# LLMs.txt - Sitemap for AI content discovery # Brad Bartell > Digital Experience Expert --- ## Pages - [Blog](https://bradbartell.dev/blog/): - [](https://bradbartell.dev/): I’m Brad Bartell A Digital Experience Expert I am a strategic and empathetic team leader with 10+ years of experience... - [Work History](https://bradbartell.dev/work-history/): Modere Director of Digital Media and Customer Experience Mar 2025 – Apr 2025 This exquisite compilation showcases a diverse array... ## Posts - [Future-Proofing Your Content Strategy with llms.txt](https://bradbartell.dev/future-proofing-your-content-strategy-with-llms-txt/): Search is evolving—and fast. With the rise of generative AI and large language models (LLMs), how your content is found,... - [My Approach to Leadership in Digital Teams](https://bradbartell.dev/my-approach-to-leadership-in-digital-teams/): Leadership isn’t just about managing people—it’s about unlocking potential. Over the years, I’ve led cross-functional teams in marketing, development, and... - [How I address SEO for Existing Sites](https://bradbartell.dev/how-i-address-seo-for-existing-sites/): If your site has been around for a while but isn’t ranking as well as it should, you’re not alone.... - [How I Approach Search Engine Optimization](https://bradbartell.dev/how-i-approach-search-engine-optimization/): Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t just about showing up in search results — it’s about being understood. Modern SEO is... - [Home Lab](https://bradbartell.dev/home-lab/): In a need to update my skills and being really interested in a ESXI server after my boss talked to... - [Thoughts for my next role](https://bradbartell.dev/thoughts-for-my-next-role/): Recently I’ve had a few request by recruiters to connect and talk about opportunities. So I figured this would be... - [The Projects I am most proud of](https://bradbartell.dev/the-projects-i-am-most-proud-of/): There have been a good amount of sites/pages I’ve had the opportunity to work on. My work as the Manager... - [Web or App?](https://bradbartell.dev/web-or-app/): Every once in a while, when people find out I work as a web developer they like to pitch this... --- # # Detailed Content ## Pages ### Blog - Published: 2025-04-18 - Modified: 2025-04-18 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/blog/ --- ### - Published: 2025-04-18 - Modified: 2025-04-18 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/ I'm Brad Bartell A Digital Experience Expert I am a strategic and empathetic team leader with 10+ years of experience managing cross-functional web, IT, and marketing teams. Known for building high-performing, collaborative environments that empower individuals to take ownership and deliver exceptional outcomes. Proven ability to lead through change, mentor talent, and align technical strategy with business goals across organizations of varying maturity. Work HistoryWhat I Do Lead Teams I led a team of developers to deliver high-quality, scalable web applications by fostering collaboration, setting clear goals, and streamlining development workflows, while working cross-functionally with Marketing and Design teams to ensure alignment on user experience and business objectives. Development As a developer, I thrive on adaptability and innovation, constantly exploring new technologies and creative solutions to build more efficient and impactful digital experiences. Digital Marketing In digital marketing, I focus on SEO strategies and use analytics to uncover opportunities for growth, optimizing content and campaigns based on performance data to improve visibility, engagement, and conversions. Current ProjectsRedesign Portfolio Site Redesign the current site you are looking at. I want to create something that shows off my development, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager skillsCreate Digital Experience Of A New Company Freelance Project to create a website and digital experience for a new company for events. Work includes Website, Email system, and Event ManagementDigital Presence Working with a local primary care office to optimize content for search as well as build a digital ads strategy Have questions? Reach out on LinkedIn. --- ### Work History - Published: 2023-12-05 - Modified: 2025-04-18 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/work-history/ Hello there, Hi, I’m Brad Bartell, a Director of Digital Marketing and Customer Experience based in Ladera Ranch, California. I bring a rare blend of web development expertise and marketing strategy, paired with a strong track record of team leadership and cross-functional collaboration. Over the years, I’ve contributed to and led high-impact projects across international organizations and digital agencies. One of the highlights of my career was leading the creation of Content Kit, an app for Arbonne that enables brand-compliant social content creation — a tool that’s made a tangible impact for their field sellers. Modere Director of Digital Media and Customer Experience Mar 2025 - Apr 2025 This exquisite compilation showcases a diverse array of photographs that capture the essence of different eras and cultures, reflecting the unique styles and perspectives of each artist. Fleckenstein’s evocative imagery, Strand’s groundbreaking modernist approach, and Kōno’s meticulous documentation of Japanese life come together in a harmonious blend that celebrates the art of photography. Each image in “The Stories Book” is accompanied by insightful commentary, providing historical context and revealing the stories behind the photographs. This collection is not only a visual feast but also a tribute to the power of photography to preserve and narrate the multifaceted experiences of humanity. IT Contractor Feb 2024 - Mar 2025 As a contractor at Modere, I used my previous experience to enhance the Web Development skills of the team, build lines of communication with other departments, and manage 3rd parties. I used  my experience with... --- ## Posts ### Future-Proofing Your Content Strategy with llms.txt - Published: 2025-04-23 - Modified: 2025-04-23 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/future-proofing-your-content-strategy-with-llms-txt/ - Categories: Digital Marketing Search is evolving—and fast. With the rise of generative AI and large language models (LLMs), how your content is found, interpreted, and used is shifting from traditional keyword-based search engines to conversational AI platforms. In this new era, visibility isn’t just about ranking #1 on