Foundational Pages Answer the Six Buyer Questions in AI-Mediated Shortlisting
A foundational page is the complete answer to one of the six buyer questions.
A website needs six foundational pages, one for each buyer question.
A foundational page needs both sales and marketing: sales for the answers, and marketing to write them.
A foundational page is the complete answer to one of The Six Buyer Questions. Buyers ask those six questions to shortlist vendors, and in AI-mediated shortlisting they outsource the research to AI. AI then queries the vendor's website and looks for the answers. A website designed like a database, with one page for each topic, increases the probability that AI returns an accurate answer. Each buyer question is one topic, so a website needs six foundational pages, one for each question.
What Is a Foundational Page?
A foundational page is a type of page defined by its function: it raises the probability that AI returns an accurate answer when it researches one of the six buyer questions on behalf of the buyer. Other page types are defined by their function too:
A pillar page and its cluster pages form a topic cluster, which is built for search rankings and AI visibility: Website as a Database.
A landing page is a conversion page for an ad, an email, or a marketing campaign.
When a website is designed like a database, each topic has one page that owns it, and a foundational page is that page for one of the six buyer questions.
Mapping the Six Buyer Questions to the Foundational Pages
Each of The Six Buyer Questions maps to one foundational page. The table lists each question and the common names for the page that answers it.
Buyer question | Common names |
|---|---|
Does this vendor solve my problem? | Problems We Solve |
Do they work with companies like mine? | Who We Serve |
How do they do the work? | How We Work |
Can they prove results? | Results |
Are they credible? | About |
How does the engagement work? | Working With Us |
Use Common Page Names, Not Creative Ones
Name the page for what it is and use a common name. There is a reason for standardization: it lets a person and AI understand what a page is about from its name. Menus in desktop software read File, Edit, View, and end with Help, in the same order across programs, because people have learned to read them that way.
Marketers love to be creative, and there is a time and place for it. Naming pages is not one of those times. Do not get creative with page names. Do not make AI think.
It is okay to be a little boring. Boring names, not a boring website: the website still has to work for the people who visit it.
A Creative Page Name Makes AI Guess
A creative page name does not say what the page is, so AI has to guess. It is tempting to be creative with page names because it is easy to do.
For example, one company's top navigation had two links, My Story and Your Story, because its marketing consultant had advised it to be creative and be different. My Story was the About page. Your Story was the industry page. Neither name says what the page is. A person has to click to find out, and AI has to guess. A wrong guess means AI may not open the page, because the name does not give AI any context about the page content.
Why Does the Page Name Matter to AI?
The page name matters to AI when the page title uses it, because AI search tools return the page title with each section they retrieve: Website as a Database. A name that says what the page answers gives AI the context for every section on the page. A creative name may not.
A Foundational Page Should Be in the Main Navigation, Not Buried in the Blog
A foundational page should be accessible through the main navigation and not buried in a blog article or somewhere deep in the site, because AI reaches pages by following links, and pages buried under several clicks usually do not get read.
The Homepage Should Summarize Each Foundational Page and Link to It
The homepage should summarize each of the six foundational pages in text and link to each one, because when AI reads the homepage, it follows the links it finds. The summary gives AI enough to start on each buyer question, and the link tells AI where the complete answer is.
The homepage is a traffic cop. It shows AI and people what is on the site and where to go.
Creating Foundational Pages Requires Both Sales and Marketing
A foundational page needs both sales and marketing: sales for the answers, and marketing to write them. Sales talks to buyers and prospects every day and has an intimate knowledge of the buyer's problem, what the buyer is looking for in a vendor, and the answers to the six buyer questions. Marketing is not involved in those daily conversations, but marketing knows how to write.
In the past, marketing typically created the web page content on its own, and sales had little involvement or interest in it. That worked when the website was a destination for people to visit, explore, learn, and form an impression over multiple visits.
However, today with B2B buyers outsourcing more of the research to AI, it is important that the website is designed like a database, so that AI has a higher probability of returning an accurate answer to the six buyer questions. The answers on the foundational pages come from sales.
This is a new role for sales. Traditionally, sales does not get paid to create website copy. Sales gets paid to close. But a website that matches what sales tells buyers helps sales close.
A Website That Contradicts the Sales Team Can Put Deals at Risk
Gartner found that 69 percent of B2B buyers report inconsistencies between the information on a vendor's website and the information its sellers provide. Gartner says the mismatch "can create mistrust, potentially putting the transaction at risk."
In AI-mediated shortlisting, the buyer gets AI's answer about a vendor before talking to the sales team, and AI builds that answer mostly from the vendor's website.
When the buyer contacts the vendor to validate its capabilities, the buyer compares what sales says against what AI already told them. One way inconsistencies get onto the website is when a foundational page is written from marketing's secondhand understanding of the buyer instead of from the sales team's firsthand conversations with buyers.
About the author
David Lee
David Lee is the founder of Do What Works. At Toyota Motor Sales, he was part of a team that selected a vendor, from gathering requirements to the final decision. He then ran a B2B marketing agency for ten years. Today he runs buyer conversations through ChatGPT and Claude to see how AI researches and shortlists vendors.