DEV Community: KDUAI

What AI search recommended this week (14 September 2026)

KDUAI — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 06:25:35 +0000

What AI search recommended this week

14 September 2026 · Based on 114 recorded test runs · AI Visibility Index

AI search engines are already recommending a fairly consistent set of local landscapers, but the winners vary a lot by city and even by punctuation in the query. In the recorded test runs, some businesses appeared in a majority of answers, while others only surfaced in one phrasing and not the other.

The clearest pattern is that AI systems are not returning a single universal local leader; they are surfacing different businesses depending on the exact wording of the question. That makes local AI visibility less like traditional ranking and more like a mix of entity recognition, query interpretation, and answer selection.

What the data shows

Austin, TX

For the query “landscaper in Austin, TX?”, the most frequently named business was Southern Love Landscaping & Design, which appeared in 84% of answers across 19 test runs. Ground & Garden followed at 79%, then Top Choice Lawn Care at 63%, Austin Creative Landscaping at 47%, and Anderson Landscapes at 42%.

That result set suggests a relatively concentrated answer pattern, with two businesses clearly standing out above the rest. The top five were all named in a substantial share of responses, but the gap between the top pair and the lower entries was still meaningful.

Chicago, IL

Chicago produced one of the most striking examples of query sensitivity. For “landscaper in Chicago, IL”, Cityscape Landscape was named in 79% of answers, Patch Landscaping in 63%, Christy Webber Landscapes in 47%, and both Christy Webber Landscaping and Bruce Lawn Service in 26%, again across 19 test runs.

When the query changed to “landscaper in Chicago, IL?”, the distribution changed sharply. Christy Webber Landscapes reached 100% of answers, Mariani Landscape appeared in 79%, Topiarius in 53%, Cityscape Landscape LLC in 47%, and Chicago Specialty Gardens in 42%.

The difference between these two Chicago prompts is the strongest evidence in this dataset that small wording changes can shift which businesses AI search engines recommend. It also shows that a business may be visible under one phrasing and much less visible under another, even when the intent looks nearly identical.

Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne showed a similar pattern of query variation. For “landscaper in Melbourne, Australia”, Ian Barker Gardens was named in 68% of answers, Oneflare in 58%, Garden More Landscaping in 47%, Grassroots Landscaping & Maintenance in 37%, and Love It Landscaping in 32%.

For “landscaper in Melbourne, Australia?”, Bayside Landscaping dominated at 100%, followed by KD Landscapes at 68%, Ian Barker Gardens at 53%, Love It Landscaping at 53%, and Garden More Landscaping at 47%.

Here too, the presence or absence of a question mark reshaped the answer set. Ian Barker Gardens remained visible in both versions, but Bayside Landscaping jumped to the top only in the version with the question mark.

Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix was another market where a few names dominated the response set. For “landscaper in Phoenix, AZ”, Diamond Stone & Synthetic Grass was named in 74% of answers, BIG BOSS Landscape in 63%, Unwind Landscapes in 58%, Merit Landworks in 37%, and Franks Hardscape & Landscape Design LLC in 32%.

Unlike Chicago and Melbourne, Phoenix did not have a second query variant in the recorded data, so the main takeaway is concentration rather than phrasing sensitivity. The top three businesses were all named in more than half of answers, which indicates strong visibility within this test set.

What this means if you’re a local business

For local businesses, AI visibility now depends on more than just being findable in maps or search results. The systems need clear entity signals, crawlable pages, consistent business details, and answer-ready content that makes it easy to connect a query with a real company.

The practical implication is straightforward: businesses should make sure their name, address, phone number, service areas, and service categories are consistent across their website and major listings. They should also build pages that clearly explain what they do in plain language, because AI systems often prefer information that is easy to extract and cite.

Citable answers matter too. When AI systems generate local recommendations, they tend to favor businesses with strong, consistent entity footprints that can be summarized confidently. That means business pages, service pages, FAQ content, and reputable third-party mentions all help create a clearer signal.

FAQ

Why do the results change when the query wording changes slightly?

Because AI search engines may interpret nearly identical prompts differently and weight different business entities in the answer. The Chicago and Melbourne tests show that even a question mark can change which businesses are recommended.

Does being named in these answers mean a business is the best choice?

No. It only means the business was surfaced often in these recorded runs. These results measure visibility in AI answers, not service quality or customer satisfaction.

All numbers above come from recorded test runs published in our open data index. Want your business tested? One-time diagnostic, no subscription.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

Why ChatGPT Doesn't Recommend Your Business

KDUAI — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 05:22:41 +0000

Why ChatGPT doesn't recommend your business (and how to check in 5 minutes)

16 August 2026 · AI Visibility Index

Direct answer: ChatGPT skips businesses for one of three reasons: (1) its crawlers can't read your site, (2) it can't confirm you're a specific, real business in a specific place, or (3) no page on the web gives it a short, sourced answer to quote. Check by asking ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity "best [your category] in [your city]" and noting who gets named.