Google—it’s about being the source LLMs cite, summarize, or paraphrase in their responses. That’s where llms. txt comes in. What Is llms. txt? The llms. txt file is a new standard being proposed as a way for website owners to communicate how their content should be accessed and used by large language models like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and others. It’s a simple text file placed at the root of your domain, similar to robots. txt, but with a focus on LLMs rather than search engine crawlers. For example: https://bradbartell. dev/llms. txt This file lets you: Allow or disallow LLMs from training on or referencing your content Specify conditions for use (like attribution or licensing terms) Signal your openness to AI systems in a transparent, machine-readable way How Is llms. txt Different from robots. txt? While both llms. txt and robots. txt are used to guide automated systems, they serve different purposes: Featurerobots. txtllms. txtPrimary AudienceWeb crawlers (e. g. , Googlebot, Bingbot)Large language models (e. g. , ChatGPT, Gemini)FocusSearch indexing and crawling behaviorAI training and content usageSyntaxStandard directives like Disallow, AllowEmerging conventions for AI content governanceCurrent AdoptionWidely implemented and recognizedStill emerging, but gaining attention robots. txt tells search engines whether to index pages. llms. txt... --- ### My Approach to Leadership in Digital Teams - Published: 2025-04-21 - Modified: 2025-04-21 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/my-approach-to-leadership-in-digital-teams/ - Categories: General - Tags: Leadership, Process Leadership isn’t just about managing people—it’s about unlocking potential. Over the years, I’ve led cross-functional teams in marketing, development, and UX. Whether I’m mentoring junior developers or collaborating with senior stakeholders, my goal is always the same: to build environments where innovation, accountability, and growth thrive. People First I believe the best results come from teams that feel supported and heard. That’s why I prioritize clear communication, one-on-one check-ins, and creating space for every voice at the table. I take time to understand each team member’s strengths, goals, and learning style, so I can tailor my leadership to help them grow. Empowerment Through Trust Micromanagement stifles creativity. I trust my team to own their work, make decisions, and try new ideas. I’m there to provide context, remove roadblocks, and offer guidance—but I believe in giving people the autonomy to experiment and grow. Cross-Functional Collaboration Having worked across development, UX, and marketing, I’ve seen how silos slow teams down. I encourage collaboration between departments by translating technical jargon for non-technical teams and ensuring business goals are clearly understood on all sides. This creates alignment and accelerates delivery. Feedback as Fuel I see feedback as a two-way street. I regularly ask my team for feedback on how I can support them better, and I give feedback that’s direct, actionable, and kind. The goal is to build a culture of continuous improvement—where learning from mistakes is encouraged and celebrated. Leading Through Change The digital space moves fast, and I thrive in environments where... --- ### How I address SEO for Existing Sites - Published: 2025-04-20 - Modified: 2025-04-21 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/how-i-address-seo-for-existing-sites/ - Categories: Digital Marketing - Tags: Screaming Frog, SEMRush, SEO If your site has been around for a while but isn’t ranking as well as it should, you’re not alone. Many brands build up content, make design changes, or launch new features over time — but without a consistent SEO strategy, it’s easy for visibility to stagnate. The good news? A site with history has data — and that gives you a huge advantage. Here’s how I approach revitalizing SEO on an existing site using a combination of technical audits, content optimization, and ongoing strategy — with tools like Screaming Frog and SEMrush leading the way. Run a Full Crawl with Screaming Frog Screaming Frog is my go-to tool to uncover the technical health of a website. I use it to crawl the entire site and surface: Missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions Broken internal or outbound links Incorrect canonical tags or redirect chains Pages with low word count or thin content Improper use of H1s and heading structures Orphan pages that aren’t linked to internally Image issues like missing alt text or large file sizes This crawl gives a full picture of what’s going on under the hood. From here, I build a prioritized fix list — starting with technical blockers that prevent pages from being indexed or crawled properly. Audit Keyword Performance with SEMrush SEMrush is where the strategy gets sharp. It helps me understand how the site is currently performing in search — and more importantly, where the missed opportunities are. I use it to:... --- ### How I Approach Search Engine Optimization - Published: 2025-04-18 - Modified: 2025-04-21 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/how-i-approach-search-engine-optimization/ - Categories: Digital Marketing - Tags: Process, SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t just about showing up in search results — it’s about being understood. Modern SEO is built into the code itself, starting with how content is structured, how pages are marked up, and how a site performs across devices. One of the most important aspects is making your content not only easy for humans to read, but also optimized for search engine crawlers. Start with Solid Meta Data The fundamentals matter. Every page should have clean, well-structured meta data to help search engines understand its content. I make sure to: Set canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues and ensure search engines index the right version of a page. Add alternate hreflang tags for multilingual sites to help direct users to the correct language or regional version. Write concise and clear title and meta description tags that reflect the page’s value to the user and improve click-through rates from search results. And no, I don’t focus on stuffing keyword meta tags — search engines haven’t used them in years. Instead, I focus on writing useful, well-structured content that aligns with real user intent. Enhance Discoverability with Structured Data To help search engines go beyond just reading — to actually understanding — I add