Evaluate Accessibility: Step Two in the G.E.O.D.A.T.A. Framework

Caleb Turner on February 17, 2025

We’re in this weird phase of AI where no one really knows where it’s headed, so some want to protect themselves from those “what if” scenarios. Because of that, you’ll notice websites blocking AI chatbots from using their content, including companies like Amazon, Shutterstock, Forbes, BBC, Reddit, and The Wall Street Journal. 

Big names.

While being cautious may seem like a good idea, on the one hand, it only creates new problems. AI tools are increasingly driving website traffic, and they need access to your information to do this. So, if you want AI to work seamlessly with your website and provide users with the right information, building this relationship is key. 

The G.E.O.D.A.T.A. framework is designed to give you a clear path to follow. We’ve already covered the first step, “Gather Intelligence,” (pause and come back if you haven’t read it!). So now it’s time for the next step, “Evaluate Accessibility.”

The Role of Accessibility 

With AI taking over search engine algorithms, accessibility focuses on how AI can crawl, interpret, and index your content.

Shifting your attention to accessibility means you aim to enhance both the human and machine experience. In other words, it’s about making sure your strategy is fully aligned with AI.

Accessibility guarantees that search engines, including AI-powered ones, can navigate through your content and that you’ll gain visibility in searches. 

Sounds good, right? But here’s the question, how do you ensure your content is accessible? We’re going to answer that. 

How to Start Evaluating Accessibility

The G.E.O.D.A.T.A. framework is broken down into steps because, to put it lightly, there’s a lot to tackle. For now, we’re zeroing in on one thing: how to evaluate your website’s accessibility.

Understand What You’re Working With 

There’s no real need to block AI from crawling your website. You’re not some mysterious, underground website harboring government secrets…unless…

In all seriousness, you need to know what you’re working with before you get started.

You’ll want to start by checking your robots.txt file. This is the file that tells crawlers what they can and cannot see. It’s like the gatekeeper for bots. 

It’s possible to block some bots, such as if you want to secure sensitive areas or save resources. What’s important is you make sure you’re not blocking AI crawlers as well. 

To make sure your site is accessible for AI bots, you should:

  • Check for any blocked URLs: Look for pages or sections in your website that may be accidentally blocked from crawlers. Make sure your high-priority pages like product pages, about us, or blog content aren’t being blocked.
  • Make sure the essentials aren’t blocked: Check to see if resources like CSS, JavaScript files, and images are blocked or not. These elements help bots interpret your content.

Tools for Testing Bot Accessibility 

If you haven’t checked your robot.txt file before (the odds are you haven’t), here’s how you can do it:

  1. User Agent Switcher: This Google Chrome extension mimics different bot user agents and tests how your site responds. 
  2. Manually Check robots.txt: Append /robots.txt to your domain (e.g., yourdomain.com/robots.txt) to see what’s blocked and allowed.
  3. Known User Agents: Look for these examples to make sure your website is letting in the right bots:
  • GPTBot: Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; GPTBot/1.1
  • ClaudeBot: Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0
  • Anthropic AI Bot: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; anthropic-ai/1.0)

Use XML Sitemaps for Improved Navigation

AI bots need to know where to go, and you need to lead them. 

Your XML sitemap is a blueprint of your website. It shows all your important pages and helps bots crawl through your site quickly. 

Now, if you don’t have an XML sitemap (don’t freak out…yet), it’s going to be hard for bots to discover your content, which will reflect in search results.

You’ll want to:

  • Submit an updated XML sitemap: Give your sitemap to Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
  • Check your sitemap includes only high-priority pages: Delete any duplicates and remove low-priority pages from your sitemap.

These may seem like small steps, but they’re going to have a big impact on how AI bots crawl your website. If this sounds overwhelming (and we get it), SEO Rank Media can help you out.

Evaluate Website Load Time

A slow website is a sad website. When crawling, AI bots also look at website speed and performance. In other words, if your site takes too long to load, the AI bots take note and may not rank your content as high. 

To improve this, do the following:

  • Optimize website speed: We’ve got a need for speed—at least the bots do. Compress images, reduce CSS and JavaScript files, and use cache to reduce load times.
  • Add lazy loading: For any images and videos, implement lazy loading so that it only loads when it’s visible to the user or bot. That’ll help with performance.

Check for Mobile-Friendliness

AI bots love mobile (who would have thought?). What you need to know is that they analyze mobile content first. So making sure your website is mobile-friendly is a high priority. Not doing this will affect your search engine rankings.

To improve this, do the following:

  • Test mobile usability: Check out Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see what’s going on.
  • Is your site responsive?: Your website should automatically adjust to different screen sizes without any problems. This makes both the user and bot happy.

Structured Data for Improved Understanding

You want the bots to crawl your website and push pages to the top of search results. Structured data, known as schema markup, gives AI bots more information about your content. This helps search engines better understand the information on your pages.

Here’s what you should do:

  • Use schema markup: Defines and interprets the type of content on the page.
  • Use JSON-LD: It’s a popular method for adding schema markup.

Why the G.E.O.D.A.T.A Framework Is the Way to Go

The G.E.O.D.A.T.A. framework isn’t about smoke and mirrors in an attempt to trick AI bots. This framework outlines a process to help you align your content and search strategies with the AI-driven online world. Each step builds on the last to ensure your brand is positioned for success. 

With SEO Rank Media and the G.E.O.D.A.T.A. framework, you won’t need to relearn SEO all over again. You’ll have a clear game plan and the support you need to get your brand in the spotlight. Here’s your chance to build and future-proof your website to keep you ahead of your competitors.