When a customer asks an AI engine who to hire, the answer isn't a ranking page — it's a sentence. "Here are three options in Denver." If your competitor is in that sentence and you're not, the sale is gone before your website had a chance.

Google rankings don't rescue you. Google AI uses Google's index, but ChatGPT leans heavily on Bing and its own browsing, and Perplexity has a separate retrieval stack. You can rank #1 on Google and still be absent from all three.

The five-minute check

Run the same two prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI (AI Overviews / AI Mode), and Perplexity:

best [your category] in [your city]
who should I hire for [your service] near [your city]?

Record three facts per engine: were you named, who was named instead, and whether the answer cited a source you control (your site, your Google Business Profile, a page you wrote).

Interpretation: if you're invisible on the recommendation prompt but present when someone asks "[your brand] reviews", you have a discovery problem, not a reputation problem. The model can talk about you when asked by name — it just won't volunteer you.

The three reasons you get skipped

1. Crawler access. A Disallow: / in robots.txt — or no explicit allow for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended — means the model works from third-party pages about you, or nothing. Check https://yoursite.com/robots.txt before rewriting a word of copy. Our complete allow-list guide has the copy-paste config.

2. Weak entity. The model must know you're a specific business in a specific place — not a vague brand string. Consistent name/address/phone across directories, Organization or LocalBusiness schema on your homepage, a Google Business Profile, and listings in the directories your category actually uses are how you become a thing the model can name.

3. No citable answer. Pages that wander for 800 words before the point get summarised poorly. Lead each key page with a 75–150 word direct answer — who you serve, where, what you do, what it costs or how you work — then the evidence. Models prefer extractable blocks over vibes.

What to do this week

Unblock AI crawlers in robots.txt if they're blocked.
Add Organization/LocalBusiness JSON-LD matching your homepage.
Put a direct answer at the top of your main service page.
Re-run the three-engine prompt. Screenshot it. That's your baseline.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as SEO?

Related, but not identical. Google AI features use Google's index; ChatGPT relies on Bing and its own browsing; Perplexity has a separate stack. Ranking on Google does not guarantee you're the name in an AI answer.

Why would AI recommend a weaker competitor?

Models cite what they can retrieve as a clear entity with a short, sourced answer. A competitor with weaker service but cleaner schema, directory listings, and answer-first pages often wins the recommendation.

How often do AI answers change?

Constantly. No tool can guarantee identical results every run — which is why single-prompt screenshots mislead. Test each prompt multiple times and look at the pattern, not one answer.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

What AI search recommended this week (07 September 2026)

KDUAI — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 06:25:51 +0000

What AI search recommended this week

07 September 2026 · Based on 108 recorded test runs · AI Visibility Index

AI search engines do not recommend every local business evenly. In these recorded test runs, a small set of landscapers consistently surfaced first, with different cities showing different “winners” and occasional name variations that split visibility across near-duplicates.

The clearest pattern is concentration: a few businesses dominate the answers, while several others appear often enough to matter but not enough to lead across every prompt variation. That makes local AI visibility look less like a broad directory listing and more like a shortlist that changes by city, phrasing, and naming consistency.

What the data shows

In Austin, the landscaper prompt produced a strong repeat leader. For “landscaper in Austin, TX?”, the most named business was Southern Love Landscaping & Design, appearing in 84% of answers across 19 test runs. Ground & Garden followed at 79%, Top Choice Lawn Care at 63%, Austin Creative Landscaping at 47%, and Anderson Landscapes at 42%.

Austin also showed how prompt wording can change the mix. For “landscaper in Austin, TX” across 18 test runs, Southern Love Landscaping & Design rose to 94%, while Anderson Landscape appeared in 89% of answers. Ground & Garden dropped to 39%, Top Choice Lawn Care to 22%, and Austin Pro Landscape to 17%. That spread suggests AI systems are not simply copying a fixed ranking; they are assembling recommendations from a moving set of signals.

Seattle showed a different pattern, with one business leading the way in the question form that included a question mark. For “landscaper in Seattle, WA?” across 18 test runs, Seattle Sustainable Landscapes appeared in 94% of answers, followed by Devonshire Landscapes Inc at 78%, Eagle Rock Landscaping Inc. at 67%, Landcrafters at 33%, and Seattle Gardening Co. at 22%.

