US Cities (Top 1,000)
cities-1000
The 1,000 most populous US cities.
Median score
28
across 974 sites
Middle half
28–33
spread around the median
Full range
28–65
lowest to highest
Gated
926 of 974
block AI crawlers outright
Middle of 14 cohorts. All cohorts 50 · best cohort 58.
Where this list came from
The source, and how we filtered it
| Source | The 1,000 most populous US cities, Census Vintage 2025, US Census Bureau, with CISA and Wikidata (2025-vintage) |
|---|---|
| License | No restriction on the combined list. The roster is a work of the US federal government and carries no copyright, the CISA .gov registry is public domain, and Wikidata is CC0 1.0 Universal; the cohort goes out under the Census's CC BY-SA 4.0 like the rest. |
| How we filtered it | The roster is the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates (sub-est2025.csv) with SUMLEV 162, 19,483 incorporated places, sorted by POPESTIMATE2025 and cut at 1,000. The cutoff is a population of 41,319 (Friendswood, Texas), because the top thousand is not reproducible and a threshold is. Each city's address came from the CISA .gov registry, then Wikidata (P856, joined on the place FIPS code in P774), and 19 were resolved by hand and confirmed by loading the site. |
| Built | 2026-10-11 |
The filtering is ours and is disclosed as ours. The source published a list; the decision about which rows of it belong in a cohort was a judgment call, and it is written down so somebody can disagree with it.
Distribution
Where the 974 sites land
| Grade | Share of the cohort | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not ready | 887 | 91.1% | |
| Weak | 80 | 8.2% | |
| Adequate | 7 | 0.7% |
By dimension
What the cohort earns, dimension by dimension
The mean share of each dimension’s available points that this cohort earned. Low here means the whole sector is weak on it, not that one site dragged an average down. The per-site spread is in the dataset.
| Dimension | Mean share earned | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| #1 · Reach
These parameters determine the fundamental ease of access that AI has to your site information. |
46% | |
| #2 · Read
AI generally turns off JavaScript. Does your site information survive without it? |
22% | |
| #3 · Understand
Does a machine know who and what you are? |
19% | |
| #4 · Act
Sitemaps, redirects, 404s, licensing terms, and not wasting the crawl budget. |
72% |
How much of each site we read
The cap is 32 URLs and it is a ceiling, not a promise. A portal whose every link points at a different host yields one page; a university yields the full sample. The median here is 1, the range 1–32, published so that "we sampled 32 URLs per site" cannot become a claim the data does not support.
4 sites in this cohort served a certificate we could not verify. They were read anyway and scored normally, because reporting no response for a site every browser loads would describe our TLS stack rather than the site, and each one carries the finding in its row.
Where this cohort fails
14 tests almost nobody in this cohort passes
Universal — nobody passes these
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXT-11 | Have you marked the part of a page that answers a spoken question? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-12 | Do you tell search engines the moment a page changes? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-14 | Does your site offer its actions to AI browsers as tools? | 713 | 0 | |
| EXT-16 | Do you publish a card or a skills list for the agents you run? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-17 | Do you list your agents in your domain's DNS records? | 893 | 0 | |
| EXT-18 | Do you tell AI shoppers how they can pay? | 1 | 0 | |
| EXT-2 | Do you list your APIs and agent tools where agents look for them? | 5 | 0 | |
| EXT-7 | If you run real question-and-answer pages, are they marked as such? | 16 | 0 | |
| PST-2 | Have you posted a Content Signals statement about what AI may do with your content? | 974 | 0 | |
| RED-11 | Does each page tell machines where its Markdown copy is? | 1 | 1 | |
| RED-12 | If a machine asks for Markdown, does your site give it? | 974 | 2 | |
| UND-1 | Does your site say clearly who you are? | 974 | 2 | |
| UND-10 | Does your page code link to your official profiles elsewhere? | 974 | 2 | |
| UND-2 | Does your site use the page labels that search engines still read for what you publish? | 974 | 3 |
Near-universal — 95% and above
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXT-1 | Do you publish an llms.txt file for coding assistants? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-13 | Can an assistant ask your site a question directly? | 974 | 0 | |
| PST-4 | Have you reserved your text and data mining rights in a form machines can read? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-4 | Can an AI assistant connect to your site as a tool? | 974 | 0 | |
| UND-6 | Are your published and updated dates honest and visible? | 974 | 6 | |
| EXT-5 | Is your page code one connected description of your organization? | 974 | 0 | |
| RCH-3 | Does each page say which web address is the real one? | 974 | 2 | |
| RED-10 | Do you offer a plain-text (Markdown) copy of your pages? | 76 | 2 | |
| RED-13 | Is the page built from real page parts, like header, main and navigation? | 974 | 1 | |
| MSR-7 | Are you set up in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and do you read their AI reports? | 974 | 0 | |
| RED-5 | Do your PDFs and images have their own rules for search and quoting? | 77 | 1 | |
| UND-5 | Does the author label in your page code point to that person? | 60 | 1 | |
| RED-3 | Can a crawler trust the 'last changed' dates in your sitemap? | 974 | 2 | |
| RED-8 | Do you have sitemaps for your images and videos? | 974 | 1 | |
| RCH-2 | Does your website let those crawlers in, or does your security turn them away? | 974 | 12 |
Common — 90 to 95%
Coral bars mark tests worth 2 points or more, the failures that actually move a score.
