libertyford.com — AI Site Grade

Analysis

Anthropic-Exclusive Access and Universal Bot Blockade

The site serves full HTML content exclusively to anthropic-ai (200, 412KB) while returning 403 Access Denied from AkamaiGHost to every other entity tested — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot, Applebot-Extended, Bytespider, and standard browsers. This creates a bizarre inversion: only Anthropic's crawler sees the dealership's inventory, contact details, and service pages. The robots.txt is itself blocked behind the same 403 wall, so no crawler can read directives. No llms.txt exists. The non-www domain (libertyford.com) does not resolve at all.

Cold-Knowledge Gap

The LLM describes Liberty Ford as a "family-owned" group with locations in Maple Heights, Solon, and Bedford, operating for "over 50 years." The actual site lists six locations — Aurora, Brunswick, Canton, Maple Heights, Vermilion, and a Commercial Vehicle Center — with no mention of Solon or Bedford. The site's homepage text (visible via Wayback snapshot from March 2025) describes the group as serving "Aurora to Canton" and lists phone numbers for all six locations. The LLM's knowledge is stale and geographically inaccurate, referencing locations that do not appear on the current site.

Schema and Structured Data Absence

The homepage and all key pages (new inventory, used inventory, contact, financing, service) contain zero JSON-LD schema of any type. No AutoDealer, LocalBusiness, Product, Vehicle, or FAQPage markup exists. The site runs on the Dealer.com (DDC) platform with class names like ddc-site and single-franchise, but the platform's schema injection is either disabled or not configured. The contact page has no LocalBusiness schema despite listing six physical locations with addresses and phone numbers. The sitemap (accessible only to anthropic-ai) contains 272KB of URLs with lastmod dates of 2026-05-30 — a future date, indicating a systemic timestamp issue.

External Signal Void

Web search returns zero indexed results for libertyford.com, the brand name, or any of its six location names combined with "Liberty Ford." The site has no discoverable external press, reviews, Reddit threads, or directory listings in search results. The Wayback Machine shows a snapshot from March 2025 with full content, but the live site's Akamai WAF blocks all standard crawlers, effectively erasing the domain from search engines and AI training corpora (except Anthropic's). The google-site-verification meta tags present in the HTML (two separate verification codes) suggest past Google Search Console setup, but the current WAF configuration nullifies any indexing benefit.

Findings

1. Akamai WAF blocks all crawlers except Anthropic High

   The site returns 403 Access Denied to GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot, Applebot-Extended, Bytespider, and standard browsers. Only anthropic-ai receives full HTML content (200, 412KB). The robots.txt is also blocked behind the same 403 wall.

   What to change: Reconfigure the Akamai WAF to allow standard crawlers (Googlebot, Bingbot, GPTBot, etc.) and serve robots.txt publicly.

2. Robots.txt is inaccessible to all crawlers High

   The robots.txt file returns 403 Access Denied, so no crawler can read directives. This prevents any crawler from understanding which parts of the site are allowed or disallowed.

   What to change: Serve robots.txt publicly without authentication or WAF blocking.

3. No llms.txt file exists Low

   The site does not provide an llms.txt file, missing an opportunity to guide AI crawlers to key content.

   What to change: Create an llms.txt file listing important pages for AI crawlers.

4. Non-www domain does not resolve Medium

   The apex domain libertyford.com does not resolve (connection refused), while www.libertyford.com works. This can cause confusion and lost traffic.

   What to change: Configure the apex domain to redirect to www.libertyford.com.

5. No JSON-LD schema on any page High

   The homepage, new/used inventory, contact, financing, and service pages contain zero JSON-LD schema. No AutoDealer, LocalBusiness, Product, Vehicle, or FAQPage markup exists, despite the site listing six physical locations and vehicle inventory.

   What to change: Add JSON-LD schema for AutoDealer, LocalBusiness, and Vehicle on relevant pages.

6. Sitemap contains future lastmod dates Medium

   The sitemap (accessible only to anthropic-ai) lists lastmod dates of 2026-05-30, a future date, indicating a systemic timestamp issue that may confuse crawlers.

   What to change: Correct the sitemap generation to use accurate lastmod dates.

7. Site has zero indexed pages in search engines High

   Web search returns zero results for the domain, brand name, or any location-specific queries. The Akamai WAF blocking all standard crawlers has effectively erased the site from search engine indexes.

   What to change: Allow Googlebot and other search engine crawlers through the WAF, then resubmit the sitemap to Google Search Console.

8. LLM knowledge about the dealership is stale and inaccurate Medium

   The LLM describes Liberty Ford as having locations in Solon and Bedford, but the actual site lists six different locations (Aurora, Brunswick, Canton, Maple Heights, Vermilion, Commercial Vehicle Center) with no mention of Solon or Bedford. The LLM also states the group is 'family-owned' and 'over 50 years,' which may be outdated.

   What to change: Ensure accurate and up-to-date business information is published on the site and indexed by crawlers.

9. No external press, reviews, or directory listings found Medium

   Web search returned zero results for any external mentions of the dealership, including press, reviews, Reddit threads, or directory listings. This lack of external signals further harms AI visibility.

   What to change: Encourage customer reviews on third-party sites and ensure the business is listed in relevant directories.

10. Google site verification meta tags present but ineffective Medium

    The HTML contains two google-site-verification meta tags, suggesting past Google Search Console setup, but the current WAF configuration blocks Googlebot, nullifying any indexing benefit.

    What to change: Allow Googlebot through the WAF to enable indexing.

What's working

• Anthropic crawler receives full HTML content — The anthropic-ai bot receives a 200 response with full HTML (412KB) for the homepage and all key pages, ensuring the site is visible to Anthropic's AI.
• Sitemap is accessible to Anthropic crawler — The sitemap.xml (272KB) is served to anthropic-ai, providing a comprehensive list of URLs for crawling.
• Wayback Machine has a recent snapshot with full content — A March 2025 snapshot shows the homepage with complete content, including location information and phone numbers, providing a fallback for historical content.
• Contact page lists six physical locations with addresses and phone numbers — The contact page provides detailed information for all six dealership locations, which is valuable for local SEO and AI understanding.