How UK Industries Compare on AI Search Visibility Signals: A Cross-Industry Scorecard

Rank4AI | rank4ai.co.uk

Last updated: March 2026

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TL;DR

Across hundreds of UK SME websites spanning nine industries, AI search visibility signals vary dramatically by sector. Marketing agencies and accountancy firms lead the field. Legal firms score zero on every signal measured. Estate agents — operating in one of the most competitive local search environments — are among the weakest performers. No industry has cracked Person schema, and fewer than half of industries have made any attempt at llms.txt adoption. The gap between the best and worst sectors is not marginal: it is foundational.

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What This Page Is

This is a reference document, not a blog post. It consolidates findings from Rank4AI's ongoing audit programme, which examines UK SME websites across multiple industries for the technical and content signals that influence visibility in AI-powered search tools — including AI overviews, large language model citations, and conversational search engines.

Each signal assessed here maps to how AI systems read, interpret, and reference web content. The goal is not to rank industries against each other for competitive reasons, but to provide an honest, data-led picture of where each sector currently stands and where improvement is most needed.

This page will be updated as more audits are completed.

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Methodology

Scope: Hundreds of UK SME websites, audited between late 2025 and March 2026, spanning nine industry categories.

Industries covered: Accountancy, Marketing Agency, Personal Trainer, Plumber, Dentist, Restaurant, Estate Agent, Legal, Retail.

What was assessed for each site:

• Schema markup presence and type (Organisation, Person, FAQ, LocalBusiness, etc.)
• H1 tag clarity and presence
• Review signals: mention of reviews and link to a review source
• llms.txt file presence
• sameAs property presence in schema
• AI crawler blocking (robots.txt or equivalent)
• Alt text coverage (percentage of images with alt attributes)

Methodology notes:

• Sites were audited by automated tooling and manual review
• "Clear H1" means the H1 tag is present, single, and describes the page subject in plain language
• Schema presence was detected via structured data parsing; quality of schema was not evaluated
• Alt text coverage is calculated as a percentage of all images on the homepage
• Sample sizes differ by industry, as the audit programme is ongoing; smaller samples should be interpreted with appropriate caution
• No individual businesses are named or identifiable in this report
• All data is observational; correlations noted here do not imply causation

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The Full Scorecard

Schema Markup by Industry

Schema markup is the primary mechanism by which websites communicate structured information to AI systems and search engines. Organisation schema establishes entity identity. Person schema identifies individuals. FAQ schema surfaces question-and-answer content directly in AI responses.

Industry	Sample	Has any schema	Organisation schema	Person schema	FAQ schema
Accountancy	n=9	100%	78%	0%	11%
Marketing Agency	n=4	100%	75%	0%	50%
Personal Trainer	n=3	100%	67%	33%	0%
Plumber	n=3	100%	33%	0%	0%
Dentist	n=2	100%	0%	0%	0%
Restaurant	n=1	100%	0%	0%	0%
Estate Agent	n=4	50%	25%	0%	0%
Legal	n=3	0%	0%	0%	0%
Retail	n=1	0%	0%	0%	0%

Key observations:

• Every site in the accountancy, marketing, personal trainer, plumber, dentist, and restaurant samples had at least some schema present. Estate agents were split. Legal and retail had none.
• Organisation schema adoption drops sharply below the top two industries. Dentists and restaurants having 100% schema presence but 0% Organisation schema suggests the schema present is likely LocalBusiness or similar — technically valid, but not optimised for entity recognition.
• Person schema is virtually absent across all industries. The sole exception is personal trainers, where one in three sites includes it. For a sector where individual credibility is the core proposition, this is a notable gap across all sectors.
• FAQ schema adoption is low even among leaders. Half of marketing agencies have it; most other industries have not implemented it at all. This is a missed opportunity given how directly FAQ schema maps to AI overview and conversational search formatting.

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H1 Clarity by Industry

Industry	Clear H1 present
Marketing Agency	100%
Dentist	100%
Plumber	67%
Accountancy	56%
Personal Trainer	33%
Estate Agent	0%
Legal	0% (no H1s present at all)
Restaurant	0%
Retail	0%

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Review Signals by Industry

Industry	Mentions reviews	Links to review source
Accountancy	100%	89%
Marketing Agency	100%	50%
Plumber	100%	67%
Restaurant	100%	100%
Estate Agent	75%	50%
Personal Trainer	67%	67%
Dentist	50%	50%
Legal	0%	0%

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AI-Specific Signals: llms.txt and sameAs

Industry	llms.txt present	sameAs present
Personal Trainer	0%	100%
Accountancy	22%	67%
Marketing Agency	50%	50%
Plumber	0%	33%
Dentist	0%	0%
Estate Agent	0%	0%
Legal	0%	0%
Restaurant	0%	0%
Retail	0%	0%

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AI Crawler Blocking by Industry

