Dataset Coverage
CommonCrawl (~ 2B): The largest web crawl dataset, used by many major language models including GPT-3 and GPT-4.
FineWeb (~ 200M): A filtered CommonCrawl dataset following the filtering heuristics used to train LLMs.
AI Answer Engines and Search Results
Modern AI answering engines like Perplexity AI, ChatGPT, and others typically combine two approaches:
Training Data Knowledge
Their primary responses come from patterns learned during training on massive datasets. If your content was part of the training data, it can influence how these models understand and represent your business or topics.
Real-time Search Integration
Many AI assistants also augment their knowledge with real-time web searches. For example, Perplexity AI / Bard / ChatGPT can fetch current information through search engines.
Why Training Data Still Matters
Even with real-time search capabilities, models tend to show bias towards information they "learned" during training. This means:
- Your presence in training data can influence how the model interprets and contextualizes new information about your business
- Models may default to training-time information unless explicitly prompted to check current sources
- The way your content appeared in training data can affect the model's overall understanding and representation of your brand
Dataset Presence and LLM Training Guarantees
No Absolute Guarantees
Finding your content in these datasets doesn't guarantee its inclusion in any specific LLM's training data. Many major LLMs (like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) use proprietary, closed-source training datasets.
Strong Indicators
However, presence in these datasets is a strong indicator of potential inclusion because:
- CommonCrawl and similar datasets form the backbone of most large-scale web-trained LLMs
- Major AI companies typically combine these public datasets with their proprietary data
- Content appearing across multiple datasets has a higher likelihood of inclusion
Improving Your Presence in LLM Training Data
Content Quality Signals
- Length and Depth: Most datasets prefer content with 250+ words and comprehensive coverage of topics
- Original Content: Unique content scores higher than aggregated or templated content
- Update Frequency: Regularly updated websites are more likely to be included in new crawls
- Code-to-Text Ratio: Pages should maintain a balanced ratio of actual content to HTML/JavaScript
Technical Requirements
- Loading Speed: Pages should load within 3-5 seconds
- Mobile Responsiveness: Content must be accessible on mobile devices
- Clean HTML: Well-structured, valid HTML without major errors
- Accessibility: Content should be readable without JavaScript enabled
- HTTPS: Secure connection is increasingly required