I measured 34 well-known SaaS sites for something nobody checks: can an AI read them?
Your competitor is not ranking better than you. They are just readable, and you are not. I spent a week building something unglamorous: a checker that fetches a site the way AI crawlers do, and reports what a machine actually gets. I ran it against 34 well-known SaaS sites. The median passed 11 of 15 measurements. Two reached 14. Nobody reached the top. Here is what actually fails, in order of…
A researcher tested 34 popular SaaS websites to determine if an AI could read them properly. The study found that none of the sites ranked higher than others simply based on their readability for machines. A checker was created to fetch the sites the way AI crawlers do and report what the machine actually understood. The results showed that most sites failed to meet the required standards. The main issues identified were:
1. Pricing information not clearly stated in a machine-readable format.
2. Lack of a short, quotable summary of the site's purpose.
3. Pricing displayed as an image rather than text, causing crawlers to miss it.
4. Robots.txt files written years ago that block newer agents.
5. Robots.txt files written by outdated SEO plugins that block the latest crawlers.
One notable error revealed was the count of a rate limit being misinterpreted as a content failure. The study emphasizes the importance of accurately measuring AI visibility, as inaccuracies can lead to missed opportunities and lost revenue. The researchers have made the check available online for free, providing a score out of 100 based on machine-side measurements and a paid option for a more comprehensive assessment.
The key takeaway is that achieving a score of 14 out of 15 is currently the best known among well-established SaaS sites, highlighting the need for optimization in machine-readability.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
