Be the name the AI answer gives, in both languages.
Buyers ask AI in English and in Farsi. Bilingual sites lose in ways owners never see: language tags, spelling drift, Farsi as images. What I fix.
Buyers in Tehrangeles and Orange County ask in two languages. Someone types “Persian restaurant near Westwood with a private room” into ChatGPT in English; their parents ask the same assistant in Farsi. The two answers are built separately, from what the engine can read in each language, and most Persian-American business sites are invisible in one and weak in the other.
Three things sink bilingual sites and none of them shows on the screen: the page does not say which language it is in, the owner's name and the business name are transliterated three different ways across the web, and the Farsi text is an image. All three are fixable in a week.
The questions your buyers ask
Typical questions, written the way people type them into an assistant. Yours will differ; the scan runs on the pages that answer them.
- Persian restaurant near Westwood with a private room for forty people.
- وکیل مهاجرت ایرانی در ارواین که پروندهٔ سرمایهگذاری انجام دهد؟
- Farsi-speaking accountant in Irvine who handles small-business taxes.
- کجا در اورنج کانتی میتوانم فرش دستباف را با اطمینان بفروشم؟
- Persian wedding photographer in Los Angeles who has shot a sofreh aghd.
What decides which Persian-American businesses the answer names
- [01]
Does each page declare its language?
A page in Farsi with its language set to English, or a page mixing both without saying so, is read as noise. Each page carries one language tag, and the English and Farsi versions point at each other with alternate links. NeshatScan reads the tag on every page it fetches.
- [02]
Is the name one name?
Behnood, Behnoud and Behnud are one person to you and three people to an engine. The Latin spelling of the owner's name and of the business should be identical on the site, the business listing, Instagram and in the press. Where the Farsi spelling appears, it appears the same way too.
- [03]
Is the Farsi text real text?
Menus, price lists and about pages exported as images from a designer's file are invisible to every crawler. The scan shows how much text a crawler actually receives from the page.
- [04]
Is right-to-left done properly?
The direction set on the page, not faked with alignment; Persian and Latin digits not mixed inside one sentence; fonts that render Persian correctly. Engines read the text either way, but readers leave broken pages, and engines notice who leaves.
- [05]
Are the answer crawlers allowed in?
The same check as on every site: robots.txt and the response headers, with the exact line that blocks OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or Claude-SearchBot if one does.
What I do about it
Run the free scan on your own site first. If it shows blockers, the one-time fix clears every one of them and re-scans to prove it. If the site is clean and the answers still leave you out, that is the monthly work: pages that state their facts, one name everywhere, and the same buyer questions captured on a schedule so you can see what changed.
What I will not promise
No one can promise that an AI engine will name your business in either language. What I promise: a site that is readable and correctly labelled in both, one consistent name everywhere, every access blocker cleared and re-scanned, and dated captures of the same questions, in English and in Farsi, before and after.
Questions Persian-American businesses ask me
[01]Does checking a Persian-American business website show its visibility in both languages?
No. English and Persian scan entry pages provide two ways to use the tool, not evidence of visibility in both languages. Record buyer questions separately in each language, with the answer's language, location, date and collection method. The available Persian research is incomplete; missing data is not evidence of no demand or no mention.
[02]Should the whole site be bilingual?
Not necessarily. The pages your buyers ask about (services, location, prices, the person behind the business) should exist in both languages as real text. Legal pages and long articles can wait.
[03]Does the AI understand Farsi questions?
Yes. The large engines answer Farsi questions in Farsi and draw on Farsi sources. The reason so few Persian-American businesses appear is not the language; it is that their Farsi pages are missing, unlabelled or images.
[04]Which spelling of our name should we use?
Pick the one on your business registration and your Google listing and use it everywhere, including on the Farsi pages when the name is written in Latin script. Consistency matters more than the choice.
[05]Can you write the Farsi pages?
I write and review Farsi copy in the formal register and check it with a native reader before it ships. Your own words about your business are better than mine; I make sure the engine can read them.
[06]Is there a Farsi version of this site?
Yes. Most pages, including pricing and the scan, have a Farsi version under neshat.ai/fa/. Reading the two side by side shows the pattern I recommend: real text, a declared language, and alternate links between the pair.