For “landscaper in Seattle, WA” across 19 test runs, Devonshire Landscapes Inc became the most named business at 89%. New Life Rockeries & Retaining Walls appeared in 79% of answers, Urban Oasis Design & Construction LLC in 74%, and two similar entries — “Seattle Times Best in PNW nominee” at 26% and “Seattle Times Best in PNW Nominee” at 5% — showed how nearly identical names can fragment visibility when an AI system repeats or varies the phrasing.

Chicago was more concentrated at the top but still showed name fragmentation lower down. For “landscaper in Chicago, IL” across 17 test runs, Cityscape Landscape appeared in 76% of answers and Patch Landscaping in 65%. Christy Webber Landscapes appeared in 47%, while Christy Webber Landscaping showed up in 29% and Christy Webber in 24%. The split between those last three entries is a useful reminder that AI systems may treat similar business names as separate entities.

Denver showed a similar top-heavy pattern. For “landscaper in Denver, CO?” across 17 test runs, Lifescape Colorado appeared in 88% of answers. JR Landscapes LLC followed at 59%, Mile High Landscaping at 53%, Designs by Sundown at 41%, and Designs By Sundown at 35%. Here again, capitalization and naming variation appear to matter because the system surfaced two versions of the same-looking brand separately.

What this means if you’re a local business

The practical lesson is that AI search visibility is partly an entity problem, not just a ranking problem. If a business name appears in different forms across listings, reviews, directories, and press mentions, AI systems may split that authority across variants instead of confidently choosing one canonical name.

Local businesses that want to show up more often in AI answers should make their identity easy to crawl, easy to verify, and easy to cite. That means consistent business names, clear service descriptions, strong location signals, and pages that answer common customer questions in plain language.

It also helps to publish information that an AI can reuse directly: service areas, specialties, contact details, and proof points that are easy to quote without guessing. The goal is not just to rank in search results, but to become a reliable answer object that systems trust enough to name.

FAQ

Do AI search engines always recommend the same local business?

No. The test runs show that different prompt wording can change which business is named most often, even within the same city.

What is the biggest visibility risk for local businesses?

Inconsistent naming. When a business appears under multiple similar names, AI systems may split its visibility instead of reinforcing one clear entity.

All numbers above come from recorded test runs published in our open data index. Want your business tested? One-time diagnostic, no subscription.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

What AI search recommended this week (31 August 2026)

KDUAI — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 05:22:42 +0000

What AI search recommended this week

31 August 2026 · Based on 78 recorded test runs · AI Visibility Index

AI search engines are already showing clear local preferences, and the names they repeat are not random. Across the recorded test runs, some businesses appeared in nearly every answer for the same query, while others surfaced only when the phrasing shifted slightly.

What the data shows

The strongest pattern in the dataset is concentration: a small set of businesses repeatedly dominates the answers for each local service query. For “dentist in Brisbane, Australia” across 13 test runs, four businesses were named in 100% of answers: North Brisbane Dental Clinic, Brisbane Dental, and Brisbane Dental and Denture Clinic; Dental Boutique Brisbane appeared in 85%, and SmileFresh Teeth Whitening Brisbane in 62%.

A near-identical topic but slightly different wording changes the mix. For “dentist in Brisbane, Australia?” across 13 test runs, Brisbane Dental was named in 100% of answers, Pure Dentistry in 77%, North Brisbane Dental Clinic in 54%, Brisbane Smiles in 38%, and St Lucia Dental in 31%. That contrast suggests that AI search results can be sensitive to small prompt changes even when the intent looks the same.

Sydney shows an even tighter top tier. For “dentist in Sydney, Australia?” across 13 test runs, Paramount Dental Sydney and Spa Dental Sydney CBD were each named in 100% of answers. Quay Dental Clinic appeared in 92%, while Pitt Street Dental Centre showed up in 62% and Pitt St Dental Centre in 38%.

The landscaping results are more distributed, but the leaders still stand out. For “landscaper in Austin, TX” across 13 test runs, Southern Love Landscaping & Design was named in 100% of answers, Anderson Landscape in 85%, Top Choice Lawn Care and Ground & Garden in 31% each, and Austin Pro Landscape in 23%.

When the query shifts to “landscaper in Austin, TX?”, the answer set reshuffles. Across 13 test runs, Ground & Garden, Top Choice Lawn Care, and Southern Love Landscaping & Design were each named in 77% of answers, Anderson Landscapes in 54%, and Austin Creative Landscaping in 46%. The exact business spelling also changes in the dataset, which is a reminder that AI answers may vary in how they surface and format local entities.

Denver is the most clustered landscaping market in this set. For “landscaper in Denver, CO” across 13 test runs, Mile High Landscaping, Designs by Sundown, and Designscapes Colorado were each named in 92% of answers. Little Foot Landscaping appeared in 62%, and The Fisherman LLC in 31%.

