Here’s the question I’d ask before spending a dollar on “AI optimization”: can the tools you’re trying to reach actually read your site?
Not “Does it look good?” Not “Is it fast?” Are the tools actually reading it?
As a senior project manager at Jollity, most of my job is turning technical “stuff” into business decisions. Right now, a lot of business owners and marketing managers are hearing about AI search, AEO, and GEO and wondering what to buy and where to put their attention. My advice is boring but clear: check the foundation of your content before you buy the fancy tactics.
"AI Visibility" Is a Few Different Things
People lump it all together, but it’s really several things. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode build on regular search, so they don’t require special AI-specific optimization from your site. Then there’s an AI assistant fetching your page live to answer someone’s question. Finally, there are crawlers collecting content to train future models. OpenAI, for example, documents separate crawlers for search, training, and user-triggered fetches.
Some AI tools provide citations or links to their sources, but how and when they choose to include them varies. There’s no guarantee your website will be featured.
What these tools have in common is that they need access to your content in some form, whether through crawling, indexing, or fetching a page directly. If your best content isn’t accessible, you’re potentially optimizing around something the tool never saw.
Looking Good Isn't the Same as Being Delivered
This is the sneaky part. Your browser runs scripts to build the page you see, and some of that site content shows up after the page loads. Sometimes, content will only load after you click something or interact with your site. The tool visiting your site may or may not see this type of content.
Google can render JavaScript, but it still recommends considering server-side rendering or pre-rendering because not every crawler can execute JavaScript.
A December 2024 Vercel study found several major AI crawlers didn’t run JavaScript at the time. Though this could have changed since 2024, it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the most important content on your site.
I’m not anti-JavaScript. I just want you to know why having important content available when the page is first delivered still matters.
Story Time: The FAQ Section That Went Beyond Design Approval
During a recent project, a client’s new service-page FAQ section received design approval, but the conversation didn’t stop there. Before launch, the client wanted to take a closer look at how the section would actually function on the staging site, with a particular focus on content accessibility and visibility.
They had a few specific goals in mind: every question and answer should be available on the page from the start, rather than loading only after a click. Collapsible answers were fine, as long as the content was still present behind the design. They also wanted clear headings, FAQs their team could edit page by page, and schema markup that accurately reflected what visitors could see. These weren’t necessarily universal requirements, but thoughtful decisions based on what mattered most for their project.
Why does it matter? Two FAQ sections can look exactly the same and be built completely differently. An accordion with answers that are collapsed but already included in the page’s HTML is one thing. An accordion that only fetches those answers after someone clicks is another, since not every visitor or crawler will interact with the page.
Content that’s accessible is content that has a chance to be discovered.
This project is still in progress, so we aren’t claiming finalized results just yet. But we’ve already established something valuable: a clear, testable definition of done. It’s a good reminder that “design approved” and “content delivered” are two different checkpoints.
What to Remember: Don't Skip the Unglamorous Stuff
Vague copy is vague whether a person or a machine reads it. “We provide quality solutions” tells nobody anything. “We design, build, and maintain WordPress websites for small businesses” tells you exactly what you need to know.
The same principle applies to FAQs. Build them around questions customers actually ask, not the ones you wish they’d ask. Use clear, descriptive headings to help people and software understand how a page is organized. And remember, schema is an accurate label for your content, not a magic switch for rankings.
Where Do I Start? Test the Real Thing
You can run a quick check on your own site in about two minutes. A mockup is just a picture. The staging site is a working copy of the actual site, and that’s the one to test before launch.
Here’s a simple place to start:
Open a page on your staging site (or your live site if it’s already launched).
Right-click and choose “View Page Source.”
Search for a sentence from one of your FAQ answers.
If you find it there, that’s a good sign the content was delivered with the page. If you don’t, it may be loaded through JavaScript or another method, which is worth investigating.
Passing this test doesn’t guarantee indexing, rankings, or citations, but it does mean you’re starting with a stronger foundation.
One important note: staging sites are often intentionally blocked from search engines. That’s normal, but your web team should also confirm that the live site allows appropriate crawling and indexing once launched.
Questions to Ask Your Web Team (Where Jollity Can Help!)
- Is our main content in the delivered page?
- Are FAQ answers and other necessary content available on load?
- Do the headings match the page’s real structure?
- Does our structured data match what visitors see?
- Can we edit content page by page without needing a developer (or a magician)?
- Did we test on staging, not just approve a design?
- Are our service descriptions specific enough to answer real questions?
The good news? Addressing these issues doesn’t necessarily mean rebuilding your website. Sometimes all it takes is a conversation and a few page spot checks.
Forward this list to your web team, or give us a shout at [email protected]. We’ll help you understand where your site stands before you start investing in all the fancy AI-search tactics.
No pitch, just a second set of eyes.
