  

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Avoid overly aggressive bot protection

Don’t use aggressive bot protection on Cloudflare/AWS WAF.
This will prevent AI crawlers and agents from accessing your content. Instead, allow major U.S. datacenter IP ranges.

Dig deeper: 3 reasons not to block GPTBot from crawling your site

Optimize for speed

Return content as fast as possible, ideally under one second.
Keep key content high up in the HTML.

Use clear metadata and semantic markup

Examples include:
- Basic SEO tags: </code>, <code><meta description=""/></code> and <code><meta keywords=""/></code>.</li> <li><strong>OpenGraph tags</strong>: This improves previews in AI search results.</li> <li><strong>Schema.org markup</strong>: Use JSON-LD for structured data.</li> <li><strong>Proper heading structure</strong>: (H1-H6).</li> <li><strong>Semantic elements</strong>: <code><br /> <article/></code>, <code></p> <section/></code> and <code></p> <nav/></code>.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-keep-content-on-a-single-page-where-possible">Keep content on a single page where possible</h3> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Avoid “Read more” buttons or multi-page articles.</li> </ul> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>This allows faster, more structured access for AI tools.</li> </ul> <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-indicate-content-freshness">Indicate content freshness</h3> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Use visible dates and <code><meta/></code> tags to help AI understand when content was published or updated.</li> </ul> <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-create-an-llms-txt-file">Create an llms.txt file</h3> <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-submit-a-sitemap-xml">Submit a sitemap.xml</h3> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Use sitemap.xml to guide crawlers to important content.</li> </ul> <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-use-a-favicon-and-lead-image">Use a favicon and lead image</h3> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>AI search engines display content visually. Having a simple favicon.ico and clear lead images improves visibility.</li> </ul> <p><strong><em>Dig deeper: Decoding LLMs: How to be visible in generative AI search results</em></strong></p> <p></p> <div class="nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2"> <div class="row align-items-center nl-inline-container"> <div class="col-12 col-lg-3 col-xl-4 pe-md-0 pb-2 pb-lg-0"> <p class="inline-form-text text-center mb-0">Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.</p> </p></div> </p></div> </div> <p></p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-css-opacity has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-major-ai-crawler-user-agents">Major AI crawler user-agents</h2> <p>When configuring your robots.txt, consider these major AI crawlers:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li><strong>OpenAI</strong> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>GPTBot (training data).</li> <li>ChatGPT-User (user actions in ChatGPT).</li> <li>OAI-SearchBot (AI search results).</li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>Google</strong> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Google-Extended (AI training).</li> <li>GoogleOther (various AI uses).</li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>Anthropic</strong>: ClaudeBot (consolidated bot for various uses).</li> <li><strong>Andi</strong>: AndiBot.</li> <li><strong>Perplexity</strong>: PerplexityBot.</li> <li><strong>You.com</strong>: YouBot.</li> <li><strong>Phind</strong>: PhindBot.</li> <li><strong>Exa</strong>: ExaBot.</li> <li><strong>Firecrawl</strong>: FirecrawlAgent.</li> <li><strong>Common Crawl</strong>: CCBot (used by many AI companies for training data).</li> </ul> <p>For a full, up-to-date list, check <a href="https://darkvisitors.com/agents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dark Visitors</a>.</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-optimizing-for-ai-agent-computer-use">Optimizing for AI agent computer use</h2> <p>AI agents that can use computers, like Browser Use or OpenAI’s Operator, are a new frontier. Some tips:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Implement “agent-responsive design.” Structure your site so AI can easily interpret and interact with it.</li> <li>Ensure interactive elements like buttons and text fields are clearly defined and accessible.</li> <li>Use consistent navigation patterns to help AI predict and understand site flow.</li> <li>Minimize unnecessary interactions like login prompts or pop-ups that can disrupt AI task completion.</li> <li>Incorporate web accessibility features like ARIA labels, which also help AI understand page elements.</li> <li>Regularly test your site with AI agents and iterate based on the results.</li> </ul> <p>If you’re building developer tools, optimize for AI visibility:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Maintain an up-to-date llms.txt file.</li> <li>Provide easy access to clean HTML or markdown versions of your docs.</li> <li>Consider using documentation tools like Theneo and Mintlify to optimize for AI accessibility.</li> </ul> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-final-insights">Final insights</h2> <p>Optimizing for AI search is an ongoing process, as AI crawlers are far from perfect. Right now:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>34% of AI crawler requests result in 404 or other errors.</li> <li>Only Google’s Gemini and AppleBot currently render JavaScript among major AI crawlers.</li> <li>AI crawlers show 47 times inefficiency compared to traditional crawlers like Googlebot.</li> <li>AI crawlers represent about 28% of Googlebot’s volume in recent traffic analysis.</li> </ul> <p>As AI indexing improves, staying ahead of these trends will help ensure your content remains visible.</p> <p>Remember, it’s a balance. You want to be accessible to helpful AI tools while protecting against bad actors. </p> <p>For more detailed information, check out these resources:</p> <p>The old world of blocking all bots is gone. You want AI agents and crawlers to see your content and navigate your sites. 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