Every site
Every 1,000, named, with a report for each
Whether or not it has been scanned. Rows with no website on record, sites that were unreachable and sites that turned us away stay in the table with the reason on them, and none of them enters an average: dropping them would shrink the population to the part that was easy to measure. A few points between two neighbors is noise. The box filters every row in the cohort, not only the page you are on; click a header to sort the rows on this page by name or by score.
Showing 901–1,000 of 1,000 · page 10 of 10
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Mirada, California lamirada.govregistered as City of La Mirada in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Newnan, Georgia newnanga.govregistered as City of Newnan, Georgria in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Rancho Santa Margarita, California cityofrsm.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 38 | Gated | 13 | |
| Linden, New Jersey lindenfd-nj.govregistered as City of Linden in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| West Lafayette, Indiana westlafayette.in.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| North Lauderdale, Florida nlauderdale.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 45 | Gated | 31 | |
| Hollister, California hollister.ca.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Apache Junction, Arizona apachejunctionaz.govregistered as City of Apache Junction in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Strongsville, Ohio strongsville.govregistered as City of Strongsville in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Morgan Hill, California morganhill.ca.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Prosper, Texas prospertx.govregistered as Town of Prosper in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Haltom City, Texas haltomcitytx.govregistered as city of Haltom City in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bremerton, Washington bremertonwa.govregistered as City of Bremerton in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Coachella, California coachella.orgblockedweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; not measured: HTTP 403 (Akamai) | — | No | — | |
| Brighton, Colorado brightonco.govregistered as City of Brighton in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Salem, Massachusetts salemma.govregistered as City of Salem, MA in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| York, Pennsylvania cityofyorkpa.govregistered as City of York in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Oakland Park, Florida oaklandparkfl.govregistered as City of Oakland Park in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Palm Springs, California palmspringsca.govregistered as City of Palm Springs in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Brentwood, Tennessee brentwoodtn.govregistered as City of Brentwood in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Grove City, Ohio grovecityohio.govregistered as City of Grove City in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Mount Juliet, Tennessee cityofmtjuliet.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Blacksburg, Virginia blacksburg.govregistered as Town of Blacksburg in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bountiful, Utah bountiful.govregistered as Bountiful City in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Sierra Vista, Arizona sierravistaaz.govregistered as City of Sierra Vista in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Huntington, West Virginia huntingtonwv.govregistered as City of Huntington in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Rohnert Park, California rohnertpark.govregistered as City of Rohnert Park in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cutler Bay, Florida cutlerbay-fl.govregistered as Town of Cutler Bay in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Greenacres, Florida greenacresfl.govregistered as City of Greenacres in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Ormond Beach, Florida ormondbeach.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fairfield, Ohio fairfieldoh.govregistered as City of Fairfield Ohio in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Concord, New Hampshire concordnh.govregistered as City of Concord in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Woonsocket, Rhode Island woonsocketri.govregistered as City of Woonsocket in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fond du Lac, Wisconsin townoffonddulacwi.govregistered as Town of Fond du Lac in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania wilkes-barre.cityCity of Wilkes-Barre, verified by fetching the site; the registry name match landed on Wilkes-Barre Township | 39 | Gated | 16 | |
| Lombard, Illinois villageoflombard.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 42 | Gated | 21 | |
| Charlottesville, Virginia charlottesville.govregistered as City of Charlottesville in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| El Centro, California cityofelcentro.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Manassas, Virginia manassasva.govregistered as City of Manassas in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Indian Trail, North Carolina indiantrailnc.govregistered as Town of Indian Trail in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Hagerstown, Maryland hagerstownmd.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Weslaco, Texas weslacotx.govregistered as City of Weslaco in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Leominster, Massachusetts leominster-ma.govregistered as City Of Leominster in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Freeport, New York freeportny.govregistered as Inc. Village of Freeport in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Plant City, Florida plantcitygov.comweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| Burlington, Vermont burlingtonvt.govregistered as City of Burlington in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bullhead City, Arizona bullheadcityaz.govregistered as City of Bullhead City in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lake Worth Beach, Florida lakeworthbeachfl.govregistered as City of Lake Worth Beach in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Woburn, Massachusetts woburnma.govregistered as City of Woburn in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Huber Heights, Ohio hhoh.