LLM optimisation: my 5-step process for AI search visibility

More people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot for recommendations before they ever open a search results page. Google's AI Overviews put a generated answer above the blue links. If your brand isn't part of those answers, you're invisible at the moment someone is making a decision.

LLM optimisation is the work of making your website easy for these AI platforms to reach, understand and quote. Some people call it AEO (answer engine optimisation) or GEO (generative engine optimisation). The labels matter less than the work, and most of that work is technical.

This is the five-step process I use, in the order I use it.

Why the order matters

It's tempting to start with content: rewriting pages so they sound like answers. But if an AI crawler can't load the page, or is blocked before it reaches it, the best copy in the world won't be read. Each step below depends on the one before it.

1. PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals

AI crawlers are less patient than Google. Many don't wait long for slow pages, and many don't run JavaScript at all. If your content only appears after scripts have loaded, there's a good chance it never gets seen.

So the first step is making sure every important page:

• loads quickly, on mobile as well as desktop
• shows its main content in the HTML the server sends, not only after JavaScript runs
• passes Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP and CLS), which also helps your normal Google rankings

2. Web platform accessibility

Next, I check that AI crawlers are actually allowed in. This is where large sites most often go wrong, usually by accident.

• Crawler access rules. Your robots.txt may block bots like GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot without anyone realising.
• Bot protection. CDN and firewall settings can challenge or block AI crawlers even when robots.txt allows them.
• Accessible markup. Clear headings, real links and proper HTML structure help assistive technology and machines in the same way.

A quick test is to look at your server logs or CDN analytics for AI crawler visits. If they're missing, or getting errors, that's the first thing to fix.

3. Content structure

Once AI platforms can read your pages, the next question is whether they can pull out an accurate answer. Language models lift passages, so each passage needs to make sense on its own.

What helps:

• one clear topic per page, with a descriptive H1
• headings that match the questions people ask
• a direct answer near the top of each section, then the detail
• lists and tables for steps, comparisons and specifications
• facts stated plainly, such as prices, locations, opening hours and who you work with

4. Structured data

Structured data, written as JSON-LD using Schema.org, tells machines exactly what a page is about: who you are, what you offer, where you work and how to contact you.

I aim to fill in every required and recommended property, not just the minimum. For most businesses that means at least:

• Organization or LocalBusiness, with your name, logo, address and areas served
• Person for the people behind the business
• Service or Product for what you sell
• FAQPage and BreadcrumbList where they fit the page

Keep it accurate and consistent with what's visible on the page. Structured data that disagrees with your content does more harm than good.

5. Feeds

The last step keeps AI platforms supplied with fresh, correct information. Depending on the site, that means:

• XML sitemaps with honest last-modified dates
• product and merchant feeds for e-commerce sites
• news sitemaps for publishers
• an RSS feed for blogs, and an llms.txt file that summarises the site in plain text

Feeds matter most when things change often. If your prices, stock or services change and the AI platforms don't notice, they'll keep repeating the old version.

How to start

If you only do one thing this month, check step 2. Look at your robots.txt and your CDN or firewall settings, and make sure the main AI crawlers are allowed in. It's often a five-minute fix with the biggest effect.

I use this process on enterprise websites with thousands of pages and on local business websites with ten. The scale changes, but the order doesn't. If you'd like me to look at yours, get in touch.