FindBusiness

We check 17 things on a local business website. One decides where AI ranks you.

We scanned 126 small local businesses. Then we asked AI assistants who they recommend in 6 towns and compared the results. Most checks open a door once. This article shows what still matters after that.

FindBusiness research · September 1, 2026 · 8 min read
The short version
  • Of the 17 things we check, 1 both separates recommended businesses from ignored ones and orders the recommended ones: Where You Operate.
  • 60% of our own score sits on checks that only open a door: real and necessary, and unable to move you once you are through.
  • 5 of our checks showed no measurable effect on who AI names. They are named on this page rather than left out of it.

Open your website and read the front page as a stranger: does it say your business name, the towns you cover and the exact jobs you take, in plain text?

Google Business ProfileStructured DataWhere You Operate
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  • Northside Plumbing
  • Valley Rooter Co
  • Corona Drain Works
  • Ridgeline Plumbing
  • Oakfield Pipe
The doors light and nobody moves. Invented businesses, real result: Where You Operate is the one whose score goes with a better position.

Every AI readiness tool, including ours, gives you a list of things to fix. It does not tell you which items are known to matter. To learn that, we asked AI who it recommends in real towns and compared those answers with the grades.

We did that. 139 business-and-market pairs across 12 markets, auto repair, electrical, landscaping, nail salon, painting, plumbing and roofing in 6 towns, including the parts that argue against our own scoring.

What is on this page
  1. The short answer
  2. Getting named at all and ranking well are two different problems
  3. All 17, and the job each one does
  4. The one that does both jobs
  5. The checks that measured nothing, and why they are still on your report

The short answer

17
things we check
on every free scan
1
that changes your position
the rest are doors, or nothing
126
businesses measured
across 12 local markets

We grade 17 things. Then we ask AI assistants who to call in 6 towns, thousands of times, naming no business in the question. One of the 17 shows up in who gets recommended, and it is the same kind of thing: a plain fact about your business, written on the page as text a machine can read.

Our earlier studies explain why. AI reads a business's own site rather than the directories that list it (where it looks). It names businesses whose sites mention the exact job asked about (what your website says you do). Your site is what it has to go on.

The one that showed up

  • Where You Operate: The towns you serve, written out where a reader would look for them.
What this means for you

If you only do one thing, start with Where You Operate. Open your website and check it is there, on the page, as words rather than a picture or a promise to load later.

Getting named at all and ranking well are two different problems

Does AI mention you at all? That is a door. Most of what we check is a door too. 99% of the businesses we measured already score full marks on SSL / HTTPS. That cannot explain why one outranks another. It matters, but it cannot rank you.

Once AI finds you, where do you land? That is a different question, and the one most people want answered. 60% of our own score sits on checks that only open doors.

What this means for you

A check you have already passed cannot improve your position, no matter how important it was. Fix the doors once, then spend your time on the things below.

All 17, and the job each one does

Here is what each check did in our measurement. Three of ours did not separate anyone, meaning they did not score differently for the groups we compared, and two ran the wrong way. Those rows are here too.

