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scottaaronson.com, read 3 days ago. Back to the report

52 to 100 in 12 steps

Do them in this order. Each step says what to change, on which pages, and what it adds. Hand the whole plan to your agent, or work through it yourself.

5252 nownow601#216,809672743804top 50%8559169479889999910991110012full marks

Now #249,012 of 263,590Step 1 #216,809Step 4 top 50%Step 12 full marks

Worked out from this read, with every step before it done. A score says pages are well formed. It does not say an assistant cites the site.

The steps

Each is one change across the pages named. When one is live, read the site again and mttr marks it done.

  1. 1

    Add a way to get in touch

    +8 points, to 60, and #216,809, 32,203 places up

    Give the page a form or a clear link to request a quote or get in touch.

    94 pages, 87 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /cs378
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • /talks/aar-chicago.ppt
    • /talks/aar-china.ppt
    • /talks/aar-emory.pptx
    • /talks/aar-sigmawest.ppt
    • and 84 more in the copied plan
  2. 2

    Add structured data

    +7 points, to 67

    Add valid JSON-LD that says what the page is.

    98 pages, 87 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /
    • /cs378
    • /default.html
    • /democritus
    • /faq.html
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • and 88 more in the copied plan
  3. 3

    Set each page's canonical address

    +7 points, to 74

    Add a canonical link that points to the page itself.

    98 pages, 87 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /
    • /cs378
    • /default.html
    • /democritus
    • /faq.html
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • and 88 more in the copied plan
  4. 4

    Add a tap-to-call link

    +6 points, to 80, and into the top 50%

    Add a tap-to-call phone link.

    98 pages, 87 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /
    • /cs378
    • /default.html
    • /democritus
    • /faq.html
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • and 88 more in the copied plan
  5. 5

    Use one main heading

    +5 points, to 85

    Give the page exactly one h1 that says what it is about.

    94 pages, 83 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /
    • /cs378
    • /default.html
    • /democritus
    • /faq.html
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • and 84 more in the copied plan
  6. 6

    Replace unsupported sales claims

    +6 points, to 91

    Replace the sales claim with a fact that can be checked.

    85 pages, 84 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • /talks/aar-chicago.ppt
    • /talks/aar-china.ppt
    • /talks/aar-emory.pptx
    • /talks/aar-sigmawest.ppt
    • /talks/aar-solvay.ppt
    • /talks/aar-spark.ppt
    • /talks/aar-stonybrook.pptx
    • /talks/aar-sxsw.ppt
    • and 75 more in the copied plan
  7. 7

    Fix description lengths

    +3 points, to 94

    Write a meta description of 70 to 165 characters that summarizes the page.

    98 pages, 87 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /
    • /cs378
    • /default.html
    • /democritus
    • /faq.html
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • and 88 more in the copied plan
  8. 8

    Fix title lengths

    +4 points, to 98

    Write a title of 15 to 65 characters that leads with what the page covers.

    93 pages, 87 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /
    • /default.html
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • /talks/aar-chicago.ppt
    • /talks/aar-china.ppt
    • /talks/aar-emory.pptx
    • /talks/aar-sigmawest.ppt
    • /talks/aar-solvay.ppt
    • and 83 more in the copied plan
  9. 9

    Set a share image

    +1 point, to 99

    Set og:image so links to the page carry a picture.

    98 pages, 87 of them under /talks/

    See the pages
    • /
    • /cs378
    • /default.html
    • /democritus
    • /faq.html
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /talks/2026.pptx
    • /talks/aar-advantage.ppt
    • and 88 more in the copied plan
  10. 10

    Publish a sitemap

    Under a point

    Publish /sitemap.xml listing every page that should rank, and name it in robots.txt.

    Once, for the whole site

  11. 11

    Settle on one address

    Under a point

    Redirect http, https, www, and the bare domain to one address, so the site is not indexed as several.

    Once, for the whole site

  12. 12

    Match structured data to the page

    +1 point, to 100, and full marks

    Use the schema type that matches the page: Article for guides, Service or Product for offers, Organization or WebSite for the home page.

    The home page

4 more, to tidy up after 100
  1. 13

    Add an llms.txt

    Under a point

    Add /llms.txt: a short plain text map of the site for assistants. Its effect is unproven, so treat it as cheap insurance.

    Once, for the whole site

  2. 14

    Fix pages that fail to load

    Under a point

    Fix or remove the link. Every linked page should return 200.

    2 pages

    See the pages
    • /talks/aar-sit.ppt
    • /talks/safetytcs-oxford.pptx
  3. 15

    Link straight to the final address

    Under a point

    Point links and the sitemap at the final address, not at one that redirects.

    6 pages

    See the pages
    • /cs378
    • /democritus
    • /papers
    • /qct2016
    • /talks
    • /writings
  4. 16

    Describe images

    Under a point

    Describe every content image in its alt text.

    3 pages

    See the pages
    • /
    • /default.html
    • /democritus

What else the read found

Half its pages start answering within 315 ms, inside the 800 ms a crawler is patient with. One fetch a page, the way a crawler sees it.

  • /talks/watermark.ppt1.1 s
  • /talks/dowling.ppt956 ms
  • /talks/aar-chicago.ppt717 ms
  • /talks/knowable-sfi.pptx618 ms
  • /talks/neurocrypt-stanford.pptx615 ms

Fastest: /talks/conspiracies.pptx, 62 ms. Heaviest: /talks/knowable-sfi.pptx, 82,091 KB.

Read from its home page’s code and the headers its server sent. A tool that loads later, or only on other pages, is not seen here.

  • ApacheServer
pages with strong signs
87
hidden characters
3,799
chat, markdown or placeholders left in
13
dashes per 1,000 words
0
  • /talks/aisafety2.ppt hidden characters a reader cannot see
  • /talks/aisafety3.ppt hidden characters a reader cannot see
  • /talks/aisafety5.ppt hidden characters a reader cannot see
  • /talks/2026.pptx hidden characters a reader cannot see
  • /talks/howmuch-harvard.pptx hidden characters a reader cannot see

A sign is not proof. Hidden characters can carry a watermark or instructions meant for an AI, and they come off with a clean copy of the text.

  • / fails 9: Add structured data, Set each page's canonical address and Use one main heading1 page
  • /talks fails 9: Add a way to get in touch, Add structured data and Set each page's canonical address1 page
  • /thesis.ps fails 9: Add a way to get in touch, Add structured data and Set each page's canonical address1 page
  • /writings fails 9: Add a way to get in touch, Add structured data and Set each page's canonical address1 page
  • /cs378 fails 8: Add a way to get in touch, Add structured data and Set each page's canonical address1 page
  • /default.html fails 8: Add structured data, Set each page's canonical address and Use one main heading1 page
  • /democritus fails 8: Add structured data, Set each page's canonical address and Use one main heading1 page
  • /papers fails 8: Add a way to get in touch, Add structured data and Set each page's canonical address1 page
  • /qct2016 fails 8: Add a way to get in touch, Add structured data and Set each page's canonical address1 page
  • /thesis.html fails 8: Add a way to get in touch, Add structured data and Set each page's canonical address1 page
  • /faq.html fails 6: Add structured data, Set each page's canonical address and Use one main heading1 page
  • /talks/ 87 fail a rule. Worst: /talks/2026.pptx, 9 rules89 pages

The read stopped at its page limit, so pages no link leads to cannot be told from pages it did not reach, and neither is reported.

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