Original research · Bodhi & Co · September 2026
In August and September 2026, Bodhi & Co asked AI engines 422 buyer questions about 108 businesses. The business’s website was cited in 132 of those questions (31%). 41 businesses (38%) were never cited in any answer we tested, and 13 (12%) were cited every time.
We also audited 511 business websites between March and September. On the 111 that received our full audit, traditional SEO averaged 70.5 out of 100 and AI visibility 32.6.
A citation here means the business’s own web address appeared among an answer’s sources, or in its text. We count web addresses because they can be checked by machine. A business named without its address is not counted, so these figures understate how often businesses are mentioned.
Three things to take away
Since 5 August 2026 our audit has scored each website twice, out of 100: once for traditional SEO and once for AI visibility. We call these the full audits. On the 111 sites with both scores, SEO averaged 70.5 (median 74) and AI visibility 32.6 (median 32). AI visibility was the lower score on all 111 sites.
The 111 websites given our full audit, 5 August 2026 to 28 September 2026
| Score | Median | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional SEO | median 74 | 70.5 |
| AI visibility | median 32 | 32.6 |
Both scores are graded by our audit engine against a rubric. See the methodology.
42% of these sites scored under 30 on AI visibility and 6% scored 60 or more.
The other 400 websites were audited between 31 March 2026 and 5 August 2026 with an earlier version of the audit, which gave an AI-visibility score but no SEO score and no citation test. They averaged 8 out of 100 (median 6). The audit changed between the two groups, so we report them separately and do not read the difference as a trend.
Each answer shows its sources. In September 2026 we logged the most-cited sources for 34 of the tested businesses, up to 10 sources each: 1,685 citations in all. The business’s own website accounted for 78 of them, or 5%.
Number of citations, from the 1,685 logged across 34 businesses
| Source | Detail | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| Zillow | 110 | |
| The tested businesses’ own websites, combined | all 34 businesses | 78 |
| Homes.com | 75 | |
| Redfin | 66 | |
| 60 | ||
| Realtor.com | 48 | |
| Clutch | 46 | |
| DesignRush | 43 | |
| Yelp | 40 | |
| 29 |
20 of the 34 businesses were in real estate, which is why property portals lead the list.
Zillow alone was cited more often than all 34 businesses’ own websites put together.
21 businesses were tested on all four engines with the same 110 questions. On that like-for-like set the business was cited by Gemini in 17%, Claude in 16%, Perplexity in 16% and ChatGPT in 4% of answers.
The 21 businesses tested on all four engines, 110 questions
| Engine | Answers | Cited |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini | 19 of 109 answers | 17% |
| Claude | 18 of 110 answers | 16% |
| Perplexity | 17 of 109 answers | 16% |
| ChatGPT | 4 of 109 answers | 4% |
Engines were queried through their developer APIs with live web search switched on, not through the consumer apps. Answers in the apps can differ.
12 of those 21 businesses were not cited by any of the four engines.
Claude was also run on a further 73 businesses on its own. Across every Claude answer we have, it cited the business in 27% of 348. That is a larger and different set of businesses, so it is not comparable with the chart above.
Real estate was the largest group tested and the least cited: 18 of 32 agents and brokerages were never cited in any answer. Dental practices did better, with 8 of 31 never cited, and all 7 of the med spas we tested were cited at least once.
Share of tested businesses with no citation across every question and engine they were tested on
| Industry | Count | Never cited |
|---|---|---|
| Real estate | 18 of 32 tested | 56% |
| Law firms | 8 of 18 tested | 44% |
| Agencies & B2B services | 3 of 7 tested | 43% |
| Dental | 8 of 31 tested | 26% |
| Med spa & aesthetics | 0 of 7 tested | 0% |
Groups with fewer than 7 businesses tested are left out. Agencies and med spas have 7 each, so read them with caution.
Out of 100, on the 111 websites given our full audit
| Industry | Sites and SEO average | AI visibility |
|---|---|---|
| Med spa & aesthetics | 7 sites, SEO 71 | 46.1 |
| Agencies & B2B services | 7 sites, SEO 76 | 43.4 |
| Dental | 31 sites, SEO 71.5 | 33.7 |
| Real estate | 35 sites, SEO 69.6 | 30.2 |
| Law firms | 18 sites, SEO 65.7 | 21.7 |
Groups with fewer than 7 sites are left out.
64 of the audited businesses serve Greenville, Greer, Spartanburg, Anderson or the wider Upstate, according to the service area our audit recorded. 54 of them received the full audit and 52 the live citation test.
On these numbers the Upstate looks much like everywhere else we tested. 35% of Upstate businesses were never cited, against 41% of the 56 tested elsewhere.
44 of the 52 Upstate businesses were tested on Claude alone. 195 audited sites have no service area on record, so 64 is a minimum.
