Write Like You're Talking to a 5-Year-Old: How AI Reads Your Website

The rule I give every writer

Every writer who works with me hears the same thing on day one: write like you're talking to a 5-year-old.

Some people hear that and assume I think readers aren't smart. That's not it. It's about how kids talk. Kids don't beat around the bush. They don't have filters. Ask a kid what they want for dinner and you get "pizza," not three paragraphs about the evolving landscape of family meal planning.

That's exactly how you should write for AI. ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude: they're all hunting for the clearest, most direct answer on the page. The site that says it plainest gets quoted. The site that warms up for 200 words gets skipped.

How AI actually scans your website

AI doesn't read your page top to bottom like a person. It grabs the text, chops it into pieces, and goes looking for the one piece that answers a question. Here's the short version:

1. A crawler grabs your page. Bots like GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic) and PerplexityBot request your page's code. Many of them read the raw HTML and don't run JavaScript, so text that only loads after scripts run may never be seen.
2. It strips out the noise. Menus, footers, pop-ups and design get tossed. What's left is your words and your structure: headings, paragraphs, lists, tables.
3. It cuts the text into chunks. Your page gets split into small passages, usually along your headings and paragraphs. Each chunk is judged on its own.
4. Someone asks a question. A user types "how much does a roof replacement cost in Plano?" The AI searches its index for chunks that match the meaning of that question.
5. The best chunk wins. The AI pulls the passages that answer most clearly and builds its response from them, often with a link back to you.

The takeaway: AI isn't ranking your whole page. It's ranking your paragraphs. Every chunk has to stand on its own and get to the point.

Why the 5-year-old approach wins

When AI pulls a chunk out of your page, it loses everything around it. Your clever intro is gone. The setup from three paragraphs up is gone. That chunk has to make sense alone.

Kid-style writing does that naturally:

• The answer comes first. Kids don't build suspense. Neither should your paragraphs.
• One idea at a time. A kid tells you one thing, then the next thing. That maps perfectly to how AI chunks a page.
• Plain words. "Costs $8,000 to $15,000" beats "represents a significant investment." AI can quote the first. It can't do anything with the second.
• No fluff to filter. Every sentence of warm-up is noise the AI has to dig through. Less noise, cleaner match.

This isn't dumbing it down. Smart readers love it too. Nobody ever complained that an answer was too easy to find.

How to do it: 8 rules for writing AI can use

1. Answer in the first sentence. If the heading asks a question, the very next sentence answers it. Explain after.
2. Write headings people would actually type. "How long does a roof replacement take?" beats "Timeline Considerations." AI matches questions to headings.
3. One idea per paragraph. Two to three sentences, max. If a paragraph covers two things, split it.
4. Make every section stand alone. Don't write "as mentioned above" or "this." Say the thing again. A chunk pulled out by itself should still make sense.
5. Use real numbers and names. Prices, timeframes, locations, brand names. Specifics get quoted. Vague claims get skipped.
6. Use lists and tables for list-and-table stuff. Steps, comparisons and specs are easier for AI to pull cleanly than a wall of text.
7. Kill the warm-up. Delete "In today's fast-paced world," "It's no secret that," and anything else that delays the point.
8. Put the words in the HTML. Don't hide key content in images, sliders, tabs that load by script, or PDFs. If a bot can't read the text in the page source, it doesn't exist.

Quick gut check: read a paragraph out loud and ask, "Would a kid get bored before I got to the point?" If yes, rewrite it.

Before and after

Here's a typical service-page paragraph, and the same thing written the 5-year-old way.

Before:

When it comes to protecting one of your most valuable investments, your home, there are many factors to consider. At our company, we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional roofing solutions tailored to your unique needs, and the timeline for a full replacement can vary depending on a number of variables.

After:

A full roof replacement on a typical Plano home takes 1 to 3 days. Bigger roofs, steep pitches and bad weather can stretch it longer. We'll give you an exact timeline after a free inspection.

The "before" has 50 words and no answer. The "after" answers the question in the first 14 words, and every sentence is something AI can quote.

Straight to the point

AI is the most literal reader your website will ever have. It doesn't care about your clever intro. It wants the answer, fast, in words it can lift and repeat.

So write like you're talking to a 5-year-old. No filter. No warm-up. Just the point.

Want help reworking your site so AI search actually picks it up? That's what answer engine optimization is — and if you want to see it work on a subject we had no business ranking for, here's the data. Reach out at bobby@rawritup.com or (972) 836-6907.