Industry	Blocking AI crawlers (any)
Dentist	50%
Marketing Agency	50%
Personal Trainer	33%
Plumber	33%
Estate Agent	25%
Accountancy	11%
Legal	0%
Restaurant	0%
Retail	0%

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Alt Text Coverage by Industry

Industry	Alt text coverage (approx.)
Restaurant	77%
Marketing Agency	73%
Personal Trainer	71%
Plumber	64%
Accountancy	63%
Dentist	53%
Estate Agent	23%
Legal	No data
Retail	No data

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Industry-by-Industry Analysis

Accountancy

Accountancy firms are the strongest performers in this dataset on aggregate. Schema presence is universal; Organisation schema is near-universal; review signals are the strongest of any industry measured. The relatively high llms.txt and sameAs scores compared to most other industries are also notable.

The most plausible explanation for accountancy's strong showing is what this report calls the "platform effect." A large proportion of UK accountancy firm websites appear to run on WordPress with SEO plugins (Yoast, Rank Math) installed and configured. These plugins generate schema automatically, prompt users to add social profile links (which translate to sameAs properties), and encourage review markup. The result is that technically strong signals emerge as a byproduct of platform defaults rather than deliberate AI optimisation strategy.

The weakness to note: FAQ schema adoption remains very low at 11%, and Person schema is entirely absent.

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Marketing Agency

Marketing agencies are the joint-top performers and the only industry that scores well on both foundational signals (H1 clarity, schema) and advanced signals (llms.txt, sameAs). This is the industry most likely to be familiar with these signals through professional knowledge.

The 50% AI crawler blocking rate is the most interesting finding in this sector.

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Personal Trainer

Personal trainers present an interesting mixed profile. Schema presence is universal and Person schema — absent in every other industry except this one — appears in a third of sites. sameAs is 100%, the highest of any industry.

Against this, H1 clarity is low at 33%, llms.txt is absent, and FAQ schema is zero.

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Plumber

Plumbers show a competent but incomplete picture. Universal schema presence, reasonable review signals (100% mention, 67% link), and passable H1 clarity at 67% are all positive markers.

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Dentist

Dentists score well on H1 clarity (100%) and have universal schema presence, but Organisation schema is at zero.

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Estate Agent

Estate agents are the most concerning finding relative to commercial context. Schema presence is only 50%. H1 clarity is zero. sameAs is zero. llms.txt is zero. Alt text coverage is 23%.

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Legal

The legal industry records the lowest scores of any sector across every signal measured. Zero schema. Zero H1 tags. Zero review signals. Zero llms.txt. Zero sameAs.

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Signal Strength Summary Table

Industry	Schema	H1 Clarity	Reviews	sameAs	llms.txt	Alt Text	Overall
Marketing Agency	Strong	Strong	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Strong	Strong
Accountancy	Strong	Moderate	Strong	Moderate	Weak	Moderate	Strong
Personal Trainer	Strong	Weak	Moderate	Strong	None	Strong	Moderate
Plumber	Strong	Moderate	Strong	Weak	None	Moderate	Moderate
Dentist	Moderate	Strong	Moderate	None	None	Moderate	Moderate
Restaurant	Moderate	None	Strong	None	None	Strong	Moderate
Estate Agent	Weak	None	Moderate	None	None	Weak	Weak
Legal	None	None	None	None	None	No data	Very Weak
Retail	None	None	No data	None	None	No data	Very Weak

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is AI search visibility and why does it matter for UK SMEs?

AI search visibility refers to the likelihood that an AI-powered search tool will surface, cite, or recommend a business in response to a relevant user query. As more users begin their information-seeking with AI assistants rather than traditional search, the signals these tools use to identify, verify, and trust content are becoming commercially significant.

How does schema markup affect AI search results?

Schema markup provides AI systems with machine-readable, structured information about what a website is, who runs it, where it is located, what it does, and what others say about it.

Why do marketing agencies score so much higher than other industries?

Marketing agencies are likely more familiar with technical web signals because web visibility is their professional domain.

Why do accountancy firms score so well?

The most likely explanation is the "platform effect." Accountancy firm websites frequently run on WordPress with SEO plugins which generate schema automatically.

What explains the legal industry's zero scores?

Legal websites appear to be built under different conventions that prioritise document structure and professional presentation over structured web signals.

What is sameAs and why does it matter?

sameAs is a schema property that links a web entity to its verified profile on other platforms — LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, Companies House.

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a plain-text file that provides AI systems with a brief, structured summary of what the site does. Currently fewer than 5% of UK SME sites have one.

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About This Research

This scorecard is produced by Rank4AI, a UK-based service that audits and improves the AI search visibility of SME websites. The data is drawn from audits conducted between late 2025 and March 2026.

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Disclaimer: All findings in this report are observational. Data is drawn from a sample of UK SME websites and is not statistically representative of any industry as a whole. No individual businesses are identified. Correlations noted do not imply causation.

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