Websites should be made for both human visitors and AI systems.

However, these two visitors have different ways of browsing a website.

Human visitors scroll through the screen, are distracted by video clips and ads, and may or may not have the patience to wait for a large image to load before reading the content below it.

In contrast, AI systems don’t “scroll” through a website in the same way.

They are not looking for eye-catching videos or engaging images.

They’re simply trying to find the best way to use the provided information to give users the most accurate results possible when searching for specific terms.

AI systems “read” information in a different way than humans do. They scan, extract, repurpose and often render harsh judgments on our content.

Therefore, to remain visible in search engines, voice search results, smart assistants and AI-generating answer engines, you must consider how AI systems consume information and design your website in a manner that is easy to comprehend for these technologies.

At our digital marketing company, we offer services that include designing webpages that appeal to humans, while also being easily accessible to AI systems.

Why AI Is an Actual “User” of Your Website

Think of AI systems as overzealous guests who arrive early to a party. They will open your cabinets, quickly scan your content, dissect it and try to make sense of everything, even the aspects that you wish they’d ignore. Today, search engines rely heavily on these types of AI systems. Voice assistants pull content directly from structured data and page context, while recommendation algorithms scrape semantics as if their existence depended on it.

In short, AI no longer simply “indexes” your website.

AI interacts with it.

This has changed how a digital marketing company develops website strategies. Rather than developing solely for humans, we create additional signals that AI can recognise clearly.

The key is to educate both audiences simultaneously.

Machines Don’t Guess, They Analyse

Humans are able to infer missing information. If a sentence appears to be a bit muddled or unclear, most people can figure out what you intended to convey.

On the other hand, AI systems do not like to guess.

They require clarity, consistency, and structure, even if that structure is embedded in the natural flow of writing.

When developing our digital marketing strategies, we review how AI systems interpret:

• Page hierarchy
• Context and relationship between headings
• Topic density
• Schema markup
• Internal linking patterns
• Signals within the content that help AI determine what your page is about

Machines can’t perceive tone. They perceive patterns. If your website is delivering conflicting signals, they will readily mislabel your business.

If you’ve ever noticed your business appearing in completely unrelated searches, that’s typically due to a machine misinterpreting your website.

Designing Pages That Are Machine-Readable But Not Stiff Like a Robot

This is the area that causes people to become anxious. They worry that by doing this, they are removing the personality, humour, and other creative elements that make their brand “alive.”

However, AI is capable of recognising a brand’s voice just fine as long as the fundamental structure of the website is designed logically.

So, what changes do we make when developing webpages for machine-readability?

1. Conversational, yet clear, headings (that machines can follow).

Headings are essentially breadcrumbs for AI to follow. While we want to avoid using inflexible, formula-based headings, we want to ensure that the headings are clear enough for AI to follow the narrative of your webpage.

An example of such a heading might be:

“What Makes Many Websites So Difficult For AI To Understand?”

This tells both the human user and the AI system what to expect.

An example of a poor heading might be:

“A Few Thoughts On This.”

This tells neither the human nor the AI system anything.

As part of our web content services, we develop heading structures that resemble the way a person would naturally converse, yet still provide the necessary cues for the AI system.

2. Using natural language that provides substance, and avoiding fluff.

Machines are even more adverse to ambiguity than readers are.

If you write:

“Our Solutions Enhance Your Digital Experience…”

AI systems will generally shrug at the lack of clarity. We write using a straightforward manner that states the issue clearly:

“How We Optimise Your Site to Ensure AI Processes It Properly…”

Direct. Honest. No padding.

That is why we emphasise meaning above aesthetics.

3. Utilising schema markup (the cheat sheet that machines actually read).

Schema is the quiet achiever in technical SEO.

It’s essentially your website’s backstage pass, highlighting products, articles, FAQs, business information, reviews, and more in an organised format that machines can immediately understand.

We add schema as part of our optimisation services, so it’s clear to AI right away what your website is offering.

4. Posting content that answers relevant questions, not hypothetical ones.

AI systems love information with a clear purpose. This means creating pages that provide useful information, not generic filler content.

So, when writing content, we zero in on:

• Straightforward and easy-to-understand explanations
• Examples of how things work
• Actionable steps
• Situation examples readers relate to
• Simple language, even if sometimes it looks messy

AI can recognise the pattern of helpful content quickly, much faster than search engines used to. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to keep pace because they produce content that looks good on the surface but says almost nothing.

