Local SEO · 5 min read
AI assistants are now shortlisting suppliers. Can they read your site?
AI assistants build shortlists from text they can parse: clear service names, locations, prices, accreditations and structured data. Businesses that hide detail in images, PDFs and vague copy get skipped. To be recommended, state facts plainly, mark them up with schema, and keep a consistent name, address and phone across the web.
By Raja Wahab, Co-founder, Fixby Studios · Updated
What an assistant can and cannot read
- Readable: page text, headings, structured data, FAQs, published prices.
- Not readable: text inside images, scanned PDFs, content that only appears after a click or a scroll animation.
- Weakly weighted: marketing adjectives with no verifiable fact attached.
How to be the cited supplier
- Say exactly what you do, for whom, and where, in the first two sentences of each page.
- Add Organization, Service, FAQ and Review structured data.
- Publish specifics: prices, MOQs, lead times, capacities, accreditations.
- Keep an llms.txt and a clean sitemap so crawlers find the right pages.
- Match your details exactly across your site, Google Business Profile and directories.
The uncomfortable part
Vagueness used to be a negotiating tactic. Now it is a filter that removes you before a human sees your name. The businesses winning these recommendations are simply the ones willing to publish facts.
Raja Wahab is co-founder of Fixby Studios, a Huddersfield studio building websites, SEO, social media and business software for small, owner-managed businesses across West Yorkshire.
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