madebyfield.co.uk — AI Site Grade

Analysis

Made by Field — AI-Visibility Audit

The site has no structured data of any kind — zero JSON-LD schemas across every page inspected — despite being a Shopify Plus agency that prominently displays client revenue metrics, case study results, and testimonial quotes that would naturally map to LocalBusiness, Review, and Product schema types.

Crawler Access

The robots.txt is a bare-minimum file (88 bytes) with a single Disallow: /cpresources/ rule and no AI-bot directives whatsoever. llms.txt returns a 404. Despite the lack of explicit AI guidance, most major crawlers get full 200 access with identical content to browser: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, anthropic-ai, and Applebot-Extended all receive the full 1MB+ homepage. Two bots are blocked with 403: ClaudeBot and Bytespider — a selective block that is not documented in robots.txt, suggesting a server-level or CDN-level UA filter. The site runs on Apache with Stack DNS hosting, no WAF fingerprint, and no security headers (no HSTS, no CSP, no X-Frame-Options).

Cold-Knowledge Gap

A frontier LLM queried cold describes Made by Field as serving "DTC brands, startups, and established businesses" with a niche in "lifestyle, fashion, and wellness." The actual site positions itself exclusively around premium, high-growth, luxury brands on Shopify Plus — not startups, not DTC broadly. The LLM also knows nothing about the agency's Norfolk location, its decade-plus tenure, its Craft CMS capability, or its specific client results (Lounge Underwear's £50M growth, Tatti Lashes' 21% conversion lift). The site's strongest differentiators — 10+ year client relationships, £30M+ monthly client revenue, and co-founders with 20 years each — are entirely absent from the model's prior.

Schema Posture

Every page tested — homepage, about, services, projects, and six individual case studies — contains zero JSON-LD schemas. No LocalBusiness, no Organization, no Review, no Product, no FAQPage. The case study pages contain rich structured data opportunities: revenue figures (+£50M, +12% AOV), percentage lifts (+21% conversion, +69% conversion), named client testimonials with job titles, and service categorizations. None of this is surfaced in machine-readable form. The homepage has no Organization schema despite naming the company, location, and social profiles.

Content & External Signals

The case study pages are the site's strongest asset — detailed, metric-rich, with named client quotes — but the /projects listing page is a JS-rendered filter grid that returns only ~50 words of visible text to a plain GET, making it effectively invisible to crawlers that don't execute JavaScript. The /work URL redirects to /projects. The site has no blog, no news section, no thought leadership content. External search returns zero indexed mentions of the brand across multiple query variations — no reviews, no Reddit threads, no press coverage surfaced by DuckDuckGo. The privacy policy references the "Data Protection Act 1998" (superseded by GDPR in 2018), a stale legal reference. The careers page lists no open roles.

Findings

1. Zero JSON-LD schemas across all pages High

   Every page tested — homepage, about, services, projects, and six case studies — contains no JSON-LD schemas. No LocalBusiness, Organization, Review, Product, or FAQPage schema exists despite rich data opportunities.

   What to change: Add Organization schema to the homepage, LocalBusiness schema with location and social profiles, Review schema for client testimonials, and Product schema for service offerings. Add FAQPage schema to the services page.

2. Project listing page is a JS-rendered filter grid High

   The /projects page returns only ~50 words of visible text to a plain GET request, making it effectively invisible to crawlers that do not execute JavaScript. The /work URL redirects to /projects.

   What to change: Implement server-side rendering or static generation for the project listing page so that all project titles and summaries are present in the initial HTML.

3. Key differentiators absent from LLM knowledge High

   A frontier LLM queried cold describes Made by Field as serving DTC brands broadly, but the site positions itself exclusively around premium luxury brands on Shopify Plus. The LLM knows nothing about the Norfolk location, decade-plus tenure, Craft CMS capability, or specific client results like Lounge Underwear's £50M growth.

   What to change: Publish an llms.txt file and add structured data (Organization, LocalBusiness) to ensure key facts are machine-readable. Consider publishing a blog or press page to increase external signals.

4. No llms.txt file published Medium

   The site returns a 404 for /llms.txt, missing an opportunity to provide AI crawlers with a curated summary of the agency's capabilities, key pages, and differentiators.

   What to change: Create an llms.txt file that lists the most important pages (homepage, services, case studies, about) and includes a brief summary of the agency's focus and key metrics.

5. ClaudeBot and Bytespider blocked without robots.txt documentation Medium

   ClaudeBot and Bytespider receive 403 responses while other AI bots get full access. This selective block is not documented in robots.txt, suggesting a server-level UA filter that may be unintentional or inconsistent.

   What to change: Document any intentional bot blocks in robots.txt with clear User-agent and Disallow directives. If blocking is unintentional, remove the server-level filter.

6. Zero external search results for the brand High

   Multiple web searches for the agency name and variations returned no indexed mentions, reviews, or press coverage. This severely limits off-site signals that AI models use to validate authority.

   What to change: Encourage clients to publish testimonials on third-party review sites, contribute guest articles to industry publications, and ensure the agency is listed on relevant directories (e.g., Shopify Experts).

7. Privacy policy references outdated legislation Low

   The privacy policy mentions the Data Protection Act 1998, which was superseded by the GDPR in 2018. This may reduce trust and could be flagged by AI crawlers as outdated.

   What to change: Update the privacy policy to reference the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

8. No blog, news, or thought leadership content Medium

   The site has no blog or news section, limiting opportunities to publish content that could be indexed and cited by AI models. This reduces the site's topical authority and discoverability.

   What to change: Add a blog or insights section to publish articles on Shopify Plus, ecommerce trends, and case study deep-dives.

9. Missing security headers (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options) Low

   The site does not set HSTS, CSP, or X-Frame-Options headers, which may be considered a trust signal deficiency by some AI crawlers.

   What to change: Add HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, and X-Frame-Options headers to improve security posture.

What's working

• Detailed, metric-rich case study pages — Each case study page contains specific revenue figures, conversion lifts, and named client testimonials with job titles, providing strong content for AI models to cite.
• Most AI crawlers receive full access with identical content — GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, anthropic-ai, and Applebot-Extended all receive the full homepage content with a 200 status, ensuring AI models can index the site's content.
• Sitemap is present and contains 29 URLs — The sitemap is accessible and lists 29 URLs, helping crawlers discover the site's pages.
• Services page provides detailed descriptions — The services page contains over 1000 words of descriptive content about the agency's offerings, which helps AI models understand the scope of services.