What this means if you’re a local business

If AI search engines are being used as a discovery layer, local businesses need to think like entities, not just websites. That means making sure the business name, address, phone number, service categories, and location signals are consistent across the web.

It also means crawler access matters. If a model or search system cannot reliably read your pages, structured data, or business profiles, you are less likely to be represented clearly in answer results.

Citable answers matter too. Pages that state services plainly, use unambiguous location references, and are easy to quote may be more likely to be surfaced in local recommendations. For multi-location brands, consistency across listings and site pages is especially important.

FAQ

Why do some businesses show up in every answer while others only appear sometimes?

The recorded runs suggest that AI search systems strongly prefer a small set of entities for each query. Small wording changes can also shift which businesses are surfaced.

Does this prove the AI is ranking the “best” local business?

No. The data only shows which businesses were named most often in the recorded test runs. It does not measure quality, conversion rate, or customer satisfaction.

All numbers above come from recorded test runs published in our open data index. Want your business tested? One-time diagnostic, no subscription.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

What AI search recommended this week (24 August 2026)

KDUAI — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 06:11:22 +0000

What AI search recommended this week

24 August 2026 · Based on 47 recorded test runs · AI Visibility Index

AI search engines are already surfacing a small set of local businesses repeatedly, and the names vary by query phrasing even within the same city. In the recorded tests, some searches produced a single dominant recommendation, while others spread attention across several businesses and even non-business entities like Zocdoc or “specialty.”

What the data shows

The strongest pattern is that AI answers do not behave like a fixed local ranking. They are sensitive to query wording, and the same service plus city can produce a different set of recommended businesses.

For “dentist in Chicago, IL” across 8 test runs, the most named result was Chicago Loop Dentistry, appearing in 50% of answers. Three other clinics—William J. Millon DDS, Smile Science Chicago, and University Associates in Dentistry—each appeared in 38% of answers, while Zocdoc appeared in 25%. That mix suggests the answer set is broad enough to include both practices and a platform brand.

For “dentist in Chicago, IL?” also across 8 test runs, the top result changed completely: Millennium Park Dental appeared in 100% of answers. DiPilla Dentistry of Chicago followed at 88%, while The Magnificent Smile and Chicago Loop Dentistry each appeared in 50% of answers. Bite Club appeared in 38%. The presence of a question mark did not just alter emphasis; it changed the lead recommendation.

Melbourne showed a different pattern again. For “dentist in Melbourne, Australia” across 8 test runs, Smile Solutions appeared in 100% of answers. Pacific Smiles Dental Melbourne CBD appeared in 88%, Gorgeous Smiles in 75%, DENTL East Melbourne in 50%, and Core Dental Southbank in 38%. Here, the AI consistently surfaced several recognizable practices, but one name still stood out as universally named.

Phoenix split into two distinct answer sets. For “dentist in Phoenix, AZ” across 8 test runs, Jerome Riddle, DDS appeared in 100% of answers, with Biltmore Dental Center at 75% and Arizona Biltmore Dentistry at 62%. The remaining entries were Specialty and Insurance acceptance, each at 25%. That is a reminder that AI search sometimes recommends attributes or categories alongside businesses.

For “dentist in Phoenix, AZ?” across 8 test runs, Biltmore Dental Center became the dominant name at 100%. Musselman Dentistry appeared in 75% of answers, North Mountain Dentistry and The Biting Edge Family Dentistry each in 50%, and Downtown Phoenix Dental in 38%. Again, the query punctuation appears to shift which business the model treats as the safest answer to give.

Brisbane showed the clearest concentration of all. For “dentist in Brisbane, Australia” across 7 test runs, three businesses each appeared in 100% of answers: North Brisbane Dental Clinic, Brisbane Dental and Denture Clinic, and Brisbane Dental. Dental Boutique Brisbane appeared in 86% of answers, and SmileFresh Teeth Whitening Brisbane in 71%. That means the AI was not just recommending one option; it was repeatedly naming a small cluster of highly visible local businesses.

What this means if you’re a local business

AI search visibility looks less like classic blue-link SEO and more like entity selection. Businesses that show up consistently may have stronger crawler access, clearer entity signals, and more citable answers across the web.

If you want to be named more often, the practical goal is straightforward: make sure your business is easy for systems to identify, trust, and quote. That means consistent business names, strong location pages, structured contact details, and enough third-party references that an AI can confidently treat you as a real local entity.

It also helps to think beyond your own website. AI systems seem willing to draw from directories, review sites, and other sources that support a business’s identity. When those signals are clean and consistent, the business is more likely to be selected as an answer candidate.

