AI technical requirements

Good content is not enough if AI tools cannot find it, understand it or trust it.

The basic requirement for Google’s AI features is that the page is indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. Everything else is good technical SEO that makes the content easier to find and understand.

Crawlability for AI bots

Can AI tools reach your content?

Before AI can cite you, it has to find your content. Technical shortcomings often block AI bots from crawling important pages.

Review robots.txt

Check that robots.txt does not block important pages or resources.

Common problems

Blocking the whole site

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

That rule is often correct on staging sites but forgotten when the site goes live.

Blocking important sections

User-agent: *
Disallow: /blog/

If your most citable content is in the blog, you are preventing AI from seeing it.

Blocking resources AI needs

User-agent: *
Disallow: /css/
Disallow: /js/

AI tools (Google in particular) need to be able to read CSS and JavaScript to render pages correctly.

What to do

How to control which AI bots reach your site

Each AI service has its own user agent that you can address in robots.txt, and each one controls something different:

• OAI-SearchBot controls visibility in ChatGPT search. Blocked sites are not shown in ChatGPT’s search results, other than as navigational links.
• GPTBot collects content that may be used to train OpenAI’s models. The two bots are controlled separately, so you can allow OAI-SearchBot and block GPTBot.
• ChatGPT-User visits pages when a user asks ChatGPT to. Robots.txt does not always apply to such visits.
• PerplexityBot controls visibility in Perplexity’s search results and is not used to train models.
• Google-Extended controls whether content may be used to train Gemini and to ground answers in the Gemini apps and Vertex AI. It does not affect Google Search.

For AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI features in Discover, there is a separate control in Search Console, under Settings. There you can choose whether the site should be included.

Create a well-structured XML sitemap

A well-structured sitemap helps AI bots find all your important content.

Example of a correct sitemap entry

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/guide/seo-grunderna</loc>
  <lastmod>2026-01-15</lastmod>
</url>

Link internally to important pages

Internal links help search engine crawlers find your pages.

Pages that are buried deep or lack internal links are crawled less often.

JavaScript rendering can hide content from bots

For JavaScript-heavy sites (React, Vue, Angular), the question is whether AI bots can render the content.

Problem

If all content is added via JavaScript after the HTML has loaded, some bots cannot see it.

Test: use Google’s URL Inspection Tool in Search Console to see how Google renders your page. Other AI bots may behave differently, so also check that the most important content is in the HTML the server sends.

Any text that users can see should also appear in the rendered HTML.

How structured data helps AI understand your content

Structured data (schema markup) tells search engines explicitly what different parts of the content mean.

What structured data does for you

Google does not require structured data for its AI features. The markup is part of the standard SEO foundation and shows search engines more clearly:

• Is this an article? A product page? An FAQ?
• Who is the author?
• When was it published?
• What is the main image?

Which schema types are worth using?

Article schema

For blog posts, guides and articles.

Example (JSON-LD format)

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Komplett guide till SEO 2026",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Anna Example",
    "url": "/team/anna-example"
  },
  "datePublished": "2026-01-10",
  "dateModified": "2026-01-28",
  "image": "/images/seo-guide-2026.jpg",
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Example Company Ltd",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "/logo.png"
    }
  }
}

Organization schema

For company information (usually on the home page or About us page).

Why it matters

It strengthens E-E-A-T by clearly defining who is behind the content.

Example

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Example Company Ltd",
  "url": "https://www.example.com",
  "logo": "/logo.png",
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "telephone": "+46-8-XXXXXX",
    "contactType": "Customer Service"
  },
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/examplecompany",
    "https://www.facebook.com/examplecompany"
  ]
}

Person schema

For author profiles.

It strengthens E-E-A-T by showing who is writing and what background the writer has.

Example

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Anna Example",
  "jobTitle": "SEO specialist",
  "worksFor": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Example Company Ltd"
  },
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-example"
  ],
  "description": "SEO specialist with 15 years of experience in search engine optimisation and digital strategy."
}

Implement and validate structured data

JSON-LD is the first choice

Google recommends the JSON-LD format (as in the examples above).

Place it in: <head> or at the end of <body> on the relevant page.

Always validate

Use Google’s Rich Results Test: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results

How to signal E-E-A-T technically

Beyond the content itself, there are technical ways to signal expertise, authority and trust.

Author information should be visible on the page

Show the author on every article

Example

<div class="author-info">
  <img src="/images/anna-example.jpg" alt="Anna Example">
  <p>Written by <a href="/team/anna-example">Anna Example</a></p>
  <p>SEO specialist with 15 years of experience</p>
</div>

Mark up the author in structured data

Connect the article to Person schema (see above).

That way you tell search engines explicitly who wrote the content.

How to make your company information easy to find

Create a proper About us page

Show contact information on every page

HTTPS provides basic trust

An SSL certificate is in practice a requirement: without one, browsers warn visitors that the site is not secure. HTTPS is also a lightweight ranking signal in Google Search, so sites without it can rank slightly worse.

Test: visit your site with https://. The browser should show a padlock.

How to show update dates

Show the dates on the page

Show both the publication date and the update date:

Example

<p>Published: 10 January 2026</p>
<p>Last updated: 28 January 2026</p>

Include the dates in structured data

Use both datePublished and dateModified in Article schema.

Why

If an article from 2020 was updated in 2026, you want search engines and AI tools to know.

Speed and performance can affect crawling

Slow server responses can cause Google to crawl less. Above all, fast pages give visitors a better experience.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure how real visitors experience a page’s loading, interactivity and visual stability.

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

Target: under 2.5 seconds

How quickly does the main content load?

INP (Interaction to Next Paint)

Target: under 200 milliseconds

How quickly does the page respond to interaction?

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

Target: under 0.1

Does the content move around while the page loads?

Shorten the server response time

Target for TTFB (Time To First Byte): under 0.8 seconds. TTFB is not part of Core Web Vitals.

Build the site mobile-first and responsive

Google primarily indexes the mobile version.

Make the site mobile-friendly

Have the same content on mobile and desktop

Whatever is on desktop must also be on mobile.

If content is on desktop but not on mobile, AI may miss it.

How to test responsive design

The site should work well on all screen sizes.

How to check mobile usability

Fix the problems the tools report.

Technical checklist for AI optimisation

Check the following when you prepare the site technically for AI visibility:

The technical foundation needs ongoing maintenance

Technical AI optimisation is not a one-off job.

What you should check regularly

The next step is the content

With the technical foundation in place, you can focus on creating content that AI cites.

Our guide to AI content methodology shows how to create content worth citing, based on structure, E-E-A-T and fact density.

Need help with technical implementation?

We implement structured data, improve crawlability and strengthen E-E-A-T signals for better AI visibility.

Contact us about technical AI optimisation →