KinetixSEO research method
How our research sweep of public websites works
Some of the figures in our articles come from the KinetixSEO research sweep: our own scanner run over the homepages of a seeded random draw of public websites. This page shows how those figures are computed, what they currently say, and what they cannot tell you.
Data last updated (45 seconds ago) · 5 published figures
Methodology
How the data is collected
Our scanner runs over the homepage of each site in a seeded random draw of public websites. Each figure counts distinct sites, not scans: one site scanned several times is still one site.
Only sites where the check could actually run are counted. A homepage that did not load, or one where that part of the scan was unavailable, drops out of that figure's sample instead of counting as passing. Every figure states its own sample and the first and last scan dates it rests on, and a figure below 30 sites is not published at all.
Scans people run on their own sites with our free checker never feed these figures. Those sites chose themselves, so they cannot describe the web at large.
Current figures
What the data says now
Share of homepages in our seeded random research sweep of public sites that publish no llms.txt file.
85% of the 166 sites in the KinetixSEO research sweep, scanned Oct 5, 2026 to Oct 6, 2026, publish no llms.txt file.
n = 166 · measured (45 seconds ago)
Method: Scanned the homepage of each site in KinetixSEO's research sweep, a seeded random draw of public sites, between Oct 5, 2026 and Oct 6, 2026 with one unchanged version of the scanner, and counted the 166 distinct sites on which the "Missing llms.txt file" check could run. A site counts once however often it was scanned, and counts as affected if any of its scans showed the issue. A site whose /llms.txt request failed (an error response such as 403 or 5xx, a timeout, or an HTML page served in its place) is counted as having no llms.txt, so the share is an upper bound.
Share of homepages in our seeded random research sweep of public sites whose robots.txt blocks at least one AI crawler.
12% of the 165 sites in the KinetixSEO research sweep, scanned Oct 5, 2026 to Oct 6, 2026, block at least one AI crawler in robots.txt.
n = 165 · measured (45 seconds ago)
Method: Scanned the homepage of each site in KinetixSEO's research sweep, a seeded random draw of public sites, between Oct 5, 2026 and Oct 6, 2026 with one unchanged version of the scanner, and counted the 165 distinct sites on which the "AI crawlers blocked in robots.txt" check could run. A site counts once however often it was scanned, and counts as affected if any of its scans showed the issue. A site whose robots.txt could not be read for another reason (a timeout, a 4xx response such as 403, or an HTML page served in its place) leaves no trace in the scan and is counted as not blocking, so the share is a lower bound.
Share of homepages in our seeded random research sweep of public sites that carry no JSON-LD structured data at all.
54% of the 166 sites in the KinetixSEO research sweep, scanned Oct 5, 2026 to Oct 6, 2026, carry no JSON-LD structured data on their homepage.
n = 166 · measured (45 seconds ago)
Method: Scanned the homepage of each site in KinetixSEO's research sweep, a seeded random draw of public sites, between Oct 5, 2026 and Oct 6, 2026 with one unchanged version of the scanner, and counted the 166 distinct sites on which the "No structured data found" check could run. A site counts once however often it was scanned, and counts as affected if any of its scans showed the issue.
Share of homepages in our seeded random research sweep of public sites that have no meta description.
27% of the 166 sites in the KinetixSEO research sweep, scanned Oct 5, 2026 to Oct 6, 2026, have no meta description on their homepage.
n = 166 · measured (45 seconds ago)
Method: Scanned the homepage of each site in KinetixSEO's research sweep, a seeded random draw of public sites, between Oct 5, 2026 and Oct 6, 2026 with one unchanged version of the scanner, and counted the 166 distinct sites on which the "Missing meta description" check could run. A site counts once however often it was scanned, and counts as affected if any of its scans showed the issue.
Share of homepages with images, in our seeded random research sweep of public sites, where at least one image has no alt text.
On 24% of the 113 sites in the KinetixSEO research sweep with images on their homepage, scanned Oct 5, 2026 to Oct 6, 2026, at least one image has no alt text.
n = 113 · measured (45 seconds ago)
Method: Scanned the homepage of each site in KinetixSEO's research sweep, a seeded random draw of public sites, between Oct 5, 2026 and Oct 6, 2026 with one unchanged version of the scanner, and counted the 113 distinct sites on which the "Missing image alt text" check could run. A site counts once however often it was scanned, and counts as affected if any of its scans showed the issue.
Limitations
What these figures do not tell you
- Only the homepage of each site is scanned. Inner pages, which often differ, are not measured.
- Each figure counts sites where the check could actually run. Sites that failed to load, or where that part of the scan was unavailable, are left out of that figure's sample rather than counted as passing.
- A site counts as affected if any of its scans in the period showed the issue, so a site that fixed the issue between two scans still counts once as affected.
- Figures are only computed within one unchanged version of the scanner. When our checks change, the figure restarts from the newest version rather than mixing the two.
- Scans that people ran on their own sites, and scans we ran for outreach or competitor research, are never used. Those sites chose themselves or were chosen by us, so they say nothing about the web at large.
How to cite
Use this data
KinetixSEO (2026). How our research sweep of public websites works [Method and data]. KinetixSEO research sweep, retrieved 6 October 2026. https://kinetixseo.com/learn/methods/research-sweep
Published under a CC BY 4.0 license: free to reuse with attribution. Quote a figure together with its sample size and measurement date, as shown above.
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