How many websites pass the External Authoritative check?
Based on 501 audited sites · Updated 2026-07-11
95% confidence interval: 62.4%–70.7%
About This Check
Checks whether mentions appear on high-authority (Tier 1/2) sources like Wikipedia, Forbes, or TechCrunch.
Why This Matters
LLM Discoverability
Mentions on high-authority sources (Wikipedia, major publications, academic journals) are the gold standard for AI entity credibility and are heavily weighted in knowledge graph construction.
SEO Impact
Links from Tier 1 domains (Wikipedia, Forbes, TechCrunch, .edu/.gov sites) deliver outsized PageRank and domain authority benefits that can disproportionately improve rankings across the entire site.
What To Do Next
33.3% of audited sites need attention on external authoritative (167 of 501 sites are warning or failing).
- Prioritize external authoritative on templates that create many URLs, because one template fix can improve a large share of off-site presence & mentions.
- After changing the page, re-run the audit and compare the observed value for this check instead of relying on visual inspection alone.
- Use the 66.7% pass rate as a benchmark: if your site fails here, passing the check moves it closer to the visible majority of crawlable, AI-readable pages.
Status Breakdown
Compliance Trend
Daily pass, warning, and failure rates across benchmark snapshots (up to 90 days).
Industry Breakdown
How different industries perform on this check.
72.7% of audited Media & Entertainment sites pass this check (n=77), compared with 60% of E-Commerce sites (n=30).
Related Checks
Run a free audit to see whether your site passes this check, or browse the leaderboard and the audited-sites directory.