FAQ

Why do the results change when the query wording changes?

The data shows that even small wording differences can shift which businesses are named most often. That suggests the model is interpreting the query slightly differently rather than relying on one stable local list.

Does being named in more answers mean the business is “winning” local AI search?

It means the business is appearing more often in these test runs, but not that it will always be selected everywhere. AI search visibility is query-sensitive, so the same business may perform differently across variants.

All numbers above come from recorded test runs published in our open data index. Want your business tested? One-time diagnostic, no subscription.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

Schema Markup for AI Search: JSON-LD Guide

KDUAI — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 05:16:55 +0000

Schema markup for AI search: the JSON-LD that gets you cited

17 August 2026 · AI Visibility Index

Direct answer: schema markup (JSON-LD in your page HTML) is how you tell machines — unambiguously — "this is a business, named X, located at Y, offering Z". AI engines use these signals to build the entity understanding behind their recommendations. The two types that matter most for a local business are Organization/LocalBusiness on your homepage and FAQPage on Q&A content. Add them, keep them consistent with your visible content, and you become far easier for an AI to cite correctly.

Why AI engines care about schema

When ChatGPT or Perplexity decides who to name, it's really asking: which entities do I understand well enough to talk about confidently? A business described only in flowing marketing prose requires the model to guess. A business with clean JSON-LD hands it a form already filled in: legal name, address, phone, hours, services, ratings.

This is the same machinery behind Google's knowledge panels — but AI answer engines lean on it too, because structured data is the cheapest way for them to avoid making things up about you.

The four types worth your time

1. Organization or LocalBusiness (homepage). The foundation. Include name, address, phone, opening hours, service area, same-as links to your profiles:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Summit Plumbing",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Denver",
    "addressRegion": "CO"
  },
  "telephone": "+1-303-555-0134",
  "url": "https://summitplumbing.example",
  "openingHours": "Mo-Su 00:00-24:00",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/summitplumbing",
    "https://www.google.com/maps/place/..."
  ]
}
</script>

2. FAQPage (Q&A sections). Question-and-answer blocks marked as FAQ are exactly the shape AI engines love to quote — a question a customer asks, with a direct answer attached.

3. Article (blog content). Author, date, headline — establishes freshness and attribution for your content.

4. Service or Product (offer pages). What you sell and at what price — lets AI answer "how much does X charge?" without guessing.

The rules that actually matter

Match the visible page. Markup describing content that isn't shown to visitors violates Google's guidelines and erodes trust signals everywhere.
Consistency beats completeness. Name, address, and phone identical across schema, your footer, your Google Business Profile, and directories. One inconsistency can split your entity in two.
Test it. Run your URL through Google's Rich Results Test and validator.schema.org after adding anything.

Not sure what shape your site is in? Our free AI Readiness Score checks your homepage's schema, indexability, and answer-first content in one pass.

Frequently asked questions

Is schema a ranking factor?

Not directly in classic SEO, and AI engines don't publish their weighting. What schema demonstrably does is improve entity understanding — which is the substrate recommendations are built from.

Do I need a developer to add JSON-LD?

Usually no. It's a paste-in script block; most CMSs have a field or plugin for it, and many SEO plugins generate Organization/LocalBusiness schema from a settings form.

Can wrong schema hurt me?

Yes — markup that contradicts your visible content (fake reviews, wrong addresses) can trigger spam policies and confuses AI engines. When in doubt, mark up less, accurately.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

What Is llms.txt? Guide + Free Generator

KDUAI — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:30:03 +0000

What is llms.txt? The plain-English guide

17 August 2026 · AI Visibility Index

Direct answer: llms.txt is a plain-text file you place at yoursite.com/llms.txt that gives AI models a curated map of your site: who you are, what you do, and which pages matter most — in clean markdown, without navigation, ads, or boilerplate. Think of it as a briefing document for AI crawlers. It's an emerging convention, not a guarantee: adoption by the big AI providers is growing but not universal. It takes ten minutes to add and costs nothing.

What it actually looks like

A llms.txt file is markdown with a simple shape:

# Your Business Name

> One-paragraph summary: what you do, where, for whom.

## Services
- [Emergency plumbing](https://yoursite.com/emergency): 24/7 callout in Denver
- [Drain cleaning](https://yoursite.com/drains): fixed-price, same-day

## About
- [Pricing](https://yoursite.com/pricing)
- [Reviews](https://yoursite.com/reviews)

That's it. A title, a summary, and short lists of your most important links with one-line descriptions.

What it does — and what it doesn't

What it does: when an AI crawler or tool that respects the convention visits your site, it gets a clean, unambiguous briefing instead of guessing from your homepage's hero banner and cookie banner. For businesses whose sites are heavy on images and light on text, this is often the clearest description of the business that exists anywhere on the domain.

