What should we fix first for AI visibility?

Expanded answer

The order matters because each layer depends on the previous one. A page nobody can fetch cannot be cited no matter how good it is — so blockers go first: bot access, robots and noindex mistakes, broken redirects, split canonicals, and priority pages no internal link points to.

Second, improve what already exists. Priority pages — product, solutions, key comparisons and guides — get a direct answer at the top, one consistent name per entity, and proof next to the claims. Upgrading five pages that matter beats publishing five new ones.

Third, close the real gaps: buyer questions with no page, clusters missing their hub, proof that exists nowhere on the site. Only after that test optional tactics — llms.txt, AI-bot-specific tuning — as cheap additions, never as the plan.

What to check

• Can crawlers actually fetch priority pages — robots, firewall, and real server responses, not just intentions.
• Are priority URLs indexed, with clean canonicals and working redirects.
• Do product and solution pages answer their question on the first screen, with proof nearby.
• Is every core entity named the same way on every page.
• Which buyer questions have no page at all — that is the content queue, in that order.

Common mistakes

• Writing new content on top of a technically blocked website.
• Starting with experimental tactics because they look AI-specific.
• Fixing everything a little instead of fixing priority pages properly.
• Treating the fix list as a one-off project instead of the first cycle of an ongoing loop.