AI Search Optimisation for Solopreneurs: A Plain-English Checklist

Short answer: AI search optimisation is the work of making your site easy for answer tools to find, read and quote. ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude and Perplexity each build answers in their own way, but they all depend on pages they can fetch, understand and trust. Most of that work is basic site hygiene, and a solopreneur can do it without a developer.

Step 1: Let the crawlers in

Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt in a browser. Look for a Disallow rule that blocks the whole site, or that blocks AI crawlers by name. A blanket block left over from staging would stop every crawler, so rule it out first.

Our Robots.txt Checker and AI Crawler Checker show what is allowed. Blocking can be a sensible choice for some businesses. Make it on purpose, not by accident.

While you are checking access, look at Bing too. OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers, and its help article names Microsoft.^[1] It does not say how much weight any provider carries, so treat this as a reason to look, not a guarantee. Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap, and check that your key pages are indexed.^[2]

Step 2: Say who you are in plain words

Your home page and About page should answer four questions in the first paragraph: what the business is called, what it does, who it is for, and where it operates. Write it as text, not inside an image or a slider.

Answer tools quote what they can read. If your name, services and location are vague, they have nothing firm to repeat.

Step 3: Add structured data that matches the page

Schema markup (JSON-LD) labels the facts on a page for machines: business name, address, services, questions and answers. The Schema Generator builds it for you.

Google says you do not need special markup to appear in its AI features.^[3] Structured data still helps machines read the facts on your page, and it is worth getting right.

Before you paste anything, check every field against what is visible on the page. Name, address, phone and services must match. Google's rules say structured data must be a true representation of the page. Markup that contradicts the page can cost you rich-result eligibility.^[4]

Step 4: Write answers, not only pages

Turn the questions your customers ask into headings. Answer each one in the first sentence underneath, then add the detail. A page that opens with a direct answer is easier to quote than one that opens with a story.

If you want the background on why this works, read What Is AEO?

Step 5: Keep your facts the same everywhere

Your business name, description, address and links should match across your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and any directories. Mismatches can make an answer tool less sure of you.

We call this citation consistency. It is the fourth layer of the AEO Traction Stack.

Step 6: Check that your text is in the HTML

Some AI crawlers do not run JavaScript. If your site draws the page in the browser, the text may not exist in the raw HTML. Right-click the page, choose View Source, and search for a sentence from your page. If it is missing, a crawler that skips JavaScript may see an empty shell. A December 2024 study of the major AI crawlers (Vercel and MERJ) found none of them ran JavaScript.^[5] Google's own crawler does render it,^[6] so a page can be fine in Google and still look empty to other tools.

Server-side rendering or pre-rendering fixes this. It is a gap that can appear on sites built with AI coding tools.

Step 7: Measure, then repeat

Run your URL through the free AEO Score Calculator. It scores the structure of your site. It does not ask the AI tools anything, so it cannot tell you whether you are mentioned today.

For that, ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, and note whether you appear. Write down the date and the result. Repeat monthly. Answers vary, so look for the trend, not a single run.

What this will not do

It will not guarantee citations and it will not produce overnight results. It removes the technical reasons you might be skipped, and it gives answer tools something clear to quote.

Next step

1. Run the Free AEO Toolkit. Nine free checks on your own URL. Open the Free AEO Toolkit.
2. Book a free discovery call. A free, no-obligation 20-minute call over Google Meet, to work out what, if anything, would help. Book a discovery call.
3. Or get the AEO audit. $1,500 AUD, with a prioritised list of what to change. See the audit.