What it doesn't do: it's not a ranking switch. No major AI engine has promised that llms.txt alone gets you recommended. It works the same way good schema and clear copy work — it removes ambiguity, so the model can represent you correctly when it has reason to. Treat it as one layer in the stack, after crawler access and before content polish.

llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml

File	Audience	Purpose
robots.txt	Crawlers	Permission: what may be fetched
sitemap.xml	Search engines	Inventory: what exists
llms.txt	AI models	Briefing: what it all means

They complement each other. robots.txt says "you may enter"; llms.txt says "here's who we are once you're in."

How to make one in five minutes

Write your one-paragraph summary: business name, category, city, what you do, who for.
List your 5–10 most important pages with one-line descriptions.
Save as llms.txt in your site root so it serves at /llms.txt.
Verify: open https://yoursite.com/llms.txt in a browser and read what an AI would read.

We built a free generator that formats it for you: llms.txt Creator — fill in the fields, download the file, upload it to your site root.

Frequently asked questions

Do ChatGPT or Perplexity officially support llms.txt?

The convention is young and support is informal but growing — several AI crawlers and retrieval tools fetch it when present. Like early sitemaps, the cost of adoption is near zero and the direction of travel is clear.

Where exactly does the file go?

In your site's web root, so it's reachable at https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. On most hosts that's the same folder as your homepage or your existing robots.txt.

Can llms.txt hurt my SEO?

No. It's a plain-text file ignored by anything that doesn't look for it. Google doesn't penalise extra text files, and it doesn't replace any SEO fundamentals.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

ChatGPT Search Runs on Bing: Why It Matters

KDUAI — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:05:21 +0000

ChatGPT search runs on Bing — what that means for your business

17 August 2026 · AI Visibility Index

Direct answer: when ChatGPT searches the web to answer "who should I hire for X", it draws heavily on Bing's index — not Google's. A business can rank page one on Google and still be invisible to ChatGPT simply because Bing hasn't indexed it properly. The check takes two minutes: search site:yourdomain.com on Bing. No results means no ChatGPT citations from your own site.

The uncomfortable gap in most "AI SEO" advice

Most AI-visibility advice focuses on your website: schema, content structure, crawler access. All important. But there's a layer underneath that gets missed: the indexes the AI engines actually read from.

The three big consumer AI engines draw from different wells:

Engine	Primary retrieval source
Google AI (Overviews/AI Mode)	Google's own index
ChatGPT (search)	Bing's index + its own browsing
Perplexity	Its own retrieval stack + web search

Google's index and Bing's index are not the same thing. Bing crawls fewer pages, less often, for smaller sites. Plenty of local business sites that Google ranks happily are thin or absent in Bing — and that absence flows straight through to ChatGPT answers.

The two-minute check

Go to Bing and search: site:yourdomain.com
Count what comes back. Zero results — or just a bare homepage — is a red flag.
Do the same on Google for contrast. A big gap between the two is the story.

We automated this: the free Index Check tests your domain's Bing presence in one click.

How to fix a Bing gap

Bing Webmaster Tools (free): add and verify your site, then submit your sitemap. This alone fixes most cases within days.
IndexNow: Bing supports instant URL notification on publish — ask your developer or CMS plugin to enable it, so new pages get indexed in hours instead of weeks.
Check crawl blockers: confirm robots.txt allows Bingbot, and that your host or security layer isn't rate-limiting it.
Earn a few links from sites Bing already indexes well — local directories, industry associations, your suppliers. Bing leans harder on link discovery for small sites than Google does.

Why this compounds

Once you're properly in Bing, you don't just unlock ChatGPT search — Copilot, parts of Perplexity's retrieval, and a long tail of AI tools that licence Bing results all come along. One fix, many surfaces. And it's a fix most of your competitors haven't made, which is exactly the kind of edge that shows up in who gets named.

Frequently asked questions

If I'm in Google's index, am I in Bing's automatically?

No. They're separate crawlers with separate indexes and separate webmaster tools. Google inclusion tells you nothing about Bing — you have to check Bing directly.

How long does Bing indexing take after submitting a sitemap?

Typically days to a couple of weeks for an established domain; longer for brand-new ones. IndexNow can shorten this dramatically for new or updated pages.

Does Bing Webmaster Tools cost anything?

No — it's free, like Google Search Console. You can even import your Search Console data to skip manual verification.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

AI Visibility Glossary: 18 Terms in Plain English

KDUAI — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:57:19 +0000

AI visibility glossary: 18 terms in plain English

17 August 2026 · AI Visibility Index

Why this exists: the AI-search industry sprouts jargon faster than it sprouts standards. Half of it describes real mechanics; half is marketing fog. Here's the vocabulary you'll meet, in plain English, with an honest note on what actually matters.

