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 701–800 of 1,000 · page 8 of 10
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gardena, California gardenaca.govregistered as City of Gardena in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Sarasota, Florida sarasotafl.govregistered as City of Sarasota in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bowie, Maryland cityofbowiemd.govregistered as City of Bowie in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lancaster, Pennsylvania cityoflancasterpa.govregistered as City of Lancaster, PA in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cupertino, California cupertino.govregistered as City of Cupertino in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Springfield, Ohio springfieldohio.govregistered as City Of Springfield, Ohio in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Santee, California cityofsanteeca.govregistered as City of Santee in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Coeur d'Alene, Idaho cdaid.govregistered as City of Coeur d'Alene in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Wake Forest, North Carolina wakeforestnc.govregistered as Town of Wake Forest in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Decatur, Alabama decatur-al.govregistered as City of Decatur in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bradenton, Florida bradentonfl.govregistered as City of Bradenton in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Orland Park, Illinois orlandpark.orgblockedVillage of Orland Park, verified by fetching the site; not measured: HTTP 403 (Akamai) | — | No | — | |
| Tigard, Oregon tigard-or.govregistered as City of Tigard, Oregon in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| St. Clair Shores, Michigan scsmi.netweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Southaven, Mississippi southavenms.govregistered as City of Southaven in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| National City, California nationalcityca.govregistered as City of National City in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bonita Springs, Florida cityofbonitasprings.govregistered as City of Bonita Springs in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Highland, California highlandca.govregistered as City of Highland in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Royal Oak, Michigan royaloakmi.govregistered as City of Royal Oak in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Kingsport, Tennessee kingsporttn.govregistered as City of Kingsport in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Smyrna, Georgia smyrnaga.govregistered as City of Smyrna in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Taylorsville, Utah taylorsvilleut.govregistered as City of Taylorsville in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Monterey Park, California ci.monterey-park.ca.usweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Kettering, Ohio ketteringoh.govregistered as City of Kettering in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lincoln, California lincolnca.govregistered as City of Lincoln in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Plainfield, New Jersey plainfieldnj.govregistered as City Of Plainfield in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| New Brunswick, New Jersey cityofnewbrunswick.orgCity of New Brunswick; Wikidata pointed at the New Brunswick City Market tourism site | 46 | Gated | 32 | |
| Burleson, Texas burlesontx.govregistered as City of Burleson in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Albany, Oregon albanyoregon.govregistered as City of Albany, Oregon in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Perth Amboy, New Jersey ci.perthamboy.nj.usweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Olympia, Washington olympiawa.govregistered as City of Olympia in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| DeSoto, Texas desototexas.govregistered as City of DeSoto in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Oak Lawn, Illinois oaklawn-il.govregistered as Village of Oak Lawn in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bartlett, Tennessee cityofbartlett.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| West Sacramento, California westsac.govregistered as City of West Sacramento in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Twin Falls, Idaho tfid.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Valdosta, Georgia valdostacity.comweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 54 | No | 31 | |
| Anderson, Indiana cityofanderson.comweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 48 | No | 1 | |
| San Jacinto, California sanjacintoca.govregistered as City of San Jacinto in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Peabody, Massachusetts peabodyma.govregistered as City of Peabody in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Mooresville, North Carolina mooresvillenc.govregistered as Town of Mooresville in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Port Arthur, Texas portarthurtx.govregistered as City of Port Arthur in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Logan, Utah loganutah.govregistered as City of Logan in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fountain Valley, California fountainvalley.govregistered as Fountain Valley in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Mount Prospect, Illinois mountprospect.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 46 | Gated | 32 | |
| West Haven, Connecticut westhaven-ct.govregistered as City of West Haven in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Chicopee, Massachusetts chicopeema.govregistered as City of Chicopee in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Apple Valley, Minnesota applevalleymn.govregistered as City of Apple Valley in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Tinley Park, Illinois tinleypark.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 42 | Gated | 32 | |
