Who’s Really Reading Your Website?
Here’s something that might surprise you. More than half of all web traffic today isn’t human. Imperva’s 2025 research puts the figure at 51%. It’s bots, and a growing number of those bots are AI tools actively reading your website and forming opinions about your business.
Before you reach for the panic button, let’s put this in context. Not all bots are bad news. Some are actually here to help.
What’s Actually Going On
There are broadly two kinds of bots worth knowing about.
Good bots, like Google’s crawler, have been visiting websites for decades. They index your content so you show up in search results. Fair enough.
Then there are AI bots. The ones that matter most for your business right now are AI fetchers, tools that go looking for information when someone asks an AI platform a question. Think ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar tools. When someone asks “who’s a reliable web designer in the Northern Rivers?” or “what makes a good brand for a not-for-profit?”, these tools go searching for answers. On your website, among others.
There’s also a newer category worth knowing about: AI agents. These are bots deployed by real people to carry out research tasks on their behalf. Someone might instruct their AI agent to “find me three graphic designers in regional NSW and compare what they offer.” That agent then visits websites, reads, assesses, and reports back. Just like a human researcher, but faster and without the coffee break.
What AI Is Actually Looking For
Here’s where it gets interesting.
AI tools don’t just scan for keywords. They read for clarity. They’re looking for content that actually answers questions, structure that makes navigation logical, and language that says something rather than fills space.
A few things that make a real difference in practice:
Clear service descriptions. If an AI fetcher is trying to understand what you do, a vague “we offer creative solutions” won’t cut it. Specific, plain-language descriptions of your services help AI tools accurately categorise and reference your business.
Answered questions. AI tools are built to answer questions. If your website content is structured around the questions your clients actually ask, you’re speaking the same language. FAQs, service explainers, and case studies all help here.
Logical page structure. Headings, subheadings, and clean navigation aren’t just good UX. They’re signposts that help both human visitors and AI tools understand what a page is about and where to find what they need.
Thin or duplicated content. AI tools are good at spotting it, and they tend to move past it. If your site has pages that don’t say much, or repeat the same ideas without adding anything new, those pages are likely being skipped.
A cluttered, confusing website doesn’t just frustrate human visitors. It leaves AI tools with nothing useful to work with either.
In other words, a well-designed, well-structured website is no longer just about impressing people. It’s about being findable and recommendable in an AI-first world.
What This Means For Your Business
This isn’t a reason to overhaul everything tomorrow. It is, however, a good reason to make sure the foundations are solid.
Clear messaging. Logical page structure. Content that genuinely answers the questions your clients are asking. A site that loads quickly and works on any device. These aren’t new ideas. They’re just more important than ever.
And if you want to go further than the foundations, the next step is a digital marketing strategy that works alongside your website, not around it. SEO, search advertising, and lead management, all aligned to your brand and built for the long game. Simon Bailey Design offers digital marketing solutions designed to do exactly that.
Simon Bailey Design has been building websites with exactly these principles for over 20 years. Clean, structured, purposeful design, built to work for real people and, as it turns out, for the bots reading over their shoulders too.
Peace of Mind, Built In
If your website has been built thoughtfully, with strong structure, clear content, and considered design, you’re already in reasonable shape. The discipline that makes a website good for humans makes it good for AI too.
If you’re not so sure about your site’s foundations, that’s worth a conversation.
Get in touch with Simon Bailey Design. A fresh set of eyes on your website might be exactly what you need.