The big ideas

AI visibility — How often AI engines name your business when people ask buying questions. Measured as a rate across many prompt runs, not a single ranking. The metric that matters most.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) — The practice of improving how generative AI engines represent and recommend you. The AI-era sibling of SEO.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) — Older term for the same idea, from the featured-snippet era. Now mostly folded into GEO.

Share of model — Of all the times an AI recommends someone in your category, the share that names you. Like share of voice, for AI answers.

Entity — A thing the model recognises as real and distinct: a business with a name, place, and consistent identity. Becoming a clean entity is half the battle — models recommend things, not strings of text.

Citation — When an AI answer links to or names a source. Being cited (as a source) and being recommended (as an option) are different wins; you want both.

The machinery

AI crawler — The bot that fetches your pages for an AI company. The ones to know: GPTBot (OpenAI training), OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search citations), ChatGPT-User (live browsing), PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended. Each can be allowed or blocked separately in robots.txt — our allow-list guide has the config.

Retrieval — The step where the AI fetches current information before answering. If retrieval can't find you, no amount of training-data presence saves you.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) — The architecture behind search-enabled AI: retrieve documents, then generate an answer grounded in them. Why "being findable" and "being quotable" are two separate problems.

Index — The database of crawled pages an engine searches. Google AI uses Google's index; ChatGPT leans on Bing's; Perplexity runs its own.

Grounding — Anchoring an answer in retrieved sources rather than the model's memory. Grounded answers are the ones that can name you correctly.

Hallucination — When a model states something false with confidence. Clean entities and consistent data across the web are the best defence against hallucinated claims about your business.

The formats

llms.txt — A proposed briefing file at your site root telling AI models what you are and what matters. Plain-English guide here.

JSON-LD — The script format for schema markup. Machine-readable identity for your business — with examples.

Schema / structured data — Standardised tags (schema.org) describing businesses, articles, FAQs. The vocabulary JSON-LD carries.

Answer-first content — Pages that lead with a 75–150 word direct answer before the detail. The format AI engines extract most reliably.

Prompt tracking — Running fixed sets of buyer questions against AI engines over time to measure visibility. What our data engine does nightly.

Frequently asked questions

Is GEO just SEO with a new name?

They overlap heavily — good structure, clear entities, quality content help both. The differences are in retrieval sources (Bing matters again), output format (sentences, not links), and measurement (visibility rates, not positions).

Which single term should I care about most?

AI visibility rate — the share of relevant buyer questions where you get named. Everything else is a means to move that number.

Are "AI SEO tools" that promise rankings legit?

Be sceptical of anyone promising fixed positions in AI answers — answers are regenerated every run and vary. Legitimate tools measure patterns across many runs and show their evidence. That's the standard to hold vendors to, us included.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index.

What is AI visibility? A plain-English guide for local businesses

KDUAI — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 15:43:38 +0000

What is AI visibility? A plain-English guide for local businesses

16 August 2026 · AI Visibility Index

Direct answer: AI visibility is the likelihood that an AI search engine names your business when a customer asks for a recommendation in your category. It's measured as a rate — out of many real buyer questions ("best plumber in Denver"), in how many answers does the AI mention you? Unlike a Google ranking, there's no fixed position: answers are generated fresh each time, so visibility is a pattern across many runs, not a single slot.

For twenty years, "being found online" meant ranking on a results page. AI search replaces the results page with a sentence. When someone asks ChatGPT "who should I hire to fix a burst pipe in Denver?", the model names a handful of businesses — and everyone else simply doesn't exist in that conversation.

How AI visibility is measured

The honest way to measure it:

Write real buyer questions for your category and city — 15–25 of them, the way customers actually ask.
Run each one multiple times per engine (ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity), because answers vary run to run.
Score the pattern: in what share of answers were you named? Who was named instead? What sources were cited?

The output is an AI visibility rate — "named in 2 of 20 relevant searches" — plus the competitor set the AI prefers, and the sources it trusts. A single screenshot of one prompt proves nothing either way.

How it differs from SEO

	SEO	AI visibility
Output	Ranked list of links	Generated sentence naming options
Positions	Stable, tracked daily	Regenerated every run
Index	Google	Google + Bing + engine-specific retrieval
Fixes	Keywords, links, technical	Crawler access, entity signals, citable answers
Measurement	Rank trackers	Repeated prompt testing

Good SEO helps — Google's AI features use Google's index — but it's not sufficient. ChatGPT search leans on Bing; Perplexity retrieves from its own stack. Plenty of #1-ranked businesses are absent from AI answers, and some lower-ranked ones get named because their entity signals and answer-first pages are cleaner.

