AI Search News · issue 11
AI Search News: Week 38
Why Measuring AI Search Visibility Is Still a Guessing Game
This week the theme was measurement, not features. Google admitted its own Search Console reports on AI search are hard to trust, Common Crawl found that most llms.txt files are decorative rather than functional, and marketers argued over whether Perplexity even belongs in visibility trackers anymore. None of this changes how AI search works, but it changes how confident you should be in the numbers you're using to judge your own site.
This week's stories
What changed this week
Most llms.txt Files Are Templates, Not Real Instructions
Who it affects: Any site that added an llms.txt file
Common Crawl analyzed over 500,000 llms.txt files and found 68% came from a plugin or template (Wix alone accounts for 41%), and 22% had no links at all. Some site owners wrote crawler-blocking rules into llms.txt, which the format has no power to enforce; of 32 files that claimed to deny Common Crawl's own crawler, none actually blocked it in robots.txt. Common Crawl's own summary: llms.txt 'grants nothing and blocks nothing, and no crawler is obliged to read it.' The analysis also found 136,578 robots.txt files mistakenly served at the llms.txt path.
What this means for your website
If you added an llms.txt file expecting it to control AI crawler access, it doesn't, only robots.txt does that. Check your actual robots.txt for the rules you think you already set, and don't treat llms.txt as a substitute.
How Local Businesses Get Recommended by AI Assistants
Who it affects: Local and service businesses
Moz's Jonathan Berthold and Kevin Chen described AI visibility for local businesses as being the option an assistant recommends when someone describes what they want, pulled from listings, review sites, forums, and even curated lists on other businesses' websites. Google closed the 'mention my name' loophole in April, so businesses can no longer script staff-name review requests, according to Moz. Consistent name, address, phone number and hours across platforms still matters, as does responding to every review, positive or negative, since replies are read by future customers, not just the reviewer. Response speed was called more important than review volume.
What this means for your website
Your website and business listings are now source material for AI recommendations, not just human readers, so keep NAP details current everywhere and respond to reviews promptly. Check your Google Business Profile and any staff-scripted review request process for compliance with the April policy change.
Should You Still Track Perplexity in AI Visibility Reports?
Who it affects: Marketers tracking brand visibility in AI answers
A LinkedIn debate over whether to drop Perplexity from AI visibility tracking cited StatCounter data showing its referral share falling from 7.91% in June to 4.31% in August 2026, while Gemini rose to 10.9%. Similarweb data put ChatGPT at roughly 53% of AI assistant web traffic, Gemini near 28%, Claude near 9%, and Perplexity around 1%. But the article argues usage share alone is misleading: Claude has built a strong enterprise position (Anthropic said its annualized revenue passed $65 billion in August), and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode reportedly reach 2.5 billion and 1 billion monthly users respectively, making them a separate tracking category rather than just another chatbot.
What this means for your website
Don't judge AI visibility by consumer traffic share alone, especially if your customers are businesses rather than consumers. Separate your tracking into at least three buckets: consumer chatbots, enterprise-focused platforms like Claude, and Google's AI Overviews/AI Mode, since each reaches a different audience.
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Sources
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