Checking AI access: a technical checklist without extra promises
Ferdinand Hofmann
A new content strategy helps little if the offer page is blocked for the intended request. Check the important pages before commissioning substantial editorial work.
1. Identify the intended access
Which search crawlers should reach the page? What training use is intended? Document those decisions separately. Provider documentation from OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity gives the current bot names and purposes.
2. Inspect the full response
robots.txt is one part of the check. A firewall, login, bot challenge or error status may also prevent access. Test important URLs and inspect the content actually returned. Text visible in a browser does not establish that every request receives it.
3. Compare content and markup
The delivered content should make the product, offer and conditions clear. Where structured data exists, compare its claims with the visible text. A validator cannot identify an outdated price that is syntactically valid.
4. Prioritise optional files sensibly
An llms.txt can serve as an overview. Its absence does not establish a cause for missing mentions. Start with demonstrated technical faults and the pages customers need.
After a correction, repeat the same request to verify the specific issue is resolved. Whether the page is subsequently cited or the brand recommended is a separate measurement question.
Further reading: OpenAI crawlers, Perplexity crawlers, llms.txt.
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