audit study — vendor-published
Audit finds most small businesses invisible to AI search verification
What this answers
- Can AI search find small businesses?
- Mostly not well: in an audit of 71 verified Prince Edward Island businesses, the average met only 15.6% of AI retrievability and trust criteria, and 17% had no AI-retrievable digital presence at all.
An audit of 71 verified businesses on Prince Edward Island, scored against a modified E-E-A-T framework, found the average business met only 15.6% of AI retrievability and trust criteria, per Search Engine Land. The audit, conducted by Protected By ALFIE, found 17% of businesses had no AI-retrievable digital presence at all, citing gaps like unreadable websites, dead domains and missing trust signals.
Why it matters: The visibility gap runs deepest at the bottom of the market — much of main street isn't in the answer layer at all.
Posted to the wire July 24, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.