0.00.10.201020gets you named: score gap between businesses AI names and businesses it never namesdecides your placehigh on bothhigh on placing onlyhigh on getting named onlylow on bothWhere You Operate — +15.8 point gap · orders at 0.24Where You OperateWho You Are — +17.3 point gap · orders at 0.14, too close to callWho You AreContent Organization — +20.5 point gap · orders at 0.13, too close to callContent OrganizationURL Structure — +2.7 point gap · orders at 0.12, too close to callURL StructureEntity Consistency — +8.5 point gap · orders at 0.10, too close to callEntity ConsistencyGoogle Business Profile — +25.4 point gap · orders at -0.04, too close to callGoogle Business ProfileStructured Data — +13.6 point gap · orders at 0.09, too close to callStructured DataContact Accessibility — +12.0 point gap · orders at -0.02, too close to callContact AccessibilityCrawl Health — +11.0 point gap · orders at 0.09, too close to callCrawl HealthAccessibility — +8.7 point gap · orders at -0.01, too close to callAccessibilitySSL / HTTPS — +6.7 point gap · almost everyone scores full marks, so its 0.11 is not readableSSL / HTTPSWhat You Do — +6.3 point gap · orders at 0.01, too close to callWhat You DoPage Speed — +0.9 point gap · orders at -0.02, too close to callPage SpeedLink Health — -0.9 point gap · almost everyone scores full marks, so its 0.10 is not readableLink HealthLegal & Compliance — -4.3 point gap · orders at -0.03, too close to callLegal & Compliancellms.txt — -3.2 point gap · orders at 0.05, too close to callllms.txt
Each dot is one check. Right means it separates the businesses AI names from the ones it never mentions. Up means it also orders the ones AI names. Agent Interface is in the table but not on the chart: every business scores the same, so there is no ordering value to place it at. 16 of the 17 are plotted. The table underneath has every number in it.
How to read this
  • Each mark: One dot per check, placed by both of its measurements at once.
  • Left to right: Score gap. A check at +20 means businesses AI recommends average 20 points higher on it than businesses AI never mentions.
  • Up and down: How closely the check tracks position among the businesses AI already names. Zero means it does not track position at all.
  • What to look for: Far right and low is a door: it tells the two groups apart and then stops mattering. That is where most of our weight sits. Top right is a check doing both jobs, but read the dot's note first. A check almost everyone passes can look high when very few businesses remain to compare.
What this does not show. The two columns come from different samples, deliberately. "Gets you named" is measured across every business we have ever scanned, because it needs businesses AI never mentions and those are not in this study. "Decides your place" is measured on the 139 pairs described below. Read each column against its own question rather than against the other. A gap is not a cause: these businesses were measured as they are, never changed and re-measured. A check can separate the two groups because it is a symptom of something else being right.
Show all 17 rows, with both numbers
CheckJob it doesGets you namedDecides your placeWeight
Where You OperateBoth+15.80.2420
Who You AreBoth, but not yet certain+17.3too close to call (0.14)20
Content OrganizationBoth, but not yet certain+20.5too close to call (0.13)25
URL StructureBoth, but not yet certain+2.7too close to call (0.12)10
Entity ConsistencyBoth, but not yet certain+8.5too close to call (0.10)15
Google Business ProfileGets you named+25.4too close to call (-0.04)50
Structured DataGets you named+13.6too close to call (0.09)20
Contact AccessibilityGets you named+12.0too close to call (-0.02)25
Crawl HealthGets you named+11.0too close to call (0.09)40
AccessibilityGets you named+8.7too close to call (-0.01)15
SSL / HTTPSGets you named+6.7too close to call (0.11)25
What You DoGets you named+6.3too close to call (0.01)15
Page SpeedNeither, in this study+0.9too close to call (-0.02)5
Agent InterfaceNeither, in this study0.0n/a5
Link HealthAlmost everyone already passes it-0.9too close to call (0.10)5
Legal & ComplianceRuns the wrong way-4.3too close to call (-0.03)10
llms.txtRuns the wrong way-3.2too close to call (0.05)10
What this means for you

Read the second number if AI already recommends you and you want to move up. Read the first number if AI does not mention you at all.

The one that does both jobs

This check separates recommended businesses from ignored ones and orders the recommended ones. The difference is larger than the sample size alone would produce.

Four more lean the same way without clearing that bar: Who You Are, Content Organization, URL Structure and Entity Consistency. Worth doing. Not proven.

What to actually change

Where You Operate+15.8 point gap
What it isThe towns you serve, written out where a reader would look for them.
What to changeName the towns. Not "the greater area", the actual town names, on the page.
What this means for you

It is just words on a page. It does not need a developer, a rebuild or a subscription.

The checks that measured nothing, and why they are still on your report

Page Speed, Agent Interface and Link Health did not separate anybody in this study. Legal & Compliance and llms.txt ran the other way: the businesses AI names score slightly WORSE on them.

They stay for two reasons. A check either predicts something or finds a real problem on your site, whether or not AI cares.

Legal & Compliance is the clearest case: near the bottom of that table, and the check that got a customer to publish a privacy policy and terms the next day. No statistic was going to tell them to.

llms.txt is the other kind. It measures adoption of a standard almost nobody has adopted, so there is nothing yet to separate. We are not changing how much it counts; being early is the position we want when that changes.

What this means for you

A check with no measured effect on AI is not a check with no value. It is a check we cannot yet show you a number for.

How we measured this

Every business here was scanned the same way your own free scan runs: we fetch the page as a machine would, with no browser, and grade the 17 checks. Separately, we ask AI assistants who to call for a trade in a town. We repeat each question so one lucky answer cannot change the result, and we never name a business in the question. Joining the two gives 139 business-and-market pairs across 12 markets.

"Gets you named" compares businesses AI recommends against businesses in the same towns it never mentions. "Decides your place" is measured only among businesses AI already names, so it cannot be inflated by the gap between the two groups.

Scope

  • 12 markets in 6 towns, all of them in Southern California, weighted toward the trades a homeowner calls. A national or a different-trade sample will move these numbers.
  • We tested all 17 checks against the same outcome at once. Run that many tests and roughly one will look convincing by luck. So here are both numbers: Where You Operate came in at 0.007, and a stricter bar that allows for 17 simultaneous tests would ask for 0.003. Read it as the strongest thing on this page rather than as settled, which is also why the near-misses are listed rather than buried.
  • This is a measurement of what goes together, not of what causes what. No business was changed and re-measured.
  • The numbers will move as the sample grows. When they move enough to change the advice, we publish a new study rather than editing this one.

See where your own site stands

The free scan runs every check on this page against your website and tells you which group each one landed in for you.

Run the free scan
Measured September 29, 2026 against 139 business-market pairs from 126 businesses across 12 markets in 6 towns. Source commit 7d493bc, data fingerprint fa3674bab549. These are the numbers as of that date, on that corpus. The web is being rebuilt around how AI reads it, so they will move. When they move enough to change the advice, we publish a new study rather than quietly editing this one. See every study we have published.