Some people no longer search, they ask. Instead of ten blue links they get an answer with three sources cited, and the click goes to those three sites, if it goes anywhere.
That changes the question. It is no longer just "how do I rank" but "how do I become a source the answer is built from".
How AI answers are made
Simplified: the system takes the question, searches the web, reads a few pages and builds an answer from them, citing its sources.
Two things follow from that:
Classic SEO still matters. A page that can't be found can't be cited. Everything on the checklist still stands.
The format of your content matters more. The system looks for a paragraph that answers the question directly. A page that spreads its answer across five paragraphs of sales copy is hard to cite.
What raises your chance of being cited
The answer right after the question
The most concrete change you can make.
A subheading phrased as a question, "How much does a website cost?", and right below it a paragraph that answers it in two or three sentences, with a number. The detail can come after.
A page that asks the question and then stretches the answer over three paragraphs of introduction has no paragraph that can be cited.
Concrete data
Numbers, ranges, timelines, terms. "Affordable prices" is not data. "€500 to €2,000, four to six weeks" is.
Systems that assemble answers pick sources that carry something concrete, because an answer without it is useless.
Content that stands on its own
Every page has to make sense without the rest of the site. Content that only makes sense if you've read the previous three pages doesn't get cited.
Structured data
FAQPage, Article, Organization, Product. The same data Google uses for rich results also helps machines read the page.
A clear date and author
Systems avoid sources that look old or anonymous. Publication date, last updated date and who wrote it: a small thing that often gets left out.
Mentions elsewhere
This is the hardest part and the slowest. Systems like sources that someone else vouches for. A directory listing, an article, a mention on a client's site: all of it builds the picture that you exist outside your own website.
What llms.txt is
A file in the root of your domain, modelled on robots.txt, that describes in plain text who you are and what is on the site.
The idea is simple: instead of the system guessing the structure from HTML full of menus and footers, it gets a tidy list.
Example:
# Company name
A short description of what you do.
Contact: email
Website: address
## Services
- [Name](address) — description
An honest note: llms.txt is not an official standard and there's no guarantee anyone uses it. It takes an hour to make and does no harm, but don't expect it to change anything on its own. The content and structure of the site carry far more weight.
Mine is at /llms.txt and is generated from the same data the site is built from, so it never goes stale.
Letting AI crawlers in
To cite you, they have to be allowed to read the page. In robots.txt these include GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and OAI-SearchBot.
There's a real decision here. Blocking protects your content from being used for training, but it also rules out being cited. For a business that wants to be found, letting them in is usually the better choice.
What isn't worth it
Writing for machines. Text stuffed with keywords reads badly for people and for systems.
Expecting quick results. This is a slow field and it changes every two months.
Neglecting classic SEO in favour of this. A page that doesn't rank has nowhere to be cited from.
How to check where you stand
The simplest way: ask. Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask a question your site should be the answer to: "who builds websites in Split", "how much does an internal tool cost".
Do you show up? Who does it cite instead of you? The answer is more concrete than any tool.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a replacement for SEO?
No, it's an extension. The same foundation, with extra attention to the format of the answer.
How much traffic does it bring today?
For most Croatian businesses, still little, but it's growing. The cost of adapting is small because it overlaps with what helps in Google anyway.
Do I need llms.txt?
It doesn't hurt and takes an hour. Don't treat it as the solution.
How do I get my content cited?
Put the question in a subheading and answer it in the first two sentences, with a concrete figure.
Where to start
Take five questions your customers really ask you and check whether your site has a paragraph that answers each one directly. If it doesn't, that's your to-do list.
Get in touch or see my work.