llms.txt, ai.json, identity.json, and the files that help AI find your business.
The unedited post-launch conversation between Mark McNeece and Sean Hamilton about the Lockerfella build. Trust, area pages, AI Discovery Files, prices, and the locksmith version of mission control. The primary source behind the case study.
Sean Hamilton wanted a website that "looked proper". He didn't ask for schema, AI Discovery Files, or 18 unique area pages. He didn't need to. Inside the Lockerfella build, the case study that turned a one-line brief into a 100/100/100/100 PageSpeed locksmith site cited in AI search within ten days of launch.
Ask ChatGPT about your business right now. Is the answer right? For 97 out of 100 UK businesses, it's not. The free AI Discovery Files WordPress plugin lets you tell AI systems who you are, what to call you, how your brand sounds, and what they're allowed to do with your content. Here's every feature, with screenshots.
99.7% of UK websites are invisible to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. I built a free WordPress plugin that fixes that in five minutes. It generates all 10 AI discovery files from your dashboard, with zero coding and zero performance impact. Here's what it does and why your site needs it.
Original research: 93.5% of the world's top websites have no AI Discovery File. Only 6.5% have any, and 56% of those fail validation. Zero sites achieved full AI visibility. The window for early adopters is wide open.
I gave detailed, expert feedback on a LinkedIn post about AI visibility. The response? "Sounds a bit AI-ish." The person who wrote the AI Discovery File Specifications was told their comment about those very specifications looked automated. This is what happens when people judge writing style over substance.
Six hundred websites serve an llms.txt file. None of them were verified. The AI Discovery Files Directory at ai-visibility.org.uk changes that: it reads every file, scores every implementation, verifies domain ownership, and publishes the results. Five Platinum-tier sites are live. Submissions are open.
OtterlyAI's 90-day experiment and SE Ranking's 300,000-domain study both found llms.txt has zero measurable effect on AI visibility. They're right about the data, wrong about what it means. Neither study checked the quality of the files they tested. Most are URL dumps. That's the problem.
OpenAI launched sponsored ads inside ChatGPT conversations on Super Bowl Sunday. They sit below the organic AI answer. That organic slot above the ad is free, and 97% of UK businesses aren't competing for it. Here's why the answer above the ad matters more than the ad itself.
Benjamin Tannenbaum built a free tool that renders any website the way an AI reads it. No images, no styling, no JavaScript. Just raw text and structure. We tried it on client sites and the results were sobering. Here's what AI actually sees, what it misses, and how AI discovery files fill the gap.
Google's John Mueller called creating markdown pages for AI "a stupid idea." Bing's Fabrice Canel called it cloaking. They're right about content mirrors, but AI discovery files are different, and the distinction matters for every UK business.
We asked Google Gemini what it learns from our AI discovery files that it can't learn from our website. It identified five categories of information, from brand naming rules to verified Q&A pairs, that no amount of HTML can communicate to an AI system. Here are the actual code examples from our implementation and the specifications that made it possible.
When someone asks an AI to recommend a business, most businesses give it nothing. AI discovery files change that. They tell AI systems who you are, what you do, and how to represent you. Here is what they are, who is using them, and what your business gains by implementing them.
We ran our AI Visibility Checker on 100 UK small business websites across six industries (trades, professional services, health and beauty, hospitality, retail, and property). Only 3 had any AI discovery files. The average visibility score was 31 out of 100. Here is the full industry breakdown.
If your AI visibility tool doesn't use live AI, it isn't checking visibility. It's guessing. Here's the dirty secret the industry doesn't want you to know.
Traditional SEO is about ranking. AI optimisation is about being chosen. Here's the no-nonsense guide to making AI systems know, trust, and recommend your business.
Our AI Visibility Checker now shows live ChatGPT responses about your business. Find out if AI knows you exist, and whether it recommends you.
SEO professionals love waiting for certainty. But while they debate whether AI Discovery Files are "official" enough, early adopters are seeing real results.
An introduction to AI Site Identity and why it matters for your business.