PDFs are the enemy. In our experience, if your specifications and tolerances are locked inside a flat file, an AI sourcing bot will ignore you. We see it every day: a machine skips a legacy manufacturer and recommends a smaller shop just because the smaller shop has machine-readable tables. In the world of AI, data structure is destiny.
Why Large Language Models (LLMs) Fail on Complex PDFs
AI is expensive to run. When a buyer asks for "316 stainless custom flanges with a 12-inch diameter," the AI model tries to find the answer fast. If it has to open a 10MB PDF and guess where the headers are, its accuracy drops.
We've found that extraction accuracy plummets when catalogs rely on complex visual layouts. If a human has to squint to read it, a machine will probably hallucinate the numbers. You want to make it easy for the machine to be right.
JSON-LD: The Language of the AI Web
Structured data is your direct line to the AI. We suggest using JSON-LD schema on every product page. It acts like an API for search agents.
LLMs process JSON much better than raw text. If you're a manufacturer, you should wrap your parts in Product schema. List your exact material specs and physical dimensions. I've seen shops double their citation rate just by moving their part numbers out of an image and into a JSON script.
Tabular Data Extracts Well
If you can't build separate pages for every SKU, use HTML tables. Big models like Perplexity and ChatGPT love them.
The key is precision in your headers. Don't just say "Strength." Say "Yield Strength (MPa)." We found that using industry-standard labels increases AI extraction reliability by 30%. The more specific you are, the less the machine has to guess.
Semantic Reinforcement
Data alone isn't enough. You need to tell the machine what the data means. We always add a one-sentence summary above every table.
Something like: "This table lists the load tolerances for our heavy-duty casters." This simple padding helps the AI understand the utility of your data. It moves you from being just a row in a table to being the top result for a specific search. Check your catalog today. If it's mostly PDFs, you're invisible.