Guides

Practical, sourced guides for owner-run local businesses. We only state what providers have documented or what we've measured ourselves — and we say so when something is unknown.

How AI assistants choose which local plumber to recommend

What OpenAI and Google have publicly said about finding websites — and a practical to-do list.

Is your robots.txt hiding you from AI search?

A 2-minute check, the difference between search bots and training bots, and copy-paste examples.

How to unblock AI crawlers (robots.txt, CDN and firewall)

Where AI search bots usually get blocked, how to let them in without opening the door to training bots, and how to check.

What is llms.txt, and does a local business need one?

What the file is, what Google says about it, and a copy-paste template you can fill in.

LocalBusiness schema: a copy-paste starter and checklist

Based on Google's documentation, with honest notes on what structured data will and won't do.