4 CRO strategies that work for humans and AI

What do conversion rate optimization (CRO) and findability look like for an AI agent versus a human, and how different do your strategies really need to be?

More and more marketers are embracing the agentic web, and discovery increasingly happens through AI-powered experiences. That raises a fair question: what does CRO and findability look like for an AI agent compared with a human?

Several considerations matter, but the core takeaway is clear: serving people supports AI findability. AI systems are designed to surface useful, grounded information for people. Technical mechanics still matter, but you don’t need entirely different strategies to be findable or to improve CRO for AI versus humans.

What CRO looks like beyond the website

If a consumer does business directly through an agent or an AI assistant, your business needs to make the right information available in a way that can be understood and used. Your products or services need to be represented through clean, well-structured data, with information formatted in ways that downstream systems can process reliably.

As more people explore doing business with AI assistants, part of the work involves making sure your products and services can connect cleanly. Standards, such as Model Context Protocol (MCP), can help by enabling agents to interact with shared sources of information.

In many cases, a human may still decide to engage directly on a brand’s site. In that context, content and formatting choices matter. Whether you focus on paid media or organic, ensuring your humans can take desired actions — and will want to — is important.

Dig deeper: Are we ready for the agentic web?

Optimization 1: How much text is on the page?

Old‑school SEO encouraged the idea that more keywords and larger walls of text would perform better. That approach no longer holds.

Both humans and AI systems tend to work better with clearly structured, modular content. Large blocks of uninterrupted text can be harder for people to scan and understand. Clear sections, spacing, layout, and visual hierarchy help users quickly understand what they can do and how to accomplish the goal that brought them to the page.

There’s no fixed minimum or maximum amount of text that works best. You should use the amount of content needed to clearly explain what you offer, why it’s useful, and what sets it apart.

A technical topic will need more text, broken into smaller paragraphs. There are great calls to action as well.

Visual components can be helpful when paired with useful alt text. Lead gen forms should be easy for humans to complete and regularly audited for spam or friction. Content that’s hard for people to use is also harder for automated systems to interpret as helpful or relevant.

Dig deeper: Lead gen PPC: How to optimize for conversions and drive results

Optimization 2: How are you communicating with your humans?

One of the best ways to communicate clearly to systems is to communicate clearly to people. Lean into what makes you an expert, but avoid unnecessary jargon or overly complex language. Descriptions should stay specific, accurate, and on-brand.

A simple gut check: if a 10-year-old couldn’t broadly understand what you do, why it matters, and how to engage with you, you’re probably making things harder than necessary. Even though AI systems are sophisticated, clarity still matters because the goal is ultimately to support a human outcome.

If you’re unsure, try putting your positioning copy into an AI assistant and asking it to critique its clarity. Ask for simplification and clearer explanations, not for new claims or embellishment.

Visual components matter here as well. Comparison tables can help when they genuinely support understanding, but they can hurt when they’re used as a gimmick rather than a guide. Accessibility principles matter, too. Color contrast, readable font sizes, and restrained font choices reduce the risk that someone can’t process your site.

Images should be easy to understand and clearly connected to the surrounding text. Alt text helps people using assistive technologies and reinforces the relationship between visuals and written content.

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Optimization 3: The call to action

A user comes to your site to do something. They might want to buy, request a quote, or speak with your team. That action should be clear.

When the intended action is unclear, it becomes harder for both people and automated systems to understand what your site enables.

Shopping experiences tend to surface in conversations with shopping intent because assistants are trying to complete the task they were given. If it’s unclear how to add an item to a cart or complete a purchase, you make it harder for a human to do business with you. You also make it harder for systems to understand that you’re a transactional site rather than a catalog of items without a clear path forward.

Lead generation requires similar clarity. If the goal is to talk to your team, include a phone number that can be clicked to call. You might also include a form that submits directly into your lead system or a flow that opens an email client. Forcing users through multiple form pages often frustrates people and adds unnecessary complexity to the experience.

Dig deeper: 6 SEO tests to help improve traffic, engagement, and conversions

Optimization 4: The technical fixes

I cover technical considerations last for a reason. The most important work you can do is support the humans you serve. Technical improvements help, but they rarely succeed on their own.

Tips from the Microsoft AI guidebook. (Disclosure: I’m the Ads Liaison at Microsoft Advertising.)

Excessive imagery, low contrast between text and background, or unstable layouts can create challenges.

Make sure your site renders consistently and meaningfully. Large layout shifts after load, measured in cumulative layout shift (CLS), can frustrate users. Pages overloaded with ads or pop-ups can distract from the reason someone arrived in the first place and may introduce trust concerns.

Security matters as well. Malware warnings, broken rendering, or incomplete page loads can raise red flags for both users and automated systems.

Tools like IndexNow can help notify search systems of content changes more quickly. Microsoft Clarity is a free tool that shows how users behave on your site, surfacing friction you might otherwise miss. This includes Brand Agents that help your humans have more meaningful chatbot experiences.

One useful check is to review how your site appears when used as input for ad platforms or auto-generated creative tools, such as Performance Max campaigns or audience ads.

These can provide a helpful lens into how platforms interpret your content. When the resulting positioning and creative align with what you intend, you’re usually doing a good job serving both crawlers and people. When they don’t, it’s often a signal to revisit clarity, structure, or user flow.

Dig deeper: CRO for PPC: Key areas to optimize beyond landing pages

What does CRO for AI and for humans look like?

Humans and AI systems need many of the same things when it comes to CRO:

• Information should be clear and accurate.
• It should be easy to do the thing the user came to do.
• The site should avoid deceptive or manipulative patterns.
• The experience should build trust rather than undermine it.

Remember these CRO fundamentals that carry over:

• Humans and AI benefit from the same clarity-first approach to CRO.
• Information should be specific, grounded, and easy to understand.
• Actions should be obvious and easy to complete.
• Technical choices should support, not undermine, the experience.

When those fundamentals are in place, you’re supporting both human outcomes and AI-driven discovery.

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