Case Study · Bodywork & Massage Therapy

From invisible to AI-readable: rebuilding Tissue Alchemy for AI search

Sharon's Boulder bodywork practice had a dated WordPress site that AI engines couldn't read or cite — no structured data, no AI signals, and a blog that had been dormant since 2016. We rebuilt it from the ground up as an AI-ready website.

View the live rebuild → See the original site

AI readiness, before and after

WordPress → Astro — static, schema-first. Scored on how well each version can be read, recommended, and cited by AI search.

AEO score

+72

How readable & citable the site is to AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews)

Before 22/100
After 94/100

SEO score

+44

Traditional search readiness — metadata, content depth, crawlability, performance

Before 48/100
After 92/100

By the numbers

Schema.org structured-data types

0 → 11

llms.txt for AI engines

None → Published

FAQ schema (Question nodes)

0 → 63

Pages with unique meta descriptions

Missing → All 43

Fresh education content

2 posts (2016) → 8 posts + 15 deep pages

Local-SEO service-area cities

0 → 20

Largest page asset (logo)

2.0 MB → 20 KB

Broken internal links

Unaudited → 0 of 42

The problem: a site AI couldn't read

Tissue Alchemy is a precision fascia-and-chronic-pain practice — exactly the kind of specialized expertise people now ask ChatGPT and Google's AI about. But the existing WordPress site gave AI engines almost nothing to work with: no schema markup, no llms.txt, missing meta descriptions, and thin pages with duplicated calls-to-action.

The sitemap was padded with demo, test, and duplicate pages (/test/, /demo-parallax-images/, /one-page/, two near-identical bio pages), and the blog had been dormant since 2016 — two posts, nearly a decade old. When an AI assistant looked for a fascia specialist in Boulder, there was nothing structured for it to cite.

What we built

Structured data on every page

Site-wide LocalBusiness and Person schema, plus per-page Service, FAQPage, MedicalCondition, Article, Review, BreadcrumbList, and a DefinedTermSet glossary — 11 schema types in all, so AI engines can identify the practice, its services, and its expertise.

An AI-readable content layer

A published llms.txt that hands AI engines a clean map of the site, a canonical 'what is Tissue Alchemy' definition repeated in key places for entity clarity, and a 15-term plain-English glossary with deep-linkable definitions.

Deep, honest topical content

Seven condition pages (sciatica, frozen shoulder, TMJ, plantar fasciitis and more), four 'how this compares' pages (vs Rolfing, PT, classic myofascial release, traditional massage), four sport-specific pages for Front Range athletes, and three deep-dive science articles — each written in Sharon's voice with explicit 'when this isn't the right tool' referral language.

Local visibility & performance

A 20-city Front Range service area in schema, a dedicated /visiting/ logistics page, and a performance pass that cut the logo from 2 MB to 20 KB and deferred animation scripts so pages render fast.

New capabilities the old site never had

  • ✓ Schema.org structured data across every page (LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, MedicalCondition, Review)
  • ✓ llms.txt so ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can read and cite the practice
  • ✓ Condition-specific landing pages for the problems clients actually search
  • ✓ 'How this compares' pages vs Rolfing, physical therapy, and traditional massage
  • ✓ Sport-specific pages for Boulder runners, cyclists, climbers, and skiers
  • ✓ An 18-question FAQ with FAQPage schema, plus per-page FAQs
  • ✓ A plain-English, deep-linkable glossary of fascia and bodywork terms
  • ✓ 20-city Front Range local-SEO footprint and a visiting/logistics page
  • ✓ A Keystatic CMS so Sharon edits her own content — no developer needed
  • ✓ Accessibility and performance: reduced-motion support, alt text everywhere, a 99% smaller logo

How we scored this

Scores reflect Averde's AI-readiness assessment of each site's public markup in June 2026 — structured-data coverage, AI-crawlability (llms.txt and a clean sitemap), content depth, local-search signals, metadata completeness, and performance. 'Before' is the live WordPress site at tissuealchemy.com; 'after' is the rebuilt site. Every point traces to an observed, verifiable on-page fact — not estimated traffic or rankings.

Want to see where your site stands?

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