AI SEO Philosophy Guide
Why Well-Known Websites Fail AI SEO — And What It Means for Your Site
Master the new reality of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Introduction: The New Reality of AI SEO
This guide explains why even extremely successful, heavily trafficked websites routinely score low on AI SEO tests — and why that isn't a flaw in our scanner, but a fundamental shift in how AI systems ingest the web.
Most websites in the world — including many well-known platforms — were never built for AI.
They were built for humans.
AI crawlers do not "browse" your site the way a human does. They process your site as data, not as a visual experience.
This creates a surprising outcome:
A website can be wildly popular with humans and still be nearly invisible to AI systems.
Why Popular Sites Fail AI SEO
You might expect that the biggest, most visited sites on the internet would excel at AI SEO. In reality, the opposite is true.
AI SEO ≠ Traditional SEO
Traditional SEO rewards:
- • Backlinks
- • Domain authority
- • Popularity
- • Age
- • Human-oriented content
AI SEO only cares about:
- • Clarity
- • Structure
- • Machine-readable meaning
A site can dominate traditional search rankings while failing almost every AI-era test.
AI Reads Your Site Completely Differently
Humans see:
- • Design
- • Branding
- • Layout
- • Colors
- • Emotion
- • Visual storytelling
AI sees:
- • DOM structure
- • Headings (H1/H2/H3)
- • Paragraph coherence
- • Semantic nouns
- • Definitions
- • JSON-LD
- • ALT text
- • Canonical chunks
- • Internal linking
- • Freshness metadata
This mismatch means: Most marketing-driven homepages are beautiful for humans and nearly unintelligible for AI crawlers.
The Most Common Reasons Well-Known Sites Fail GEO Tests
A. They rely heavily on JavaScript
AI crawlers often see:
…and only a small amount of text-filled content below it.
B. Their homepages are "design first, meaning second"
They feature:
- • Giant hero images
- • Animations
- • Buzzwords
- • Slogans
- • Almost no semantic text
Great for humans. Terrible for LLMs.
C. They don't define what they actually do
Many popular homepages contain lines like:
"Work better, together."
"Your productivity, amplified."
"The essential platform for modern teams."
These carry zero semantic meaning to an AI model.
D. They lack structural sections
- • Few or zero H2s
- • Few paragraphs
- • No "what we do"
- • No FAQs
- • No answers to "why/how/what"
- • Limited internal links
E. They rarely include JSON-LD on the homepage
AI models rely on JSON-LD for:
- • Organization identity
- • Product classification
- • Breadcrumb structure
- • Page metadata
Most popular landing pages do not include it.
F. Visual elements dominate
Large images with:
- • Missing ALT text
- • Non-descriptive ALT text
- • Decorative icons without meaning
AI sees "image.jpg" and nothing else.
What This Means For Your Website
A low AI SEO score does not mean:
- • Your product is bad
- • Your SEO is weak
- • Your brand is ineffective
- • Your design is wrong
Instead, it means:
AI cannot confidently understand, classify, or summarize your page.
For AI-driven search and recommendations, this clarity is essential.
The Purpose of GEO Testing
The GEO test is not judging your site like a human designer or marketer would.
It's answering one question: "If an AI assistant saw your page, could it understand what you do and recommend you correctly?"
GEO tests evaluate:
Structural clarity
- • H1
- • Intro paragraph
- • Semantic sections
- • Internal links
Semantic clarity
- • Value proposition
- • Entity signals
- • Descriptive nouns
- • Task-oriented content
Answer readiness
- • Q&A blocks
- • Definitions
- • Tutorials
- • Category labels
AI ingestion infrastructure
- • JSON-LD
- • llms.txt
- • AI crawler directives
- • ALT text
- • Canonical URLs
- • Content freshness signals
This has nothing to do with popularity or authority — only with machine readability.
Why Popular Sites Don't Optimize for AI SEO (Yet)
Well-known platforms typically:
- •Optimize homepages for branding, not meaning
- •Expect users to already know who they are
- •Push real content into deeper pages
- •Rely on logged-in dashboards for actual substance
- •Assume humans (not machines) are the primary audience
AI doesn't click around.
AI doesn't explore.
AI doesn't log in.
If the homepage is unclear, the entire domain becomes unclear to AI systems.
How to Interpret a Low Score on a Well-Known Site
When users test a major site and see a score of 0–30, you want them to understand:
AI really cannot understand that page.
Most modern marketing homepages fail AI SEO tests.
It is a fundamental truth about how AI processes the web.
Smaller sites that optimize early will outperform larger brands inside AI search results.
What a High AI SEO Score Actually Means
A high score indicates that your page is:
- Well-structured
- Machine readable
- Semantically dense
- Answer-friendly
- Deeply explainable
- Clear to humans and AIs
It means:
AI systems can confidently summarize, classify, and recommend your site.
In AI-driven ecosystems, that is the new competitive advantage.
Practical Guidance: How to Think About AI SEO for Your Product
Write for humans; structure for machines.
You don't need to turn your homepage into a wall of text. You only need to provide structured clarity.
Add a clear "What we do" explanation.
One paragraph goes a very long way for AI crawlers.
Add one or two answer-ready blocks
"What is X?" "How does it work?"
Use JSON-LD
It's the closest thing to machine metadata AI reliably ingests.
Ensure semantic density
- • Avoid buzzwords
- • Use real nouns
- • Explain real capabilities
Use descriptive ALT text
Especially for hero images.
Add an llms.txt file
This is rapidly becoming the standard for AI ingestion.
Final Takeaway For Users
AI SEO is not about ranking higher in traditional search.
It is about ensuring:
- • AI crawlers
- • AI ranking models
- • AI answer engines
- • LLM-powered search
- • Agent systems
…can understand your site without guessing.
Large, popular sites will eventually adapt — but right now, you can adapt faster.
With DataJelly, you can build an AI-ready site long before your competitors realize what changed.