Google Search Advocate John Mueller has said that AI-related crawlers he sees in his own server logs often request sitemap and RSS feed URLs, even though many of these crawlers do not provide a formal sitemap submission feature like traditional search engines. The comment points to a growing operational issue for website owners as businesses try to understand how AI systems discover and access web content.

What happened

According to reporting from Search Engine Journal, Mueller said AI training crawlers usually do not offer website owners a standard way to submit sitemaps directly. Instead, he suggested that using common sitemap file names or exposing RSS feeds may help those crawlers find site content.

This is not a new Google product announcement or a formal standards change. It is a practical observation based on the crawler behaviour Mueller says he has seen in server logs.

Why it matters for European businesses

For European businesses, especially those investing in content marketing, e-commerce and AI visibility, the comment matters because AI crawlers are becoming part of the web traffic mix. Traditional SEO has long relied on tools such as sitemap submission through search engine platforms. If AI crawlers discover content more informally, technical site structure becomes more important.

That can have several business implications:

• Content discovery: AI systems may rely on publicly accessible sitemap and RSS URLs to find new or updated content.
• Traffic analysis: Marketing and IT teams may need to review logs more closely to distinguish search crawlers, AI crawlers and unwanted bot traffic.
• Infrastructure planning: Increased automated access to sitemap or feed files may affect crawl budgets, caching and server load on content-heavy sites.
• Content control: Businesses reviewing how their content is used by AI systems may need a clearer crawler governance strategy, including robots directives and monitoring.

For SMEs, this is less about immediate legal or platform change and more about website readiness. A technically well-structured site may be easier for both search engines and AI systems to interpret.

Who may be affected

The development is most relevant for organisations that depend on discoverability of web content or product data, including:

• publishers and content-driven websites
• e-commerce businesses with frequently updated product catalogues
• companies investing in thought leadership or inbound marketing
• SEO, web development and digital operations teams
• businesses monitoring how AI systems access or reuse their public content

What companies should consider

• Check that sitemaps are easy to find: Use standard sitemap locations and ensure the sitemap is referenced clearly where appropriate.
• Review RSS availability: If your site publishes regular updates, an RSS or similar feed may help automated systems detect fresh content.
• Monitor server logs: Identify which AI-related crawlers are accessing your site, what they request and how often they visit.
• Align SEO and bot-management practices: Technical SEO, bot controls and content governance are increasingly overlapping as AI crawlers become more common.
• Document your preferred access rules: Businesses concerned about AI training or large-scale automated access should review robots instructions and internal policies, while recognising that crawler compliance can vary.

Mueller’s comment does not establish a universal rule for all AI crawlers, but it does offer a useful signal for digital teams: if AI systems are part of your content strategy or risk assessment, basic technical assets such as sitemaps and RSS feeds may still play an important role in how your site is discovered.