Our writing services avoid this pitfall by making every page provide actual value.

How AI “Views” Your Website (Hint: It’s Completely Different From the Way Humans View It)

Here is something that people don’t realise:

AI systems don’t see your design at all.

They don’t care about gradients, fonts, or whether your button is rounded or square.

They care about:

• Words
• Labels
• The relationships between pages
• The structural elements underneath the visuals

Imagine stripping down the entire site to plain text, headings, metadata, and code patterns. That’s essentially how machines “see” them.

While we certainly build eye-catching websites, we also make sure that the structural elements and content of the website meet the needs of machines, even after all the decorative elements are stripped away.

Building Websites for Both Human Viewers and Machine Crawlers

Humans view a website in about six seconds.

An AI system views your entire website in an instant.

These are two distinct behaviours, yet they are both important.

This is how we design our website development to meet the needs of both types of users:

For Humans:

• Short paragraphs
• A conversational style
• Passive scanning zones on the page
• Clear takeaways
• Relatable examples
• Personality in writing rather than corporate jargon

For Machines:

• A clean format that’s consistent
• Topical signals that are consistent
• Schema markup.
• Semantic internal linking
• Definitions that are clearly defined without being forced
• No keyword stuffing
• Strong focus on the subject matter of each page.

It’s like writing a script that appeals to two audiences at once: the cast (the humans) and the critic (the machines). If you cannot appeal to both, neither will understand you and you will lose their attention.

Voice Assistants: The Gatekeepers of Information

AI systems power:

• Google Assistant
• Siri
• Alexa
• ChatGPT
• Smart appliances
• In-car voice systems

These devices do not “surf” your website. Instead, they summarise it. If your website has content that’s not easy to understand or if your website does not have a clean structure, then these devices may never include you in their search results.

All content must be informative and written in such a manner that your content can be turned by AI into answers without losing its original intent.

To be included in voice searches and AI-generated answer boxes, you need:

• Clear definitions
• Short, punchy explanations with in-depth knowledge
• Direct responses to commonly asked questions
• Schema that reinforces the topic of each page
• Internal linking that is consistent

To fix websites that are invisible to AI-driven search results, we optimise content as well as structure to make them more understandable to machines.

Machine-Friendly Doesn’t Have To Be Boring (Seriously!)

Developing machine-friendly content doesn’t mean developing boring, flat content that’s devoid of personality. In fact, they respond best to conversational writing. This is primarily due to the fact that the majority of natural writing is relatively clear.

Therefore, you can:

• Utilise metaphors
• Inject personality
• Write a few casual jokes
• Break a few grammatical rules
• Create content with different rhythms

Machines analyse the underlying meaning, while humans appreciate the minor errors. A great blend!

Preparing Your Website for the Next Generation of AI Tools

More and more AI systems will crawl, summarise, and evaluate your content. Therefore, the most intelligent thing you can do is prepare your site today rather than try to catch up at a later date.

Below are some of the primary upgrades that we assist business owners in implementing to prepare their sites for the future generations of AI tools:

• Improved heading hierarchy
• Meaningful and conversational content
• Clear definitions of products and services
• Schema applied throughout all relevant pages
• Internal links that allow AI models to understand the context of your site
• Increased speed of loading (machines also care about this)
• Reduction of filler content
• Cleaner metadata
• Content created in the same clear manner as a helpful human

These modifications do not require a redesign of your website. Rather, they require strategic planning that’s aligned to how current AI systems operate.

Once you establish a solid foundation, the advantages extend far beyond rankings. Your audience will benefit from the change as well. Users will spend more time reading your content and ultimately derive value from your content without having to sift through a lot of fluff.

That is the purpose of effective digital marketing.

Final Thoughts

Websites are no longer visited by just one type of visitor. You have the actual humans: busy, curious, sometimes impatient. And you have the machines: fast, analytical, and unapologetically literal. Developing a website that can communicate effectively with both types of viewers does not have to be overwhelming. With the proper content, structure and strategy, your website can speak to both types of visitors at the same time.

Our digital marketing services focus on achieving this perfect balance between:

human expression and machine readability.

If your website looks great but confuses AI systems, or if your content appears dull and redundant, we can fix it. Honestly, it is much easier to address these issues now before AI-based platforms continue to expand as gatekeepers of access to your content.

You don’t have to dramatically alter your brand voice. You don’t have to convert your website into a technical manual. All you need to do is create content and a structure that is designed to communicate with both types of viewers.