The 10-point checklist: getting WordPress ready for AI search

AI readiness is not a mystery; it is a finite list of chores. Here are the ten that matter for a WordPress site, roughly in order of leverage. None requires a developer, most take minutes, and every one of them can be done from inside WordPress — with AI Rank Suite or, more laboriously, by hand. Every point names what to do, why it matters in AI search, and where the mechanical part can be automated.

Foundation: make yourself readable

1. Publish an llms.txt

It is the map AI assistants read first, and Google's PageSpeed now audits it under "Agentic Browsing". Generate llms.txt for WordPress from your real pages rather than writing it by hand, so it updates itself when content changes. Pin the 10–30 pages that answer buyer questions to the top.

2. Make your crawler decisions

Decide per AI bot whether it may read your site — training crawlers and search crawlers do different things with your content. Blocking a search crawler like OAI-SearchBot removes you from that assistant's live answers, usually the opposite of what a business wants. Decide informed, not scared, and write the result into robots.txt.

3. Find your noindex accidents

On most sites, at least one page that matters is accidentally set to noindex — invisible to search and to every assistant retrieving from it. Filter your content inventory for indexing problems and fix those first. Invisible pages lose every contest by default.

4. Add structured data to your core pages

Schema tells machines unambiguously what a page is: an article, a product, a local business, an FAQ. Assistants use it to verify facts before citing them. Cover the money pages first — offer, pricing, about — and let archives wait.

Content: write what answers need

5. Write the missing meta descriptions

A page without a description makes every engine summarize it on its own terms. Work through the "no description" filter as one batch job; with templates and an AI assist this is an afternoon, not a quarter.

6. Build a plain pricing page

"What does it cost" is one of the most-asked assistant questions, and an assistant that cannot find your price cites a competitor's. State real numbers in text — not only inside a configurator or a PDF.

7. Build comparison pages

"Alternative to [market leader]" queries are decided by whoever wrote the honest comparison. If that page does not exist on your site, the answer gets composed from someone else's pages. One honest comparison page per main alternative is the highest-yield content work in AI search.

8. Answer questions as they are asked

Assistants quote pages that answer plainly, in the words of the question, near the top of the page. An FAQ section with real customer questions and direct answers is quotable by construction — and FAQ schema makes it machine-verifiable on top.

Measurement: close the loop

9. Watch who actually crawls you

An AI crawler log shows which bots visit, which stay away, and whether your blocks hold. An allowed bot that never comes marks exactly where visibility work remains; a blocked bot that keeps knocking shows the fence is doing its job.

10. Measure what assistants answer

Ask the assistants your customers' questions — 25 of them, on your own key — record who gets named, then re-run after every fix. Optimization without measurement is decoration. This loop, more than any single tactic, is what Generative Engine Optimization means in practice.

After the checklist: keep it green

A checklist you run once decays; content changes, plugins update, a redesign quietly drops schema from half your templates. Treat points 1–4 as standing state to monitor, not chores to finish: the scores in your content inventory tell you when a page slips, and the crawler log tells you when a bot's behavior changes. Half an hour a month keeps the whole list green — which is cheaper than re-earning your place in assistant answers after six months of silent drift.

FAQ

In what order should I work the list?

As printed: readability first (1–4), then content (5–8), then measurement (9–10) — although running point 10 once at the very start gives you a baseline that makes every later change visible.

How long does the whole list take?

Points 1–5 are hours, not weeks, with a WordPress SEO plugin doing the mechanical parts. Points 6–8 are real writing work. Points 9–10 take minutes and repeat monthly.

Do I need an AI key for this?

Only for the measurement in point 10 and for AI-assisted writing. Points 1–9 work without any key: llms.txt, crawler control, schema, robots and the inventory are keyless features. Connecting a key later takes five minutes.

What does this cost?

The doing is free; the tooling is the plugin — see pricing — and provider fees for measurement runs are typically well under a dollar each on your own key.