AI cannot quote a homepage that says nothing

Here is a homepage we audited last month, lightly disguised. Hero headline: "Transforming businesses through innovative digital solutions." Sub-headline: "We partner with forward-thinking organisations to unlock their potential." Three feature boxes: Strategy, Innovation, Growth. A testimonial from "J.S., Director". A contact form.

Ask ChatGPT what this company does and it will say something like "a consultancy offering digital transformation services" and then, if pushed, admit it cannot tell what sector, what services, where they are or what they charge. It is not being unhelpful. It has read the page. There is nothing in it.

What the machine is actually looking for

When an AI engine decides whether to recommend a business, it is trying to fill in a small number of slots. Who is this? What do they do, in terms a customer would use? For whom? Where? What does it cost? Why should I trust them? Every recommendation is built from those answers, and every answer has to come from text the engine can read.

A page that says "innovative solutions" fills none of the slots. A page that says "We install and service air source heat pumps for homes across East Sussex, typically £8,000 to £14,000 fitted, MCS certified, 340 installations since 2019" fills all six in one sentence. The second company gets recommended. It is not a better company. It is a legible one.

Why marketing copy went this way

Vague copy is a rational response to a human audience. It avoids alienating any segment, it sounds like the bigger competitors, it lets sales tailor the message on the call, and it does not commit you to a price. For twenty years the cost was invisible: some visitors bounced, most of the ones who mattered clicked through to a form or picked up the phone.

The reader has changed. A growing share of first contacts now happen inside an assistant, which reads your page on the customer's behalf and reports back. That reader has no patience, no imagination and no phone. It cannot infer that "solutions" means heat pumps. It will not fill in a price from context. If the fact is not stated, it does not exist.

Google's own guidance now uses the phrase "non-commodity content": pages that offer something specific that a generic page could not. Vague copy is the definition of commodity content. It could sit on a thousand sites unchanged, and the engines treat it accordingly.

The tell-tale signs

You have this problem if your homepage or service pages contain any of the following without a concrete fact nearby: solutions, innovative, bespoke, tailored, empower, transform, journey, passionate, cutting-edge, best-in-class, seamless, holistic. None of these words is banned. Each is a place where a fact should be and is not.

Two quicker tests. Read the first 100 words of your homepage aloud and ask whether a stranger could say what you sell, to whom and where. Then paste the URL into Perplexity and ask "what does this company do, where, and what does it cost". If the answer is shorter or vaguer than you would like, so is your page.

A rewrite you can copy

Before: "We are a full-service creative agency delivering bespoke digital experiences that drive meaningful engagement and growth."

After: "We are a six-person web design agency in Eastbourne. We build websites for professional services firms, trades and independent shops across Sussex and Kent, from £3,500, usually in six to eight weeks. 92 sites since 2019; average Google rating 4.9 from 61 reviews."

Every claim in the second version can be checked. Every slot is filled. A customer who is not in Sussex and Kent, or who wants a £500 site, self-selects out, which is a feature. And an assistant asked "who builds websites for solicitors in Eastbourne" now has a sentence it can quote.

What this means for your site

Rewrite the first 100 words of the homepage and of every service page to state the six facts. Publish prices or ranges; the engine will quote a number from someone, and it should be you. Replace stock testimonials with named ones that contain a detail. Put the About page facts (founders, year, address) where a machine will find them. Keep the brand voice if you like it, but put the facts first and the adjectives second.

It feels exposed. It is also the difference between being described and being recommended.