Brand Community SEO and LLM Discoverability

Introduction

This document explains how content published within a brand community becomes discoverable by both traditional search engines and modern AI-driven Large Language Models (LLMs). It outlines the SEO fundamentals applied across community pages, technical configurations for ensuring crawlability, and best practices for maximizing visibility across generative AI search and answer engines.

Section 1: Brand Communities & Search Engine Discoverability

Genuin-powered communities follow well-established SEO principles that ensure each page (community, group, post, profile) can be fully discovered and indexed by search engines. This includes consistent optimization of metadata, URLs, page structure, and content markup.

1.1 SEO Attributes for Enhanced Discoverability

Each page type exposes SEO-critical metadata, titles, descriptions, and Open Graph (OG) fields.
The full specification is available here:
SEO: Genuin Page Meta Attributes – Sephora

Table 1: SEO + Social Metadata Attributes Across Page Types

(Summary of attributes applied to Subdomain, Community, Group, Post/Video, Brand Profile, and User Profile pages)

Includes attributes such as:

• description / meta description
• og:title / og:description / og:url
• twitter:title / twitter:description
• og:video / twitter:player (for video posts)
• x-brand-id (helps associate pages with brand identity)

This table ensures uniform metadata implementation for optimized discoverability and accurate sharing across platforms.

Table 2: SEO Attributes Configured Per Page Type

A second summary table lists exact metadata implemented for each type of page.

This creates a predictable SEO footprint across the entire community ecosystem.

1.2 SEO Compatibility & Benchmarking with PageSpeed Insights

Our community pages score strongly on PageSpeed Insights, validating:

• Optimal Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• Minimal Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
• Strong SEO alignment

These results confirm the platform is built for discoverability, speed, and mobile-first indexing.

Screenshots for both Mobile and Desktop PSI analyses for sephora.begenuin.com are included for reference.

Additionally, a strong Domain Authority (DA) and consistent backlink strategy will significantly compound SEO benefits.

Section 2: LLM Discoverability & Content Crawlability

This section explains how all community content becomes accessible and consumable by AI crawlers (OpenAI, Perplexity, etc.) and how brands can explicitly optimize for LLM-driven search.

2.1 Content Crawlability on Search Consoles

Question:
Is all community content crawlable or only specific types (e.g., UGC videos)?

Answer:
All content is crawlable.
After white-labelling, Genuin submits sitemaps for all page types:

• Community pages
• Group pages
• Post / Video pages
• User profiles
• Brand profiles
• Subdomain landing pages

Once submitted, Google, Bing, Brave, and DuckDuckGo are able to crawl and index the content, subject to robots.txt configuration.

Detailed Steps for Submitting Sitemaps

Google Search Console

• Add your website as a property by entering your domain and verifying ownership (e.g., via DNS record, HTML file upload, or Google Analytics)
• Navigate to Indexing → Sitemaps
• Submit the sitemap URL (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml)
• Google processes and reports status (e.g., success, errors)

Bing Webmaster Tools

1. Go to Bing Webmaster Tools and sign in with a Microsoft account.

1. Navigate to “Sitemaps” and click on “Submit Sitemap”

2. Add your website by entering the URL and click "Submit."

3. Bing will validate and process the sitemap

2.1 By Importing from Google Search Console

Bing Webmaster Tools also lets you import any existing verified properties from Google Search Console. So if your website is already verified at Google Search Console, then you can import your site to Bing Webmaster Tools with the following steps.

1. Import Your Sites from GSC : On the Welcome page, click the “Import” button available under “Import your sites from GSC” option.

• or Import directly from Google Search Console via Bing’s GSC Import workflow

• Allow Permissions : On the next page, Bing would request your confirmation to fetch data from your Google Search Console and import them to Bing Webmaster Tools. Click “Continue”.

• Next, Google would request you to authenticate and then request your permission to let Bing access the Google Search Console data of your verified properties. Click “Allow”.

• Select Your Sites to Import : Now Bing would fetch all the verified websites available in your Google Search Console account, and here you can select the sites that you want to import. You can also notice from the below image, Bing was able to fetch the sitemap from your Google Search Console account. Select the sites to be imported and then click the “Import” button.

• Check Imported Sitemap : Once Bing has successfully imported your website’s data, you’ll see a success notice, as shown below.

• Click “Done”, and now you can confirm if Bing has imported your sitemap, by navigating to the “Sitemaps” section from the left sidebar.