| Rocky Mount, North Carolina rockymountnc.govregistered as City of Rocky Mount in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Berwyn, Illinois berwyn-il.govregistered as City of Berwyn in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Yucaipa, California yucaipa.govregistered as City of Yucaipa in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Placentia, California placentia.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 37 | Gated | 24 | |
| Kentwood, Michigan ci.kentwood.mi.usweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Manhattan, Kansas manhattanks.govregistered as City of Manhattan, KS in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Gallatin, Tennessee gallatintn.govregistered as City of Gallatin in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Methuen, Massachusetts methuen.govregistered as City of Methuen in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Edina, Minnesota edinamn.govregistered as City of Edina in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Jeffersonville, Indiana cityofjeff.netweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 55 | No | 29 | |
| Arcadia, California arcadiaca.govregistered as City of Arcadia in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Elkhart, Indiana cityofelkhartin.govregistered as City of Elkhart in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Wheaton, Illinois wheaton.il.usweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 52 | No | 18 | |
| Rockwall, Texas rockwall.comweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 63 | No | 25 | |
| Minnetonka, Minnesota minnetonkamn.govregistered as City of Minnetonka in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Grand Island, Nebraska grandislandne.govregistered as City of Grand Island in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Joplin, Missouri joplinmo.govregistered as City of Joplin in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Pensacola, Florida cityofpensacola.govregistered as City of Pensacola in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Galveston, Texas galvestontx.govregistered as City of Galveston in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Elyria, Ohio cityofelyria.govregistered as City of Elyria in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Everett, Massachusetts cityofeverett.comweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 63 | No | 30 | |
| Lebanon, Tennessee lebanontn.govregistered as City of Lebanon, TN in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Colton, California coltonca.govregistered as City of Colton in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Murray, Utah murray.utah.govMurray City, verified by fetching the site; the registry name match landed on Murray City Library | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Normal, Illinois normalil.govregistered as Town of Normal in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Palm Desert, California palmdesert.govregistered as City of Palm Desert in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| West New York, New Jersey westnewyorknj.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 43 | Gated | 30 | |
| Summerville, South Carolina summervillesc.govregistered as Town of Summerville in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Oak Park, Illinois oak-park.usweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 42 | Gated | 32 | |
| Clermont, Florida clermontfl.govregistered as City of Clermont in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Columbus, Indiana columbus.in.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Prescott Valley, Arizona prescottvalley-az.govregistered as Town of Prescott Valley in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Sherman, Texas ci.sherman.tx.usweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 41 | No | 19 | |
| Cathedral City, California cathedralcity.govregistered as City of Cathedral City in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Delano, California cityofdelano.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 39 | Gated | 15 | |
| Pinellas Park, Florida pinellaspark.govregistered as City of Pinellas Park in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bothell, Washington bothellwa.govregistered as City of Bothell in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Middletown, Ohio cityofmiddletown.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 45 | No | 17 | |
| Battle Creek, Michigan battlecreekmi.govregistered as City of Battle Creek in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Goose Creek, South Carolina goosecreeksc.govregistered as City of Goose Creek in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Novato, California novato.govregistered as City of Novato in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Ocoee, Florida ocoee.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Collierville, Tennessee colliervilletn.govregistered as Town of Collierville in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Diamond Bar, California diamondbarca.govregistered as City of Diamond Bar in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Burien, Washington burienwa.govregistered as City of Burien in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Dunwoody, Georgia dunwoodyga.govregistered as City of Dunwoody Georgia in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fort Pierce, Florida cityoffortpierce.comweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Huntington Park, California hpca.govregistered as City Of Huntington Park in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Newark, Ohio newarkohio.govregistered as City of Newark, Ohio in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Mishawaka, Indiana mishawaka.in.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Milford, Connecticut milfordct.govregistered as City of Milford in the .gov registry; a consolidated city-county government | 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