prepare your website for AI search engines, then check what gets cited.

effort · < 30 min

AI systems extract answers by matching questions to entities and relationships in your content. Your opening paragraph should name what you do, who you do it for and where you are, in plain prose, not just in your brand name.

• State your core offering in the first two sentences, not in paragraph three
• Name specific entities: product category, location if local, audience type
• Use the phrasing people actually type: "a tool that…", "a service for…"
• Avoid jargon-first openings: AI engines parse meaning, not buzzwords

Example. Instead of "Leveraging cutting-edge synergies to disrupt the B2B SaaS paradigm", write "Cogny is an AI marketing agent for solopreneurs who run their own Google Ads and want to know what to fix each week."

effort · < 1 hour

A single <h1>, then logical <h2> sections, then <h3> subsections: this is the outline AI models use to understand what your page is about and whether it answers a query.

• One <h1> per page: the topic sentence of your content
• <h2> headings are your main sub-topics; AI engines treat them as section labels
• No heading skips: don't jump from <h1> to <h3>
• Write headings as questions or clear noun phrases ("How to do X", "What is Y")
• Avoid decorative headings that don't describe the section below

Example. A landscaping company's service page: <h1>Garden maintenance in Stockholm</h1>, then <h2>Services we offer</h2>, <h2>Service areas</h2>, <h2>Pricing</h2>. Not "Welcome!" as the h1 and decorative dividers as h2s.

effort · 1–2 hours

JSON-LD schema markup gives AI systems a machine-readable summary of your content. Google uses it for rich results; answer engines use it to verify and cite facts. The right schema type depends on what the page is.

• Product or service page → LocalBusiness or Service schema with name, description, areaServed
• How-to guide → HowTo schema with numbered steps (this page has one)
• Article or blog post → Article schema with headline, datePublished, author
• FAQ section → FAQPage schema listing each question and answer
• Validate with the schema.org validator and Google's Rich Results Test

Example. An FAQ block on your pricing page with FAQPage JSON-LD lets ChatGPT cite your exact answer when someone asks "how much does [your product] cost?"

effort · < 30 min

AI crawlers treat duplicate or ambiguous pages the way Google does: they pick one version and ignore the rest. A canonical tag tells them which version is authoritative. Missing canonicals are one of the most common technical gaps on solo-founder sites.

• Add <link rel="canonical" href="https://yoursite.com/page"> to every page
• Redirect www. and non-www. to one canonical domain
• Write a meta description that describes the page accurately: it's what AI search engines quote when previewing your content
• Keep your <title> under 60 characters and on the page's actual topic
• Remove duplicate pages (tag archives, paginated duplicates) or noindex them

Example. If your site answers on both yoursite.com/services and yoursite.com/services/ (trailing slash), both must carry a canonical to the same URL, or AI engines index two competing versions.

effort · 2–4 hours, once

Google and AI systems weight content by whether the author has shown expertise, experience, authority and trust. For a solopreneur this isn't about a PhD; it's about making your experience visible.

• Add an About page with your real name, photo and professional background
• Link the About page from your blog posts (a byline with a link)
• Get at least one credible external mention or link (partner, press, directory)
• Add your LinkedIn URL to your schema.org Person or Organization markup
• If you've worked with recognisable clients, mention them (with permission)

Example. A solo founder's byline: "Written by [Name], who has run paid search for DTC brands as a freelance consultant since 2018". A citable credential AI systems can extract.

effort · 1–2 hours

Broken links, 404s and duplicate content waste crawl budget and reduce how much of your site gets indexed. A clean crawl means more of your pages can show up in AI answers.

• Crawl your site with a free tool (Screaming Frog's free tier handles 500 URLs)
• Fix or redirect 404s that have external links pointing at them
• Consolidate thin or duplicate pages into one comprehensive page
• Remove or noindex pages with no unique content (filtered listings and the like)
• Make sure robots.txt isn't accidentally blocking important pages

Example. Three 300-word posts on the same topic: merge them into one authoritative 1,000-word page and 301-redirect the old URLs.

effort · < 1 hour

Breadcrumbs give AI crawlers a map of your site hierarchy. Internal links tell them which pages you consider important and how topics relate.

• Add visible breadcrumbs (Home > Category > Page) to inner pages
• Pair them with BreadcrumbList JSON-LD
• Link from high-traffic pages to your most important conversion pages
• From every blog post, link to at least two related posts or service pages
• Use descriptive anchor text ("see our pricing", not "click here")

Example. A product page breadcrumb: Home > Shoes > Running Shoes > [product], with matching JSON-LD, so search and answer engines surface the right category context.

effort · ongoing

AI systems cite specific facts, figures and named claims, not vague marketing copy. To show up in AI answers, you need specific statements an AI can extract and attribute to you.

• Include specific numbers: "we serve 200 clients in 12 countries", not "many clients globally"
• State your method explicitly: "we use a 3-step audit that covers X, Y and Z"
• Define the terms your audience searches for: the best source for a definition gets cited
• Use concrete before/after examples with a time frame and a source
• Write original insights, not paraphrased industry advice

Example. A post that publishes a handful of specific, sourced statistics nobody else has gives an AI engine a reason to cite it, whatever the domain's authority.