Brave

• Submit via Brave Submit URL page (simple one-step form)

DuckDuckGo

• No separate submission portal
• DuckDuckGo relies heavily on Bing’s index
• Ensure sitemap is submitted to Bing for DuckDuckGo discoverability
• Ensure strong backlinks for faster discovery

2.2 Offsite Optimization Benefits

Community content contributes positively to offsite SEO through:

• Organic backlinks
• Social sharing metadata
• High-engagement video pages
• Profile pages that act like micro-sites
• UGC that drives natural link acquisition

This aligns with industry-standard traffic-building and offsite SEO methodologies.

2.3 Technical Requirements for LLM SEO (LEO)

2.3.1 Crawlability of Pages for LLMs

All six community page types are fully crawlable by LLMs:

1. Community Page
2. Group Page
3. Post / Video Page
4. User Profile
5. Brand Profile
6. Subdomain Home Page

This ensures complete visibility for generative engines.

2.3.2 OpenAI Crawlers

OpenAI uses web crawlers ("robots") and user agents to gather data for its products. Webmasters can control how their sites interact with OpenAI by using robots.txt tags. Each setting is independent.

• Reference: OpenAI Official Documentation
• Recommendation: The client's webmaster should update the website's robots.txt file according to OpenAI's official documentation. It is recommended to enable crawling for all OpenAI user agents to maximize LLM SEO and discoverability.
• Robots.txt Information: For more information on robots.txt, refer to Google's documentation.

2.3.2.1 Steps to Configure “robots.txt” for OpenAI:

The following robots.txt directives can be used to manage OpenAI's access to your site:

1. User-agent: Specify the OpenAI user agent (e.g., GPTBot, ChatGPT-User).
2. Disallow: Block OpenAI from accessing certain paths or the entire site.
3. Allow: Explicitly allow OpenAI to access specific paths.

Example robots.txt:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

This configuration blocks all user agents from the /private/ directory, but allows the GPTBot to access the rest of the site, where GPTBot will use the data to feed their foundational AI models.

2.3.3 Perplexity Crawlers

Perplexity uses web crawlers ("robots") and user agents to collect and index information from the internet. Webmasters can manage how their sites interact with Perplexity using robots.txt tags. Changes may take up to 24 hours to be reflected.

• Reference: Perplexity Official Documentation
• Recommendation: The client's webmaster should update the website's robots.txt file as per Perplexity's official documentation to ensure optimal LLM SEO and discoverability.

2.3.3.1 Steps to Configure robots.txt for Perplexity:

These robots.txt directives can control how Perplexity interacts with your site:

1. User-agent: Identify Perplexity's user agent (e.g., PerplexityBot).
2. Disallow: Prevent Perplexity from accessing certain URLs or the entire site.
3. Allow: Specifically permit Perplexity to access designated URLs.

Example robots.txt for Perplexity:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

This allows PerplexityBot to index relevant content.

2.4 Adding an /llms.txt File

To provide LLM-friendly content, as per industry standards adding an /llms.txt markdown file to websites. This file offers background information, guidance, and links to detailed markdown files.

• Reference: LLMs-TXT Official Documentation
• Discover websites using llms.txt: llms.txt directory
• Additional References:
• LLMs.txt Explained | TDS Archive
• LLMs.txt Explained | Towards Data Science

2.4.1 Steps to Implement /llms.txt:

1. Create the /llms.txt file: Create a new markdown file named llms.txt at the root directory of your website.
2. Add basic information: Include a brief introduction about your website and its purpose.
3. Provide guidance to LLMs: Explain how you would like LLMs to interact with your content (e.g., prioritize certain sections, avoid specific areas).
4. Link to detailed markdown files: If you have more detailed information, create additional markdown files and link to them from /llms.txt. This can include site maps, content guidelines, etc.
5. Publish the file: Ensure the llms.txt file is accessible via a web browser by navigating to yourdomain.com/llms.txt.
6. Maintain the file: Regularly update the file to reflect any changes in your website structure or content strategy.

2.5 Adding an /llms-full.txt File

According to ideal practices, adding an /llms-full.txt markdown file to websites is recommended. This file offers detailed background information, comprehensive guidance, and extensive links to markdown files.

• It should contain all the detailed content in one place, allowing LLMs to access all the information without needing to navigate to multiple pages.

