trethowans.com — AI Site Grade

Analysis

Trethowans blocks every major AI crawler at the Cloudflare edge — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Bytespider, and anthropic-ai all receive a 403, while Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended pass through to the same full HTML as a browser. The robots.txt contains no AI-bot directives at all, and the llms.txt that the robots.txt explicitly references returns a 404.

Crawler Access

The site runs on Cloudflare (A records point to 104.21.85.146 and 172.67.206.172, NS to Cloudflare). A compare_bot_access test on the homepage shows a stark split: Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended get a 200 with the full 155KB HTML payload, while GPTBot, ClaudeBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, anthropic-ai, and Bytespider all return a Cloudflare 403 with a 4.5KB block page. The robots.txt (generated by Yoast SEO) has a single User-agent: * with Disallow: (empty — allow all) and references an llms.txt URL that returns a WordPress 404 page. No AI-specific crawl rules exist anywhere. The block is entirely at the Cloudflare WAF/security level, not in robots.txt.

Cold-Knowledge Gap

A frontier LLM queried cold about "Trethowans law firm" returned: *"I do not have specific, detailed knowledge about a law firm named Trethowans... It is possible the name is misspelled, refers to a very small or regional firm, or is a fictional entity."* This is a complete knowledge void for a firm that describes itself as a UK Top 150 Law Firm, named in The Times Best Law Firms 2026, with offices in six locations, over 80 specialist lawyers, and clients including Ladbrokes, Britvic, Jewson, Saint-Gobain, and Bacardi-Martini. The site also reveals that in May 2025, Trethowans joined Lawfront, a private-equity-backed (Blixt) group of regional UK law firms — a significant structural change that no AI model knows about.

Schema Posture

The homepage carries Organization and Service JSON-LD with a detailed hasOfferCatalog listing dozens of practice areas and geographic coverage across Salisbury, Winchester, Southampton, Poole, Bournemouth, and London. However, the About page, Services listing page, Insights page, and People page all have zero JSON-LD schema. The individual insight article (Employment Alert – AI in the Workplace) correctly uses BlogPosting with author Person entities. The Asbestos Claims FAQ page uses WebPage only — no FAQPage schema despite being a genuine FAQ page with Q&A content. The podcast landing page also lacks PodcastSeries or PodcastEpisode schema.

Content & Signals

The site has a strong content engine: 1,117+ URLs across 14 sitemaps, a regularly updated insights blog with articles, podcasts, case studies, and press releases dated into May 2026. The Candid Divorce Lawyer Podcast won the Innovative Marketing Award at the Legal Growth Awards 2026. The homepage uses a single H1 ("Law. As it should be.") and a clear H2/H3 hierarchy. The Trustpilot widget is embedded but the dedicated /reviews/ page is a thin shell (12 words of visible text, likely JS-rendered). No FAQ schema, no comparison tables, no HowTo or Article schema on the main service pages.

External Signals

External search results for Trethowans returned zero indexed results from DuckDuckGo for queries about the firm, its Trustpilot page, its Lawfront acquisition, or its Times listing — suggesting limited off-domain footprint or low search visibility. The Trustpilot page itself is behind a Cloudflare challenge wall. The site links to Chambers, Legal 500, Law Society, Resolution, and Spinal Injuries Association accreditations, but these external signals are not independently discoverable via search.

Findings

1. Eight major AI crawlers blocked at Cloudflare edge High

   GPTBot, ClaudeBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, anthropic-ai, and Bytespider all receive a 403 from Cloudflare, while Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended pass through. The robots.txt has no AI-bot directives and references a missing llms.txt.

   What to change: Allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and other AI crawlers through the Cloudflare WAF, and add explicit AI-bot directives to robots.txt. Restore or create a valid llms.txt file.

2. Frontier LLM has no knowledge of Trethowans High

   A cold query about 'Trethowans law firm' returned a response stating no specific knowledge exists, describing the firm as possibly misspelled, very small, or fictional. This is a complete knowledge void for a UK Top 150 firm with multiple offices and major clients.

   What to change: Implement AI visibility strategies including structured data, AI-accessible content, and external citations to ensure LLMs can accurately retrieve firm information.

3. About, Services, Insights, and People pages lack JSON-LD schema Medium

   The About page, Services listing page, Insights page, and People page have zero JSON-LD schema. Only the homepage and individual insight articles carry structured data.

   What to change: Add appropriate JSON-LD schema (e.g., AboutPage, Service, CollectionPage, Person) to these key pages to improve AI understanding and rich snippet eligibility.

4. Asbestos Claims FAQ page uses WebPage schema instead of FAQPage Medium

   The Asbestos Claims FAQ page contains genuine Q&A content but only has WebPage schema, missing the opportunity for FAQ rich results in search and AI extraction.

   What to change: Replace WebPage schema with FAQPage schema, marking up each question and answer pair.

5. Podcast landing page lacks PodcastSeries or PodcastEpisode schema Medium

   The Candid Divorce Lawyer Podcast page has no structured data for podcasts, despite being an award-winning series.

   What to change: Add PodcastSeries and PodcastEpisode JSON-LD schema to the podcast landing page and individual episode pages.

6. Dedicated reviews page is a thin JS shell with only 12 words Medium

   The /reviews/ page contains only 12 words of visible text, likely relying on JavaScript to render content, which may not be accessible to all crawlers.

   What to change: Ensure review content is server-side rendered or statically included in the HTML to be crawlable by all bots.

7. Limited external search footprint for key firm attributes Medium

   Web searches for Trethowans, its Trustpilot page, Lawfront acquisition, and Times Best Law Firms listing returned zero results, indicating low off-domain discoverability.

   What to change: Build external backlinks and citations from reputable legal directories, news outlets, and review platforms to improve search and AI discoverability.

8. Trustpilot page blocked by Cloudflare challenge Low

   The Trustpilot review page for Trethowans returns a 403 with a Cloudflare challenge, preventing crawlers from accessing third-party review content.

   What to change: Ensure the Trustpilot page is accessible to crawlers, or embed review content directly on the site with server-side rendering.

9. llms.txt file referenced in robots.txt returns 404 Low

   The robots.txt explicitly references an llms.txt URL, but that URL returns a WordPress 404 page, missing an opportunity to guide AI crawlers.

   What to change: Create a valid llms.txt file with a summary of the firm and links to key pages, or remove the reference from robots.txt.

What's working

• Homepage carries detailed Organization and Service JSON-LD — The homepage includes Organization and Service schema with a hasOfferCatalog listing practice areas and office locations, aiding AI understanding of the firm's structure and services.
• Individual insight articles use BlogPosting schema with author Person entities — The Employment Alert – AI in the Workplace article correctly implements BlogPosting schema with author Person markup, supporting AI extraction of article metadata.
• Over 1,100 URLs across 14 sitemaps with regularly updated content — The site has a robust content engine with insights, podcasts, case studies, and press releases updated into May 2026, providing a rich source of information for AI models.
• Candid Divorce Lawyer Podcast won Innovative Marketing Award 2026 — The podcast is an award-winning content asset that can be leveraged for AI visibility if properly structured with schema.
• Homepage uses clear H1/H2/H3 heading hierarchy — The homepage has a single H1 and a logical heading structure, which helps crawlers and AI models understand page content hierarchy.
• Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended allowed through Cloudflare — These two AI crawlers receive full HTML content, ensuring some AI visibility from Google and Apple.