Google’s John Mueller and Martin Splitt advised against using markdown to optimize for AI search, noting that it unnecessarily adds complexity to a fundamentally simple process.
Markdown provides a subpar user experience.
Google’s Martin Splitt noted that using markdown alone may not provide a favorable user experience compared to HTML layouts, which allow for visually appealing designs and colors that markdown lacks support for.
Martin provided an explanation.
Users cannot simply publish a collection of Markdown documents because they prefer colors, images, and a visually appealing layout, which Markdown does not inherently provide as it lacks direct support for layouts.
You would need a mechanism to replicate the browser and HTML parsing, which has been extensively used and tested for many years.
Markdown results in double the effort.
Using markdown for LLMs along with generating a distinct HTML version for users increases the workload and complicates web publishing, which goes against the goal of streamlining the publishing process.
Martin kept talking.
Users prefer a comprehensive website over Markdown, so creating a separate version for a specific group would result in duplicating work.
John Mueller agreed and further elaborated that he empathized with the desire to streamline content publishing due to the potential lackluster presentation of certain HTML pages.
Mueller stated:
It is common for web pages to be poorly structured and difficult to navigate, leading to the belief that automated systems should make it easier for users to find the information they need.
Humans have evolved to prioritize visual information, which is the primary way they perceive the world.
Scientists have stated that
Around 50% of the human brain is dedicated to processing vision, either directly or indirectly.
Communicating effectively involves using visuals and appealing designs to convey a message.
Content in multiple versions running simultaneously
Both Mueller and Splitt advised against maintaining multiple versions of content simultaneously due to the unnecessary complexity it introduces to the publishing process. Furthermore, they highlighted the risk of machine-facing content remaining in a broken state undetected for extended periods, as AI systems do not notify site owners of such issues like users would with HTML errors.
Mueller initiated this segment of the conversation:
Having parallel versions of your content creates increased complexity. Maintenance of these multiple versions is essential to ensure that all versions function properly, as users may not report issues with unseen versions.
Many automated systems may fail to detect a problem as they simply interpret text present without understanding its context.
Martin Splitt concurred:
We realized that dynamic rendering, which served as a temporary solution, often led to more issues and was difficult to troubleshoot due to the presence of two separate versions.
Take-home points
John Mueller and Martin Splitt from Google advised against creating a separate AI-optimized version of a website using markdown. They suggested that publishers should focus on enhancing their current HTML pages instead of developing additional AI-specific versions of their content.
- Google suggests that using markdown for AI SEO may not be ideal as it could result in complications associated with publishing multiple sets of content simultaneously, increasing complexity without corresponding advantages.
- It is challenging to identify issues in AI-facing versions of content due to the lack of immediate detection compared to errors in user-facing pages.
- Markdown content may not provide the optimal user experience for both users and AI, which can impact search engine rankings significantly.
- HTML offers significant benefits for user experience by enhancing layout, navigation, colors, and images, resulting in a more effective consumption of information compared to plain markdown.
- Google suggests that maintaining separate machine-optimized versions in the past caused more issues than they resolved when compared to parallel content publishing.
Listen to the off the record search here, beginning at around the 14th minute.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/RYO Alexandre
