Pretty Isn't Enough: Build Your Website for AI Search Before You Design It
Web Design
Step-by-step
Website structure for AI search
Trigger Marketing
The Trigger team
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You can spend months getting mentioned, reviewed and listed. Then a visitor (or an AI) lands on your site, can't tell what you do, and leaves. All that work, wasted.
That's the warning from Exposure Ninja's CEO Charlie Marchant and Head of Web Development Jenny Nicholson (Oct 28, 2026). Showing up in AI answers isn't only SEO and PR. How the site is built matters too.
Here's the build order they use, step by step.
Quick words (one line each):
Site structure: how your pages are grouped and linked together.
Mega menu: a giant drop-down menu with lots of links.
HTML: the raw code of a page, the part every bot reads first.
JavaScript: code that runs in the browser to add movement and features.
Call to action (CTA): the button that tells people what to do next ("Book a call").
Accordion: a section that opens and closes when you tap it.
Step 1: Run the one-minute test
Jenny Nicholson's first check on any site: can you tell what the business does, and what message it gives, in about a minute? If not, nothing else matters yet.
Step 2: List the questions customers ask
Before anyone designs anything, write down every question customers ask.
Those questions decide the journey through the site.
They also decide where the buttons go.
AI is part of the audience now too.
Step 3: Let SEO set the structure
Keyword research comes first and sets the page groups.
That structure drives the menu and the links inside the copy.
Not everything fits in the menu. That's what links in the text are for.
Step 4: Skip the mega menu (unless you need it)
Jenny Nicholson calls a mega menu before you know the content "style over function". A mega menu on a five-page site looks awful and makes confusing layers for AI. Use one only when there's a lot of content. Accordions and tabs are fine when they're built right.
Step 5: Put the important words in plain HTML
Some AI systems don't run JavaScript. If your words only appear after JavaScript runs, those systems see an empty page. André Pitì said the same on the Candour podcast (Nov 2, 2026): if your content isn't in the HTML response, you're invisible to AI that doesn't run JavaScript.
The test:
Turn JavaScript off in your browser settings.
Reload your page.
It can look plain. The words must still be there.
Watch for letter-by-letter animated headings. On a live Framer site we checked on Nov 2, 2026, the words were in the HTML, but some animated headings were stored one letter at a time. A bot reads "T i r e d o f..." instead of words. Keep a real-word version of important headings.
Step 6: Keep it fast
Charlie and Jenny say speed matters as much as ever: a slow page wastes the AI citation you worked for, because the visitor leaves before it loads.
Step 7: Design for the phone first, then test on a real one
Most visits are on phones.
Check button size and how the menu works on mobile.
Don't hide content on mobile. Google reads the mobile version.
Use accordions or sliders so the text stays on the page.
Test on a real phone, not just a shrunk browser window.
Step 8: Kill the pop-up on page load
A big pop-up you can't close, the second someone lands, makes people leave. Show offers on exit, on the cart, or on a product page instead.
Step 9: Prune the off-topic leftovers
Charlie Marchant says old pages that don't match what you want to be known for confuse AI about what you do. Remove or merge them.
Step 10: Fix or rebuild? Do the math
A few small issues: fix them.
Lots of issues (old plugins, messy code, the business changed, wrong structure): a rebuild can cost less than months of small fixes.
One to watch, not buy: WebMCP
WebMCP is a proposed web standard that tells AI agents what a form is and how to use it. It's experimental. Jenny Nicholson hasn't tested it. Watch it, don't pay for it yet.
Do this today
Run the one-minute test on your homepage.
Write down 10 questions customers ask.
Turn JavaScript off and reload your top 3 pages.
Open your site on a real phone and tap every button.
Turn off any pop-up that fires on page load.
Related reading
Sources
Don't worry if this seems like it's a pain in the ass for someone who doesn't build websites. That's because it is. The good news: just click the link below, pull the trigger, and we'll take care of the rest.
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