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Windsor, Colorado windsorco.govregistered as Town of Windsor in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cleveland Heights, Ohio clevelandheights.govregistered as City of Cleveland Heights in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cottage Grove, Minnesota cottagegrovemn.govregistered as City of Cottage Grove in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Princeton, Texas princetontx.govregistered as City of Princeton in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Beverly, Massachusetts beverlyma.govregistered as City of Beverly MA in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Reynoldsburg, Ohio reynoldsburg.govregistered as City of Reynoldsburg in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lompoc, California cityoflompoc.govregistered as City of Lompoc in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Danville, California danville.ca.govTown of Danville, verified by fetching the site | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Owasso, Oklahoma owasso.govregistered as City of Owasso in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Sumter, South Carolina sumtersc.govregistered as City of Sumter in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Alexandria, Louisiana cityofalexandriala.comweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 59 | Gated | 31 | |
| Pittsfield, Massachusetts pittsfieldma.govregistered as City of Pittsfield in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Shelton, Connecticut shelton-ct.govregistered as City of Shelton in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Saginaw, Michigan cityofsaginawmi.govregistered as City of Saginaw in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Buffalo Grove, Illinois vbg.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Midland, Michigan cityofmidlandmi.govregistered as City of Midland in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lathrop, California ci.lathrop.ca.usblockedweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Marlborough, Massachusetts marlborough-ma.govregistered as City of Marlborough in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Edmonds, Washington edmondswa.govregistered as City of Edmonds in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Marion, Iowa cityofmarionia.govregistered as City of Marion in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Rosenberg, Texas rosenbergtx.govregistered as City of Rosenberg in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Hallandale Beach, Florida hallandalebeachfl.govregistered as Hallandale Beach, City of in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Puyallup, Washington puyallupwa.govregistered as City of Puyallup in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Monroe, North Carolina monroenc.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Florence, Alabama florenceal.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| Peachtree Corners, Georgia peachtreecornersga.govregistered as City of Peachtree Corners in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Campbell, California campbellca.govregistered as City of Campbell in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Jefferson City, Missouri jeffersoncitymo.govregistered as City of Jefferson in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Royal Palm Beach, Florida royalpalmbeachfl.govregistered as Village of Royal Palm Beach in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Moline, Illinois moline.il.usweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Altoona, Pennsylvania altoonapa.govregistered as City of Altoona in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| San Bruno, California sanbruno.ca.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Crystal Lake, Illinois crystallake.orgblockedweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; not measured: HTTP 403 (Akamai) | — | No | — | |
| Tooele, Utah tooelecity.govregistered as Tooele City Corporation in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| La Vergne, Tennessee lavergnetn.govregistered as City of La Vergne in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fitchburg, Massachusetts fitchburgma.govregistered as City of Fitchburg in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lake Stevens, Washington lakestevens.govregistered as City of Lake Stevens in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lynnwood, Washington lynnwoodwa.govregistered as City of Lynnwood, Washington in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| San Luis, Arizona sanluisaz.govregistered as City of San Luis in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lancaster, Ohio lancasterohio.govregistered as City of Lancaster Ohio in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cedar City, Utah cedarcityut.govregistered as Cedar City Corporation in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Covington, Kentucky covingtonky.govregistered as City of Covington in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Forney, Texas forneytx.govregistered as City of Forney in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Danville, Virginia danvilleva.govregistered as City of Danville in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Garner, North Carolina garnernc.govregistered as Town of Garner, NC in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Douglasville, Georgia douglasvillega.govregistered as City of Douglasville in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Brookfield, Wisconsin brookfield-wi.govregistered as City of Brookfield in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Mulberry, Georgia mulberryga.govregistered as City of Mulberry in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Coppell, Texas coppelltx.govregistered as City of Coppell in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Friendswood, Texas friendswoodtx.govregistered as City of Friendswood in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 |
Scores are for the population, not for ranking two named sites against each other. A few points between neighbors is noise. See what these numbers can and cannot support. Data: sites.csv · checks.csv · summary.json