Overall median: 70
Overall performance centered near the mean of 68.
The middle range extended from 59 to 78, indicating meaningful variation across the sample.
n=1,127 sites ·
Quarterly benchmark report
The State of AI Visibility
The benchmark presents a broadly solid technical foundation, while content answerability and freshness remain the clearest areas of weakness. The strongest observed separators combine retrievable content structure, topic alignment, entity signals, crawler access, and dependable site mechanics. These are associations within the sample and do not establish causality.
2026-Q2 publication · captured · Methodology
1,127
domains analyzed
70/100
median score
59-78
middle-half range
83/100
top-decile threshold
Model-written, statistic-bound commentary
Key findings
The analysis is computed in code. GPT-5.6 Sol turns only those supplied metrics into commentary, and every numeric statement is bound to a named metric before publication.
Content Answerability mean: 38.2
Content Answerability and Content Freshness & Authority were the weakest scored dimensions by mean.
Content Freshness & Authority recorded a mean of 34.5, while Bot Access & Control Plane reached 83.2 and Fetch, Render, and URL Integrity reached 82.4.
n=1,127 sites ·
Top-quartile advantage: 59.8 percentage points
Retrievable, self-contained content sections were the largest listed separator.
The pass rate was 92.6 percent in the top quartile versus 32.8 percent elsewhere in the sample.
n=1,127 sites ·
Spearman association: 0.494
HTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity had the strongest listed section association with Site Architecture & Coverage.
The relationship is correlational and does not establish causality.
n=1,127 sites ·
Overall score distribution
The shape of the field
The middle half of the sample sits between 59 and 78, around a median of 70. Trend claims will begin after a second clean quarterly snapshot is published.
Eight comparable scored dimensions
Where sites win and lose
Content Freshness & Authority has the lowest average score; Bot Access & Control Plane has the highest. The bars show dispersion, not just the mean.
Content Freshness & Authority
avg 34
p25 25 · median 25 · p75 48 · p90 59
Freshness and authority recorded a mean of 34.5 and a median of 25, with 100 percent evaluated coverage.
Content Answerability
avg 38
p25 0 · median 39 · p75 67 · p90 81
Answerability remained weak, with a mean of 38.2 and a median of 38.9 across 100 percent evaluated coverage.
Entity Clarity
avg 70
p25 56 · median 70 · p75 85 · p90 90
Entity Clarity was comparatively balanced, with a mean of 69.8, a median of 70, and 100 percent evaluated coverage.
HTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity
avg 77
p25 69 · median 81 · p75 88 · p90 92
HTML extractability and main-content clarity posted a mean of 76.7 and a median of 81.2 across 100 percent evaluated coverage.
Trust & Security
avg 78
p25 70 · median 78 · p75 85 · p90 90
Trust & Security recorded a mean of 77.8 and a median of 78.5, with 100 percent evaluated coverage.
Site Architecture & Coverage
avg 82
p25 75 · median 91 · p75 97 · p90 100
Site Architecture & Coverage was a technical strength, with a mean of 81.5, a median of 90.9, and 100 percent evaluated coverage.
Fetch, Render, and URL Integrity
avg 82
p25 76 · median 83 · p75 91 · p90 97
Fetch, rendering, and URL integrity remained strong, with a mean of 82.4, a median of 82.8, and 100 percent evaluated coverage.
Bot Access & Control Plane
avg 83
p25 74 · median 83 · p75 100 · p90 100
Bot access was a relative strength, with a mean of 83.2, a median of 83.3, and evaluated coverage of 100 percent.
Observational measure
Structured Data
Structured Data is reported for diagnostic context but carries no overall-score weight, so it is not ranked against the eight scored dimensions. It was evaluated for 44.4% of this sample; its observed median was 100.
Check-level pass-rate lift
What separates the top quartile
These are the checks with the largest pass-rate gaps between sites at or above the overall seventy-fifth percentile and the rest of the sample. The comparison is descriptive, not causal.
| Check | Top quartile | Others | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content is divided into retrievable, self-contained sectionsContent Answerability | 92.6% | 32.8% | +59.8 pp |
| Title, primary heading, and opening content share a clear topicContent Answerability | 46.5% | 9.4% | +37 pp |
| Social profile links presentEntity Clarity | 83.8% | 48.7% | +35.2 pp |
| AI crawlers not blockedBot Access & Control Plane | 78.5% | 47% | +31.5 pp |
| About/Company link presentTrust & Security | 80.1% | 51.1% | +29.1 pp |
| Important navigation is present in served and rendered HTMLSite Architecture & Coverage | 89.5% | 62.4% | +27 pp |
| Sitemap availableSite Architecture & Coverage | 64.6% | 38.7% | +26 pp |
| OpenGraph basics presentHTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity | 73.7% | 47.7% | +26 pp |
Relationships inside the audit
Which signals move together
Spearman rho compares ranked section scores; phi compares pass versus non-pass outcomes for pairs of checks. Strong relationships can reveal shared implementation patterns or overlapping measurement, but they do not prove that one signal causes another.
Section-score correlations
| Pair | rho | n |
|---|---|---|
| HTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity + Site Architecture & Coverage | 0.494 | 1127 |
| HTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity + Trust & Security | 0.444 | 1127 |
| Site Architecture & Coverage + Trust & Security | 0.440 | 1127 |
| Entity Clarity + HTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity | 0.369 | 1127 |
| Content Answerability + Site Architecture & Coverage | 0.359 | 1127 |
| Content Answerability + HTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity | 0.345 | 1127 |
| Entity Clarity + Trust & Security | 0.337 | 1127 |
| Content Freshness & Authority + HTML Extractability & Main Content Clarity | 0.335 | 1127 |
Check-pass associations
| Pair | phi | n |
|---|---|---|
| Viewport configured for mobile devices + Viewport meta present | 1.000 | 1127 |
| Sitemap available + Sitemap looks like XML (not HTML) | 0.995 | 637 |
| Last-modified date present (schema or meta) + Publication date present (schema or meta) | 0.852 | 1127 |
| Main content is present without running JavaScript + Sufficient on-page text | 0.572 | 1127 |
| Canonical URL matches the current page URL + Canonical URL matches site origin | 0.556 | 674 |
| Brand/entity name appears in title + Title tag present | 0.552 | 1127 |
| Canonical URL present + Meta description missing | 0.547 | 1127 |
| Privacy policy link present + Terms link present | 0.540 | 1127 |
Only groups with at least 30 domains
Differences by inferred industry
Industry labels are inferred from public site signals and should be read as directional. Small groups are suppressed rather than over-interpreted.
| Inferred industry | Domains | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS & Cloud | 68 | 78 | 68-84 |
| Education | 72 | 74 | 68-80 |
| Government | 39 | 74 | 68-81 |
| Technology | 636 | 69 | 58-77 |
| Media & Entertainment | 141 | 68 | 60-74 |
A clean quarterly publication
Methodology
The sample includes active, public-index-eligible domains from the automated benchmark crawler. Each domain contributes its latest completed root-page baseline audit using the current scoring system inside a 365-day window. Nyman Media domains are excluded. This is not a self-selected user-audit sample.
Statistics are deterministic and generated before commentary. The commentary model cannot change the sample, scores, correlations, or tables. See the full scoring and population methodology.
- The benchmark population is limited to active, public-index-eligible domains reached by the automated crawler.
- Industry labels are inferred rather than reported directly by the domains.
- The method did not include repeated runs for a domain.
- Structured Data is observational rather than a scored dimension and was not evaluated universally.
- Pass-rate differences and section correlations describe associations within the sample; they do not establish causality.