gillmanauto.com — AI Site Grade

Analysis

Akamai Blocks Every AI Crawler Except Anthropic

The site's Akamai WAF returns 403 to every major AI crawler (GPTBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot, Bytespider, Applebot-Extended) and to standard browsers. The sole exception is anthropic-ai, which reaches a separate nginx origin server and receives a full 200 response with ~306KB of HTML. This creates a bizarre single-bot visibility funnel: only Claude can read the site, and only if it uses the anthropic-ai token (not ClaudeBot or Claude-User, both blocked).

Crawler Access

The robots.txt (accessible only to anthropic-ai) explicitly disallows GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Claude-SearchBot, and PerplexityBot from JS, CSS, JSON, and API paths — but critically, does not disallow the root path for any of them. The Akamai WAF overrides this permissiveness with a blanket 403. The llms.txt exists (802KB, auto-generated by the DDC platform) and lists hundreds of inventory pages, but is only served to anthropic-ai. No sitemap.xml is accessible to standard crawlers. The bare domain gillmanauto.com returns a connection refused error; only www.gillmanauto.com resolves.

Cold-Knowledge Gap

LLM knowledge of "Gillman Auto Houston Texas" is effectively zero. The model reports no verified information about the dealership, its services, locations, or reputation. This is a multi-franchise group selling Dodge, Jeep, Subaru, Chevrolet, GMC, Chrysler, Honda, Ram, and Nissan across Houston, San Antonio, Fort Bend, Austin, and San Benito — yet no AI system can surface this because every crawler except one is firewalled. The gap between the site's actual scale (a major Texas auto group) and its AI visibility (nonexistent) is extreme.

Schema Posture

The homepage HTML (served to anthropic-ai) contains no JSON-LD schema of any kind. The <title> tag reads "Gillman Automotive Group | New Dodge, Jeep, Subaru, Chevrolet, GMC, Chrysler, Honda, Ram, Nissan Dealership in , TX" — with a blank city field. The meta description is similarly generic. No AutoDealer, Organization, or LocalBusiness structured data exists. The site runs on the Dealer.com (DDC) platform, which typically injects schema, but the Akamai WAF intercepts the response before any structured data reaches non-Anthropic crawlers.

External Signals

No external search results surface for "Gillman Automotive Group" or "Gillman Auto Houston" across multiple query variations. The brand has zero indexed mentions in the search results available to this analysis. The DNS records show the domain is hosted on Network Solutions nameservers with Akamai CDN. The site uses Google Tag Manager and Dealer.com infrastructure, indicating a professional automotive group deployment — but the WAF configuration has effectively erased the brand from the AI-visible web.

Findings

1. Akamai WAF blocks all major AI crawlers except Anthropic High

   The site's Akamai WAF returns 403 to every major AI crawler (GPTBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot, Bytespider, Applebot-Extended) and to standard browsers. Only the anthropic-ai token receives a 200 response, creating a single-bot visibility funnel.

   What to change: Reconfigure the Akamai WAF to allow access for all major AI crawlers (GPTBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, etc.) to the site's content.

2. Robots.txt disallows multiple AI crawlers from JS, CSS, JSON, and API paths High

   The robots.txt file, accessible only to anthropic-ai, explicitly disallows GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Claude-SearchBot, and PerplexityBot from JS, CSS, JSON, and API paths. While the root path is not disallowed, the Akamai WAF overrides this with a blanket 403.

   What to change: Remove disallow rules for AI crawlers from robots.txt, or ensure the WAF allows access as intended.

3. LLMs.txt only served to anthropic-ai High

   The llms.txt file (802KB, auto-generated by DDC platform) lists hundreds of inventory pages but is only served to the anthropic-ai bot. Other AI crawlers receive a 403 from the WAF.

   What to change: Make llms.txt accessible to all AI crawlers by adjusting WAF rules.

4. Sitemap.xml inaccessible to standard crawlers High

   The sitemap.xml returns a 403 for standard browser requests, though it is accessible to anthropic-ai. This prevents search engines and AI crawlers from discovering the site's pages.

   What to change: Allow public access to sitemap.xml by removing the WAF block.

5. No JSON-LD schema on homepage High

   The homepage HTML served to anthropic-ai contains no JSON-LD structured data. No AutoDealer, Organization, or LocalBusiness schema is present, which limits AI understanding of the business.

   What to change: Add JSON-LD structured data for AutoDealer, Organization, and LocalBusiness to the homepage.

6. Blank city field in homepage title tag Medium

   The homepage title tag reads 'Gillman Automotive Group | New Dodge, Jeep, Subaru, Chevrolet, GMC, Chrysler, Honda, Ram, Nissan Dealership in , TX' with a blank city field, which harms local SEO and AI understanding.

   What to change: Update the title tag to include the correct city (e.g., Houston).

7. Zero AI knowledge of Gillman Auto High

   LLM knowledge of 'Gillman Auto Houston Texas' is effectively zero. The model reports no verified information about the dealership, its services, locations, or reputation, despite being a multi-franchise group across Texas.

   What to change: Allow AI crawlers access to the site and ensure structured data is present to build AI knowledge.

8. No external search results for brand queries High

   Multiple web searches for 'Gillman Automotive Group' and 'Gillman Auto Houston' returned zero results, indicating the brand has no indexed presence in search engines accessible to this analysis.

   What to change: Ensure the site is indexed by search engines by removing WAF blocks and submitting sitemaps.

9. Bare domain returns connection refused Medium

   The bare domain gillmanauto.com returns a connection refused error, while www.gillmanauto.com resolves. This can cause confusion and lost traffic.

   What to change: Configure the bare domain to redirect to www.gillmanauto.com.

10. About Us page returns 404 Medium

    The about-us.htm page returns a 404 error when fetched as anthropic-ai, indicating a broken link or missing page.

    What to change: Fix the about-us.htm page to return a 200 status with content.

What's working

• Anthropic AI crawler receives full homepage content — The anthropic-ai bot receives a 200 response with ~306KB of HTML, including inventory listings and navigation, allowing Claude to read the site.
• LLMs.txt exists and lists hundreds of inventory pages — The llms.txt file (802KB) is auto-generated by the DDC platform and lists hundreds of inventory pages, providing a structured resource for AI crawlers that can access it.
• Robots.txt does not disallow root path for AI crawlers — The robots.txt file does not disallow the root path for any AI crawler, indicating an intent to allow access that is overridden by the WAF.
• Professional infrastructure with Akamai CDN and DDC platform — The site uses Akamai CDN, Google Tag Manager, and Dealer.com (DDC) platform, indicating a professional automotive group deployment with potential for good performance.