Your website may look empty to AI systems

Last week I looked at a DJ's website. Los Angeles, nicely built: photos, service descriptions, testimonials, contact details. In the browser, everything is in place.

In what the server delivers, there were 41 words.

The menu items and a tagline. Nothing else.

How that is possible

A page exists in two versions. One is what you see in your browser. The other is the raw version the server sends. Usually the two are the same. Not always.

Menus, sections that expand, collapsed questions, galleries: their content sometimes only becomes visible in the browser. The raw version does not contain it.

AI systems usually read a page in that raw version. They work with what they receive. On that DJ's site, that was 41 words.

So when someone asks ChatGPT for a wedding DJ in Los Angeles, that site has almost nothing to contribute to the answer.

How to check it yourself

There's a simple way, and it takes three seconds:

Right-click on your page and choose "View page source". Chrome and Firefox both have it. The window that opens shows the raw version from the server: what machines see.

Search in it (Ctrl+F / Cmd+F) for a sentence you can read on your page. Part of a service description, a heading, your address.

If you can't find it, that text isn't there for machines.

One warning: "Inspect" shows you the wrong thing. That tool shows the state after the browser has done its work, and there everything is present. The right one is "View page source".

Usually a smaller job than it sounds

Most people hear this and assume the site needs rebuilding. Usually it doesn't.

In most cases, what is missing is the text itself. The homepage does not say clearly what you do, where you work and who you serve. A few paragraphs and the right headings are often enough.

In some cases the text is on the page but does not make it into the raw version. That has to do with the settings of the tool the site is built with, and it is usually a job of a few days.

Why this matters now

For a long time the question was mainly what Google reads from your site. Now there is a second one: what AI systems read.

They fetch the page, read it and move on. They work with whatever they receive.

Some of your customers are searching there now. And that share is growing.

If you want to check

Our Free SEO & GEO Check counts the words the server delivers and checks the other signals machines can read. It takes a few seconds and needs no signup.