2.5.1 Steps to Implement /llms-full.txt:

1. Create the /llms-full.txt file: Create a new markdown file named llms-full.txt at the root directory of your website.
2. Add detailed basic information: Include an extensive introduction about your website and its purpose, covering all aspects relevant to LLMs.
3. Provide comprehensive guidance to LLMs: Explain in detail how you would like LLMs to interact with your content, including specific instructions for different types of content, sections, and potential issues to avoid.
4. Link to extensive markdown files: Create detailed markdown files with comprehensive information, and link to them from /llms-full.txt. This can include site maps, content guidelines, technical specifications, and any other relevant documentation.
5. Publish the file: Ensure the /llms-full.txt file is accessible via a web browser by navigating to yourdomain.com/llms-full.txt.
6. Maintain the file: Regularly update the file to reflect any changes in your website structure, content strategy, or technical specifications.

2.6 Submitting llms.txt & llms-full.txt Through sitemap.xml

While /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt are not traditional web pages meant for direct user consumption, including them in your sitemap can provide clearer guidance to LLMs about the availability and purpose of these files. This can improve LLM discoverability and understanding of your site's content.

2.6.1 Steps to Submit /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt to sitemap.xml:

1. Create or update your sitemap.xml file:
   • If you already have a sitemap.xml file, locate it in the root directory of your website.
   • If not, create a new XML file named sitemap.xml in the root directory.

2. Add <url> entries for /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt:

• Open your sitemap.xml file and add a <url> element for each file, similar to how you would for any other page on your site.

Example sitemap entry:

<url>
  <loc>https://yourwebsite.com/llms.txt</loc>
  <lastmod>2024-07-26</lastmod>
  <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
  <priority>0.8</priority>
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://yourwebsite.com/llms-full.txt</loc>
  <lastmod>2024-07-26</lastmod>
  <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
  <priority>0.8</priority>
</url>

NOTE:

1. Replace “https://yourwebsite.com/llms.txt” and “https://yourwebsite.com/llms-full.txt” with the actual URLs of your files.
2. The <lastmod> tag should contain the date of the last modification of the file.
3. The <changefreq> tag indicates how often the file is expected to change.
4. The <priority> tag indicates the relative importance of this URL compared to other URLs on your site.

3. Submit your sitemap.xml to search engines:

• Submit the updated sitemap.xml to search consoles through their respective webmaster tools. This process is detailed in Section 2.1.

Impact of Including These Files

1. Improved Discoverability for LLMs: By including these files in your sitemap, you explicitly inform LLMs about their existence and location. This can help LLMs find and process these files more efficiently.
2. Better Understanding of your Intent: Including these files in the sitemap signals to LLMs that you consider these files to be an important part of your site's structure and that you want them to be accessed and understood.
3. Enhanced LLM SEO: While the direct impact on traditional search engine rankings may be minimal, providing clear guidance to LLMs can contribute to a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of your website's content, which may indirectly improve your site's overall LLM SEO (LEO).

2.7 Best Practices for LLM + Generative Search Optimization

2.7.1 Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) involves optimizing content to rank higher in AI-driven search engines that synthesize information from multiple sources.

• Key Principle: Ensure content is well-structured and engaging to facilitate easy access, interpretation, and prioritization by AI systems.
• Structured Curation: Organize communities and groups logically to aid LLMs and search engines in understanding and navigating the content.
• Reference: https://searchengineland.com/generative-engine-optimization-strategies-446723#h-1-generative-ai-research-and-analysis

2.7.2 Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

• Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) focuses on optimizing content to appear as direct answers in search engines, AI-driven assistants, and voice search results.
• The llms-full.txt file can significantly support AEO efforts by providing LLMs with detailed, structured information that facilitates the extraction of direct answers.
• It makes it easier for LLMs to understand and utilize your information when generating answers to user queries. This can improve your chances of appearing as a featured snippet or direct answer in search results, ultimately enhancing your website's visibility and attracting more targeted traffic.
• Reference: https://surferseo.com/blog/answer-engine-optimization/

Conclusion

All community pages on Genuin are inherently optimized for both search engines and LLMs.
By implementing:

• Complete SEO metadata
• Sitemap submission
• Robots.txt configuration
• llms.txt & llms-full.txt files
• LEO + GEO + AEO best practices

…brands maximize discoverability, improve organic reach, and future-proof their visibility across generative AI ecosystems and modern search.