28 of the audits include a checklist that is computed in code: each check passes or fails on what the crawler found, with no judgement involved. It is a small group, so read the percentages as an indication.
Share of the 28 checklist audits failing each check
| Check | Count | Failed |
|---|---|---|
| No llms.txt file | 20 of 28 | 71% |
| No named author | 16 of 28 | 57% |
| No sitemap.xml | 15 of 28 | 54% |
| Fewer than 3 question-style headings | 14 of 28 | 50% |
| No LocalBusiness schema | 13 of 28 | 46% |
| No publish or updated dates | 12 of 28 | 43% |
| Headings not answer-ready | 12 of 28 | 43% |
| No location pages | 9 of 28 | 32% |
Across the wider sample, the audit recorded no llms.txt file on 410 of 496 sites (83%). It recorded robots.txt rules blocking OpenAI’s crawler on 14 of 179 sites (8%) and Anthropic’s on 11 (6%).
These are our recommendations. They follow from the gaps above and they are the work we do for clients. This report does not measure how much each one changes citation rates.
Bodhi & Co runs that measurement as the full part of its free AI visibility check. The rest is the work of an AI search optimization engagement.
Sample. 625 audits of 511 websites between 31 March 2026 and 28 September 2026, run by Bodhi & Co’s GET SEEN audit engine. Where a site was audited more than once, only the latest audit is counted. The sample is not random. It is the set of sites that went through our audit pipeline, and 344 of the 511 are real-estate sites. Businesses were audited from public information, and none is named here.
Two versions of the audit. 400 sites were last audited between 31 March 2026 and 5 August 2026 with an earlier version that produced an AI-visibility score only. 111 were audited from 5 August 2026 with the current version, which adds an SEO score and the live citation test. We do not pool the two. Pooled, the 511 sites would average 13.3 on AI visibility (median 8), a figure that mostly reflects the earlier audit.
Scores. Both scores are graded, not measured. Our audit engine crawls the site, and an AI model grades what the crawler found against a written rubric: content quality and originality, named people and credentials, question-led structure, and access for AI crawlers. In the current version, code recomputes the SEO score from the category grades and caps the AI-visibility score at 25 when a site blocks indexing. Graded scores can vary from run to run.
Live citation test. 108 businesses, 5 August 2026 to 28 September 2026. Each was asked 3, 5 or 10 buyer questions, 422 in total. The questions were written by the audit engine from the business’s own website, as the kind of question a buyer would put to an AI assistant. They were not collected from real customers. 73 businesses were tested on Claude alone, 27 on two or more engines (21 of them on all four), and 8 earlier tests did not record the engine.
What counts as a citation. The business’s domain appeared among the sources an engine cited, or in the text of its answer. Detection is by matching web addresses in code. “Never cited” means no citation across every question and engine that business was tested on. Of the 41 never-cited businesses, 27 were tested on Claude alone and 13 on two or more engines.
Engines. Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity were queried through their developer APIs with live web search switched on. The consumer apps may use different models and return different answers.
Sources. Source counts come from 34 businesses tested between 1 September 2026 and 28 September 2026. For each we recorded the 10 most-cited sources, not every source in every answer.
Region. A business is counted as Upstate when the service area recorded by the audit names an Upstate city. 195 sites have no service area recorded.
Other limits. AI engines give different answers to the same question at different times. Industry groups with fewer than 7 businesses are left out of the charts. The checklist figures come from 28 audits.
FAQ
In our 2026 tests the business’s website was cited in 132 of 422 buyer questions (31%). 41 of the 108 businesses tested (38%) were never cited in any answer, and 13 (12%) were cited in every question asked.
On the 21 businesses we tested on all four engines, the business was cited by Gemini in 17%, Claude in 16%, Perplexity in 16% and ChatGPT in 4% of answers. Three engines were level and ChatGPT cited far less often. It is a small sample, tested through each engine’s developer API.
Not in our audits. The 111 sites scored on both averaged 70.5 out of 100 for traditional SEO and 32.6 for AI visibility, and AI visibility was the lower score on all 111. Both scores are graded against a rubric by our audit engine.
A score from 0 to 100 that our audit engine gives a website after crawling it. An AI model grades what the crawler found against a written rubric covering content quality, named people and credentials, question-led structure and access for AI crawlers, and code caps the score when a site blocks indexing. It is a graded assessment, not a measurement.
From 625 GET SEEN audits of 511 business websites run by Bodhi & Co between 31 March 2026 and 28 September 2026, including live citation tests of 108 of those businesses. All figures are aggregated, and no business is named.
Related
Start with the free instant check: it reads your website the way an AI crawler does, in about ten seconds. Then ask us for the full check, where we put a customer’s questions to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity and show you who they name.
