AI: Why Your Website is Now a Training Tool
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In a recent conversation, Brian Massey and Andy Crestodina explored the shifting landscape of digital marketing as Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes the “third partner” in the relationship between brands and customers. This shift is fundamentally changing the purpose of a websiteโfrom a destination for human eyes to a critical knowledge source for AI training.
As AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini increasingly act as “sales reps” or agents for your brand, the strategy for building and maintaining a digital presence must evolve. Here is the breakdown of how to adapt your website for this new era.
The New Role of Your Website
For decades, websites were built for search engines (SEO) and humans (CRO). Today, a third audience has emerged: AI LLMs (Large Language Models).
- AI as a Sales Rep: AI helps users decide if a brand is a good option by ingesting data from across the web.
- Knowledge Sources: Your website is your best chance to tell your full storyโwho you serve, how well you do it, and your specific credentialsโbecause it is the only digital property where you have unlimited space to provide data to AI knowledge sources.
- The Conversion Trap: While AI traffic may be a small percentage of total visitors today, these users often arrive “further down the funnel” because they have already had long conversations with the AI about their specific goals and context.
Actionable Steps: How to Optimize for AI and Humans
To remain competitive, marketers must “plug holes” in the data AI currently has about their brands.
1. Prioritize Extreme Clarity and Detail
If you were making a page specifically for an AI bot, you would prioritize maximum information over user experience (UX). While you shouldn’t puke “sitemap.xml” onto your homepage, you should ensure your sales and service pages are packed with specific data.
- List Proof Points as Text: Don’t rely solely on images or trust seals. AI crawlers may not “see” the pixels of an award badge, so you should list these credentials as text to ensure they are ingested into the training data.
- Define Your “Who” and “How”: Clearly state who you do work for, what the outcomes are, and the credentials of those doing the work.
2. Ditch the Generic Assets
AI learns nothing from generic marketing fluff.
- Kill the Stock Photos: Brian Massey has long argued against stock photos, but now there is a “moral high ground”: happy people laughing at a laptop tells AI nothing about your brand’s unique value.
- Stop Trying to Please Everyone: The mistake many marketers make is being too broad. Use your content to disqualify the wrong prospects and better qualify the right ones.
3. Shift Your SEO Strategy
The “crash in click-through rates” for top-of-funnel informational queries means that optimizing articles for generic keywords is less sustainable.
- Focus on Commercial Intent: Double down on optimizing sales and service pages for traditional search and AI, where visitors still have “visit website intent”.
- Write for Humans (and Personality): AI can recognize brand personality and humor. Don’t “ring out the cleverness” of your writing; instead, let your brand’s unique voice act as a “culture fit” for potential clients.
4. Feed the AI Beyond Your Website
AI training data isn’t just pulled from your domain; it’s pulled from everywhere.
- The “Podcast Pitch”: Because Google (which owns YouTube) has access to video transcripts, any podcast or video appearance is a training opportunity. Always give your clear “pitch” during recorded interviews to ensure that language is ingested and associated with your brand.
- Utilize Other Channels: Since Google is less likely to promote your informational articles today, focus on email, social media, and platforms like LinkedIn or YouTube to reach your audience and train AI models simultaneously.
Finding the “Weakest Link”
Ultimately, marketing should still start from the bottom up. Before worrying about ranking for a new informational keyword, Andy Crestodina recommends looking at the end of the conversion chain.
- Optimize CTAs: Higher click-through rates on calls to action offer immediate value.
- Fix Contact Forms: Use data to find and eliminate friction in your final contact steps.
The digital landscape is moving toward a hybrid model where AI handles the “deep research” and humans make the final connection based on trust and brand experience. By treating your website as a rich data source for AI today, you ensure you are the brand recommended tomorrow.
Taking a cue from Andyโs own suggestion during the interview to “give it to a tool that synthesizes or summarizes it for us,” this blog post was generated by a Large Language Model (LLM) using the full transcript of the conversation between Brian Massey and Andy Crestodina.
Checklist: AI-Friendly Website Elements
Use this checklist to ensure your “AI sales reps” have the best information to recommend your brand.
1. Essential Brand Data (The “Who, How, and Why”)
- Detailed “Who We Serve”: Explicitly list your target industries and customer types in plain text.
- Specific Outcomes: Describe the exact results you achieve (e.g., “reduced churn by 20%”) rather than using generic marketing fluff.
- Credentials as Text: Don’t just show award logos; list awards, certifications, and years of experience as crawlable text.
- Author Bios: Include detailed bios for your team with links to LinkedIn or other publications to establish authority.
2. Conversational & Structural Clarity
- Direct Answers Top-of-Page: Place the main answer to a query within the first 50โ60 words of a section.
- Extreme Clarity: Abandon “clever” copywriting in favor of high-detail language that defines concepts clearly.
- TL;DR / Key Takeaway Blocks: Add short summaries at the top or bottom of long sections to make them easy for AI to synthesize.
- FAQ Sections: Use real customer questions as headings to capture long-tail AI queries.
3. Technical “Machine-Readable” Elements
- Logical Heading Hierarchy: Use only one H1 per page, followed by properly nested H2 and H3 tags.
- Schema Markup: Implement JSON-LD schema, specifically Organization, Product, Review, and FAQPage.
- Descriptive Alt Text: Include context that explains the value of the image (e.g., “Chart showing 40% ROI increase for B2B client”).
- Semantic HTML Tags: Wrap your content in tags like
<main>,<article>, and<section>so AI knows which parts are primary. - llms.txt File: Create a simple Markdown file in your root directory to provide a “map” specifically for AI crawlers.
4. Brand Personality Training
- Consistent Tone: Maintain a unique brand voice across all pages so AI can associate specific traits with your brand.
- Original Data/Insights: Publish original research or case studies that only your brand can provide, making you a “high-quality” source.
Links
Expertise: conversion rate optimization, AB testing, marketing strategy, digital marketing, analytics, landing page design, computer programming, entrepreneurship
Speaking: IBM, Inbound, LeadsCon, Content Marketing World, Affiliate Summit, and more
Books and Training: Your Conversion Creation Equation, Video CRO, Marketing Videos that Convert, CRO Best Practices
As Seen On: ClickZ, Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, Conversion Sciences Blog, Intended Consequences podcast
Education: Texas A&M University, BS Computer Science and Management
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