structured data using JSON-LD. This semantic markup allows content to appear in rich results like: Product listings with pricing and availability Product ratings so Google will show ratings in search results Articles with publish dates and authors FAQs, breadcrumbs, and even local business... --- ### Home Lab - Published: 2023-03-11 - Modified: 2025-04-21 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/home-lab/ - Categories: Web Development In a need to update my skills and being really interested in a ESXI server after my boss talked to me about his setup for a side project we worked on I built a home lab. Mine isn't anything fancy but it enables me do whatever I want for building and experimenting with little need to keep reinstalling new Operating Systems. What hardware did I use? For most people there are three options, build, use part from a previous upgrade, or buy a setup. For most people who build their own computers I would recommend building a server from their old parts, but I actually just gave mine away to a neighbor kid who wanted to get into PC gaming. So I could either buy parts and build a new PC or buy a prebuilt. In my case I knew this would be a server only so I didn't want to build a typical PC. I opted to use an old server, there are a ton of them on Amazon and similar sites. This enabled me to get a really good price for the hardware and felt good since I kept some chips from going to the dump. Software for the server once you find the hardware you want to use you'll need to find the software you want to run. Depending on what you plan to use the server for you can go with a Linux distro or Windows Server. What I did was use ESXI which allows you... --- ### Thoughts for my next role - Published: 2023-02-15 - Modified: 2025-04-21 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/thoughts-for-my-next-role/ - Categories: General, Web Development Recently I've had a few request by recruiters to connect and talk about opportunities. So I figured this would be a good place to document my thoughts and save myself from a bit of spam mail. I'd like to clarify I'm not really looking for a new role. I like the people I work with and the opportunities I have. The leadership I'm under trusts me and have my back on decisions I make. But like most people I can't just choose not to work and I if one that better fits my career goals and has the right opportunities I might consider leaving my current position. So what are those things for me? Lead / Decision Maker As a developer / technical person it really pains me to see money being wasted on programs that add little to no value. In a previous position I watched a big name come in an absolutely mess up a product that was pretty much done and just needed a branded skin. But a VP level saw the demo and brought it back to square one. The product only ended up adding 1 feature I can recall from the process, not even a major feature very minor part. This reset ended up wasting 6-8 months and in that time we could have worked on just the skin / styling and gotten the product out and gotten the best feedback possible for real users! My desire is to be in the early decision making... --- ### The Projects I am most proud of - Published: 2022-09-08 - Modified: 2025-04-21 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/the-projects-i-am-most-proud-of/ - Categories: General There have been a good amount of sites/pages I've had the opportunity to work on. My work as the Manager of a Front End Development team allowed me to inject creative ideas into high level meetings as well as empower my team to push creative ideas when working with other teams. Share API This one isn't a typical project but dealt with a unique issue to the company. It was an MLM where we had a marketing site and shopping site. The marketing content was built to be cool and flashy, but they couldn't talk to the shopping site's cart. Now since it's an MLM linking back to a consultant's store is key. The way around this was to use cookies so that if a user came from a shopping page, we could change the links on the page to have the consultant link. BUT how would we set a cookie for a first-time visitor? well using JS we could look at a URL query string and get values out of it and set cookies. And again, we run into another issue (isn't that the standard of any development), how do we get the consultants to share the marketing URL with their info? Enter the ShareAPI, through JS we were able to get cookies from the consultant browser, Link to marketing pages with the consultant info in the query string, then when a prospect of the consultant clicked the link it would cause the browser to link all shopping links... --- ### Web or App? - Published: 2022-08-22 - Modified: 2025-04-21 - URL: https://bradbartell.dev/web-or-app/ - Categories: Web Development - Tags: App, App Development, Process, PWA Every once in a while, when people find out I work as a web developer they like to pitch this idea they have to make money. Some are decent, some bad, and others interesting. It could be an AR/VR idea, social media platform, blog, event management or a handful of other ideas. But typically, they say something along the lines of "I have this idea for an app Every once in a while, when people find out I work as a web developer they like to pitch this idea they have to make money. Some are decent, some bad, and others interesting. It could be an AR/VR idea, social media platform, blog, event management or a handful of other ideas. But typically, they say something along the lines of "I have this idea for an app". They tend to mean a native app that you would download from the app store. In my head I immediately start thinking but why a native app? What feature are you using that requires a native app? How are you going to market this? What level of investment are you ready to put into this to make it happen? And then of course after some time of them explaining their idea they will say something along the lines of "Would you want to partner with me to build this"? I've honestly have yet to find one that is good enough and with a person committed to the idea enough to partner with them. Not to say that there hasn't been good people or good ideas, just not both. I'm a person who enjoys being helpful, so I'll challenge them a bit with some of the information on why you may not need an app. What features requires a native app? What are you really offering to your users? Is a list of events with event details on another page? A form for... ---