The three levers

Everything that moves AI visibility falls into three buckets:

Technical readiness — can the crawlers (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Bingbot…) actually fetch your pages? See our robots.txt allow-list guide.
Entity strength — can the model confirm you're a specific, real business? Consistent name/address/phone, LocalBusiness schema, Google Business Profile, directory listings.
Answer quality — does any page give the model a short, sourced, extractable answer? Lead with 75–150 words of direct answer, then evidence.

Frequently asked questions

Can I pay to appear in AI answers?

Not directly. There's no ad slot inside a ChatGPT or Perplexity recommendation. What you can do is remove the blockers and supply better, more citable material than competitors.

How long does it take to improve?

Technical fixes (robots.txt, schema, indexation) can show effects within weeks as engines recrawl. Entity-building (directories, reviews, citations) compounds over months. It's a flywheel, not a switch.

Is AI visibility just a fad?

AI answers are increasingly the first step in local purchase journeys — Google's own AI Overviews now sit above the classic results page. Whether the share is 10% or 40% for your category today, the direction is one-way, and the fixes overlap heavily with good web practice anyway.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index. Free research by the makers of aicantfindme.com — find out why AI search isn't recommending your business.

robots.txt for AI crawlers — the complete allow-list guide

KDUAI — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 15:43:35 +0000

robots.txt for AI crawlers: the complete allow-list guide

16 August 2026 · AI Visibility Index

Direct answer: To let AI search engines read and cite your site, your robots.txt must not block their crawlers. The critical ones are GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), ClaudeBot (Claude), Google-Extended (Google AI training), plus Bingbot — because ChatGPT's search relies heavily on Bing's index. Add explicit Allow: / rules for each, then verify by fetching your robots.txt in a browser.

If an AI crawler can't fetch your pages, the model learns about you from third-party sources — review sites, directories, competitors' comparisons — or from nothing. This is the single most common technical blocker we see, and it takes two minutes to check.

The crawlers that matter

Crawler	Belongs to	Blocks what if disallowed
GPTBot	OpenAI	ChatGPT training data
OAI-SearchBot	OpenAI	ChatGPT search citations
ChatGPT-User	OpenAI	Live browsing when users ask
PerplexityBot	Perplexity	Perplexity answers and citations
ClaudeBot	Anthropic	Claude's knowledge of your site
Google-Extended	Google	Gemini/AI training (separate from Search)
Bingbot	Microsoft	Bing index — feeds ChatGPT search and Copilot

A subtlety worth knowing: GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot are different gates. Blocking GPTBot keeps you out of future training data; blocking OAI-SearchBot keeps you out of cited answers today. If you want AI search traffic, the second one is the one that matters most.

Copy-paste allow-list

# AI search crawlers - allow
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

# Everyone else
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/

Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

Keep the Disallow lines for genuine private areas only. Never put Disallow: / under User-agent: * — it blocks everything, including the AI crawlers you just allowed above (specific rules win, but a global block under * combined with missing specific rules is the classic failure).

Three common ways sites accidentally block AI

A managed host's default robots.txt. Some website builders ship a restrictive default. Check yours even if you never wrote one.
A CDN/WAF bot rule. Cloudflare and similar services can challenge bots before robots.txt is even read. If your security settings block "AI bots" as a category, robots.txt won't save you.
A blanket Disallow: / left over from a staging migration. Embarrassingly common.

How to verify it worked

Open https://yoursite.com/robots.txt in a browser — read what the world sees.
Confirm your site is in Bing's index: search site:yoursite.com on Bing. No results = ChatGPT search can't find you either. (We built a free index check for exactly this.)
Spot-check with a live prompt: ask ChatGPT "what does [yoursite.com] do?" If it can describe your services, crawling is working.

Frequently asked questions

Does allowing AI crawlers hurt my Google rankings?

No. robots.txt for AI crawlers is independent of Googlebot and Google Search. Google-Extended only governs AI training usage — Google states it does not affect Search inclusion or ranking.

Should I block AI crawlers to protect my content?

That's a legitimate choice for some publishers, but it trades away discoverability: engines can't recommend what they can't read. For a local business whose pages exist to win customers, blocking is usually self-sabotage.

Is robots.txt the only thing AI crawlers check?

No. They also need your pages to be server-rendered or otherwise readable without heavy JavaScript, fast enough to fetch, and not behind a login. robots.txt is the gate — but it's only the gate.

Originally published at the AI Visibility Index. Free research by the makers of aicantfindme.com — find out why AI search isn't recommending your business.