Introduction
Lesson 10.1: the WordPress lab.
The lab site
In this lab we put the method into practice, from start to finish, on a WordPress site with WooCommerce. It's a demo site: a made-up coffee roaster that isn't online. You'll see it flagged in every recording. We only use free tools: WordPress, and the most popular SEO plugin, Yoast SEO, in its free version. If you use a different SEO plugin, the menu names change, but the work is the same. Six steps: the robots.txt, the llms.txt file, who the business is in structured data, an article that answers, an internal link, and a product page.
1. The robots.txt
Step one: the robots.txt. Before we touch anything, let's see what it looks like. WordPress, WooCommerce and Yoast generate it: no AI bot is blocked. To edit it, in Yoast open Tools, then File editor, and create the robots.txt file. Yoast fills it with the rules that were already there. As in Module 3, search bots stay allowed. For bots that only train models, the choice is yours. Here, as an example, we block GPTBot, OpenAI's training bot. Save, and reopen the robots.txt address: the new rule is at the bottom. OAI-SearchBot, the one that brings citations in ChatGPT, stays allowed.
2. The llms.txt file
Step two: the llms.txt file. In Yoast, open Settings, then Site features. Under the AI tools, you'll find llms.txt. Switch it on, and save your changes. The file is published at the root of the site, with the main pages, the posts and the categories. Remember Lesson 3.3: it's useful and it costs little, but nobody guarantees the engines will read it. And it doesn't replace well-written pages.
3. Who the business is
Step three: say who the business is. In Settings, Site representation, choose Organization. Type the organization's name, exactly as it appears everywhere else. We had already uploaded the logo here. Then save your changes. It's the same data as the fact sheet in Module 4: the same name, everywhere. The result is in the home page code: a JSON-LD block with the organization, its name, its logo and the website. On your own site, check it with Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator. This site isn't online, so we look at the code directly.
4. An article and an internal link
Steps four and five, together: an article that answers, and an internal link. Let's open the article on how to store coffee beans. The opening already works: the answer is in the first lines. Let's add a question customers really ask, as a heading: do you need a coffee grinder at home? And right below it, the answer, in one clear sentence. Now the internal link. We select the words manual coffee grinder, open the link box, and search for the product page by name. Save, and look at the published article: the question, the answer, and the link to the product, on the right words.
5. The product page
Step six, if you sell online: the product page. Let's open the manual coffee grinder in WooCommerce. In the Inventory tab there's a field for the GTIN, the barcode number. Our product is a demo and has no code, so the field stays empty. You never make up a code. Then the attributes. We add the material, written as text and visible on the product page. Save the attributes, and update the product. On the published page, the material shows up under Additional information: a written fact that an engine can read and compare.
The recap
Let's recap. The robots.txt checked, with a clear choice about training. The llms.txt file published. The organization in structured data. An article with a question and its answer, an internal link to the product, and a product page with a written attribute. All with free tools. And the next step is the one from Module 9: measure again, with the same questions.
Your task for today
Your task for today: repeat these six steps on your own WordPress site. If you can, on a test copy first. Write down what you changed and when, in the Report tab: you'll need it to read the next measurement.
Next lesson
In the next lesson: the same lab, on Shopify. See you there.