northius.com — AI Site Grade

Analysis

Northius: AI crawlers get full content, but the site has no structured data for its school portfolio and the English press room is 18 months stale

Crawler Access

All major AI crawlers — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, anthropic-ai — receive a 200 with full HTML content identical to browser baseline (~259 KB). The only blocked bot is Bytespider (403). The robots.txt is a bare Yoast-generated User-agent: * Disallow: with no AI-bot-specific rules. The llms.txt returns a 404 (WordPress 404 page). DNS TXT records confirm OpenAI domain verification (openai-domain-verification=dv-zzq693WIRBY2cwhaU8q7xx5u) and Perplexity domain verification (perplexity-ai-domain-verification-33z7cc=...) are both present, meaning these engines have already been whitelisted at the infrastructure level. The site runs on Apache with no CDN or WAF — no Cloudflare, no Akamai — and no security headers (no HSTS, no CSP, no X-Frame-Options).

Cold-Knowledge Gap

The LLM knows Northius as a Spanish vocational training group formed from merging legacy brands (CEAC, MasterD, IMF Business School), backed by Investindustrial, and certified B Corp since 2021. It also recalls student complaints about course quality and refund policies in 2023-2024. The actual site makes no mention of Investindustrial, the merger history, or any of the legacy brand names (CEAC, MasterD, IMF) on the corporate pages — those brands are only visible as external links to separate domains. The site heavily promotes B Corp certification (obtained May 2025 per its own news, not 2021 as the model states), creating a date discrepancy the model would propagate. The model also cites "CEAC and MasterD" as notable products, but the site's "Escuelas y proyectos" page lists 10+ schools (Flou, Nubika, 35mm, Tokio School, Mint, CEMP, Unisport, Campus Training, Deusto Salud, Deusto Formacion) — none of which are CEAC or MasterD.

Schema Posture

Every page carries Yoast-generated schema (WebPage, BreadcrumbList, WebSite, Organization). The Organization schema includes name, URL, and logo — but no sameAs links to LinkedIn, YouTube, or Instagram (all of which exist and are linked in the page footer). No Course, EducationalOccupationalProgram, FAQPage, or Product schema exists anywhere. The schools page lists 10+ educational brands with zero structured data linking them to the parent organization. No ItemList or CollectionPage schema for the school portfolio.

External Signals

The press room links to external coverage in Expansion, El Espanol, La Opinion Coruna, IT User, Harvard Deusto, Computing.es, El Periodico, Levante-EMV — legitimate tier-2 Spanish business and tech press. The English press room (/en/press-room/) last shows news from August 2023, while the Spanish version (/sala-de-prensa/) has entries through March 2026 — a 30-month gap that means English-language AI crawlers see a stale news corpus. The site also links to a corresponsables.com opinion piece and B Corp Spain blog, but no major international press coverage is cited.

Surprising Findings

The English press room is effectively abandoned — the most recent English news item is August 2023, while the Spanish version is actively updated. For an international education group with English, Portuguese, and Spanish site versions, this creates a lopsided AI knowledge base: English-language crawlers indexing /en/press-room/ will conclude the brand has no news presence since mid-2023. The corporate page (/corporate/) contains a contact form for "joining Northius" but has nofollow on its meta robots directive, limiting its crawl equity. The site also has a future-dated news article ("29 abril 2026") on the homepage — likely a typo or placeholder date that could confuse temporal reasoning in AI models.

Findings

1. English press room abandoned since August 2023 High

   The English press room (/en/press-room/) last shows news from August 2023, while the Spanish version is updated through March 2026. English-language AI crawlers see a stale news corpus, limiting international visibility.

   What to change: Update the English press room with current news or redirect it to the Spanish version with a language toggle.

2. No structured data for school portfolio High

   The schools page lists 10+ educational brands (Flou, Nubika, 35mm, etc.) with zero structured data linking them to the parent organization. No ItemList, CollectionPage, Course, or EducationalOccupationalProgram schema exists.

   What to change: Add ItemList or CollectionPage schema to the schools page, and Course or EducationalOccupationalProgram schema to individual school pages.

3. Future-dated news article on homepage Medium

   The homepage displays a news article dated '29 abril 2026', which is likely a typo or placeholder. This could confuse AI temporal reasoning and damage credibility.

   What to change: Correct the date to the actual publication date or remove the article if it is not real.

4. Organization schema lacks sameAs links Medium

   The Organization schema includes name, URL, and logo but no sameAs links to LinkedIn, YouTube, or Instagram, even though these social profiles exist and are linked in the page footer.

   What to change: Add sameAs properties to the Organization schema with URLs to LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

5. LLM knowledge has incorrect B Corp date Medium

   The LLM states Northius has been B Corp certified since 2021, but the site's own news indicates certification was obtained in May 2025. This discrepancy will be propagated by AI models.

   What to change: Ensure the site clearly and consistently states the B Corp certification date, and consider updating external profiles to reflect the correct date.

6. Corporate page has nofollow meta robots Medium

   The corporate page (/corporate/) contains a meta robots directive with 'nofollow', limiting crawl equity and reducing its visibility to search engines and AI crawlers.

   What to change: Remove the nofollow directive from the corporate page to allow full crawl equity.

7. llms.txt file returns 404 Medium

   The llms.txt file is missing, returning a WordPress 404 page. This file helps AI crawlers discover key content and context.

   What to change: Create an llms.txt file listing important pages and a brief description of the site.

8. Missing security headers Low

   The site lacks HSTS, CSP, and X-Frame-Options headers, which are not directly related to AI visibility but indicate a lack of modern web security practices.

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

9. No major international press coverage cited Low

   The press room links only to Spanish tier-2 media. No major international outlets are referenced, limiting global AI knowledge signals.

   What to change: Seek coverage in international education or business publications and link to them from the press room.

What's working

• All major AI crawlers receive full HTML content — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, and anthropic-ai all receive a 200 with full HTML content identical to browser baseline.
• OpenAI and Perplexity domain verification present — DNS TXT records confirm OpenAI and Perplexity domain verification, indicating these engines have been whitelisted at the infrastructure level.
• Yoast-generated schema on every page — Every page carries WebPage, BreadcrumbList, WebSite, and Organization schema, providing basic structured data for search engines and AI crawlers.
• Spanish press room actively updated through March 2026 — The Spanish press room contains news entries through March 2026, demonstrating ongoing PR activity for Spanish-language audiences.
• B Corp certification prominently featured — The site heavily promotes its B Corp certification, which is a positive signal for AI models that value sustainability and ethics.
• Links to legitimate Spanish business press — The press room links to coverage in Expansion, El Espanol, and other tier-2 Spanish media, providing credible external signals.
• Multilingual site with English, Portuguese, and Spanish versions — The site offers content in multiple languages, expanding its reach to international audiences and AI crawlers.