Schemas, robots.txt and structured data determine whether AI engines can find, understand and cite your brand. In this episode of Phasewheel In Brief, Kiley Hylton sits down with Caitlin Morin to break down what schemas are, which ones you actually need and how to make sure AI crawlers can access your site. What you'll learn: • What schemas are and why they matter for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) • The difference between a robots.txt file and a schema • Which schema types every website needs, regardless of industry • Whether you need FAQs on a page to add an FAQ schema • How to test if AI bots are actually crawling your site • Why llms.txt is a nice-to-have, not a must • When to hire a GEO consultant vs. doing it yourself Resources Mentioned • Schema validator: validator.schema.org • Google Rich Results Test • Screaming Frog (SEO crawler) • Cloudflare (for bot traffic monitoring and site speed) • Google Analytics (GA4): check for LLM referral traffic • Claude.ai: for generating optimized robots.txt files and schema code Q&A Q: What is a schema? A schema is a hidden piece of JSON code that lives in the backend of your website. It's invisible to visitors but tells AI crawlers and LLMs what is on your site, where to find it and why it matters. Think of it like an aisle sign in a grocery store. It doesn't hold the product; it just tells you where to look. Schemas are safe to add and carry near-zero risk of breaking your site. Q: What's the difference between a robots.txt file and a schema? A robots.txt file is the gatekeeper. It controls which crawlers and bots are allowed onto your site at all. A schema guides those bots once they're already inside. If robots.txt is the front door passcode, schemas are the directory once you're in the building. Q: Which schemas does every website need? Three schemas should be on every single page, regardless of industry: Organization (or LocalBusiness), Website and FAQ. Beyond those, prioritize based on what you sell: Product/Offer schemas for DTC brands, Service schemas for service businesses, Article/BlogPosting schemas for content and AggregateRating schemas if you have reviews. If you have a credentialed team member, a Person schema adds authority. Q: Do I need FAQs on a page to add an FAQ schema? No. You can add an FAQ schema to any page without having visible FAQ content on it. Pull your highest-traffic queries from Google Search Console and generate FAQ schemas based on those. Adding FAQ schemas across all pages is recommended for GEO purposes. This differs from traditional SEO guidance, and that's intentional. Q: Should I allow all AI crawlers on my site? Yes, with a few exceptions. Block crawlers from any page you don't want surfacing in AI results: checkout pages, patient portals, login pages or anywhere users enter PII. For the rest of your site, allow all major AI bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, etc.). Explicitly name the bots you're allowing in your robots.txt rather than using a blanket allow. You can generate an optimized robots.txt in Claude in under a minute. Q: What is an llms.txt file and do I need one? An llms.txt file consolidates your key schemas into one place for LLMs to reference. A recent Ahrefs study found only about 10% of llms.txt files are ever called by AI engines. It's a nice-to-have, not a priority. Invest in schemas, robots.txt and content quality first. Q: How can I tell if AI bots are actually crawling my site? Check your server logs through Cloudflare or your hosting provider. It's the most direct method. If you don't have server log access, use an SEO tool like Screaming Frog or check Google Analytics for LLM referral traffic. Your robots.txt tells you whether bots are allowed in; server logs tell you whether they're actually showing up. Q: Should my web developer handle schemas during a site build? Ask. But verify. Shopify automatically generates many schemas, and some WordPress themes (like WP Engine) include some schema support. Always check with the validator at validator.schema.org after a new build. For anything beyond the basics, working with a GEO consultant is worth it. Schema setup for most sites takes about two hours of consultation time and has an outsized impact on AI visibility.