In the fast-moving world of AI, new technologies and protocols are emerging that promise to reshape how machines interact with the web. One of the most exciting developments is the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — a standard designed to improve how AI models understand, navigate, and retrieve content from websites.
If you’re a website owner, developer, or simply interested in the future of the web and AI, this post will give you a clear overview of MCP, why it matters, and how you can prepare your website for the agentic era.
What is the Model Context Protocol?
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a proposed web standard that enables websites to explicitly define how AI agents — like large language models (LLMs) — should interact with their content.
Think of MCP as a kind of robots.txt for AI agents, but far more sophisticated. Instead of just saying “yes” or “no” to crawlers, MCP allows website owners to:
- Declare which content is AI-friendly
- Provide structured context for better interpretation
- Guide how content should be retrieved or summarised
- Specify preferred formats or APIs for machine consumption
This means that AI models can get cleaner, more useful data, and website owners can retain more control and transparency over how their content is used.
Why Does MCP Matter?
Traditional web crawlers were designed for search engines. But AI models operate differently — they don’t just index pages, they generate answers, summaries, and actions. This shift introduces several new challenges:
❌ The Problem
- AI agents often struggle with context, especially on complex or dynamic websites.
- Content might be outdated, misrepresented, or misunderstood by models.
- Website owners lack insight into how AI systems are using their data.
✅ The Opportunity
MCP offers a way to:
- Improve the accuracy of AI-generated answers based on your site
- Drive traffic more meaningfully by structuring content for agent retrieval
- Safeguard brand integrity by reducing misinterpretations
- Enable monetisation or access control strategies for AI-powered use
How Does MCP Work?
MCP is still evolving, but the core idea is that you provide a machine-readable manifest — a special file on your site that outlines:
- What parts of your site are relevant or permitted for AI use
- How data should be segmented (e.g., articles, FAQs, product descriptions)
- What metadata should be included (e.g., timestamps, authorship)
- What endpoints or APIs are available for structured retrieval
This allows AI agents to dynamically fetch and interpret the most relevant and reliable data — all based on your specifications.
Practical Example
Let’s say you run a website with a large collection of tutorials, reviews, and resource lists. With MCP, you could:
- Highlight your tutorials section as a high-quality source for summarisation.
- Flag your reviews with structured metadata like product names and scores.
- Indicate that sales or pricing pages should not be used for summarisation due to frequent updates.
- Provide an API endpoint for your latest resources or updates.
This helps AI agents generate better responses based on your content — while driving users back to the original source when needed.
How Can Website Owners Get Ready?
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, here’s what you can start doing now:
- Audit your content – What information would be most useful to an AI agent? Is it structured clearly?
- Organise your pages with semantic HTML and schema markup.
- Stay informed on MCP developments and draft standards (check with orgs like Anthropic, W3C, or OpenAI).
- Plan your MCP manifest – If the protocol becomes widely adopted, early movers will benefit the most.
Final Thoughts
As AI agents become more capable and widespread, protocols like MCP will play a key role in shaping how the web is accessed and understood. For website owners, this represents both a challenge and a chance to take control of how your site interacts with the next generation of digital agents.
In short: MCP is not just about compliance — it’s about opportunity.