Enterprise SEO Marketing Agencies: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend enterprise seo marketing agencies. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

6 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Largest Decline: First Page Sage
08Additional Notable Decliners
09Largest Increase: NoGood
10Category Leader: WebFX
11Recommendation Placement Snapshot
12Buyer-Intent Distribution

Benchmark Summary

WebFX continues to lead the Enterprise SEO Marketing Agencies index with valid recommendation coverage of 66.1% in September 2026, down from 73.8% in the July 2026 baseline. The next closest brand, Searchbloom, holds a 39.4% valid recommendation coverage rate this month, creating a gap of 26.7 percentage points between the two leaders.

The largest coverage decline over the baseline-to-current period belongs to First Page Sage, which fell to 28.9% in September 2026 from 43.7% in July 2026, a drop of 14.8 percentage points. WebFX also declined over the same period, moving from 73.8% to 66.1%, including a 5.8-point move between August and September 2026. No brand recorded a large increase this period; NoGood posted the largest gain among tracked brands, rising to 13.0% in September 2026 from 11.7% in July 2026.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 502 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026

WebFX66.1%
Searchbloom39.4%
First Page Sage28.9%
Siege Media26.5%
Directive26.1%
Omniscient Digital14.3%
NoGood13.0%
iPullRank10.8%
Seer Interactive10.4%
Avenue Z0.2%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	446	502	Up 56
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	47.3%	53.8%	Up 6.5 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	91.0%	86.3%	Down 4.8 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	WebFX	WebFX	No change

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The index recorded observations across all six families in both July and September 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Enterprise SEO Marketing Agencies

Research Scope and Qualification

Research stage	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	800	800	Total prompts collected across AI surfaces
Unique questions	574	570	Distinct questions after removing duplicates
Brand / competitor mentions	800	800	Prompts mentioning at least one tracked brand
Relevant observations	446	514	Prompts relevant to the vertical
Irrelevant observations	354	286	Prompts not relevant to the vertical
Qualified benchmark observations	446	502	Public denominator for brand-level metrics

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. AI Market Discovery Methodology

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Current Brand Standings

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
WebFX	75.1%	66.1%	47.4%	29.1%	0.93
Searchbloom	45.4%	39.4%	19.9%	5.8%	0.93
First Page Sage	33.5%	28.9%	17.9%	9.2%	0.90
Siege Media	28.1%	26.5%	13.4%	2.2%	0.98
Directive	27.3%	26.1%	13.0%	5.8%	0.98
Omniscient Digital	14.7%	14.3%	9.2%	2.2%	0.99
NoGood	14.1%	13.0%	8.0%	2.8%	0.94
iPullRank	13.0%	10.8%	5.8%	2.8%	0.98
Seer Interactive	11.6%	10.4%	6.2%	1.4%	0.95
Avenue Z	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	1.00

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned in any form.
Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended in the top three positions.
Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended first.
Net sentiment: Positive minus negative sentiment across mentions, scaled from -1 to 1.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

The table below tracks valid recommendation coverage from the July 2026 baseline to the current September 2026 measurement for all ten tracked brands.

Brand	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement since baseline
WebFX	73.8%	66.1%	Down 7.7 points
Searchbloom	44.6%	39.4%	Down 5.2 points
First Page Sage	43.7%	28.9%	Down 14.8 points
Siege Media	28.2%	26.5%	Down 1.7 points
Directive	29.4%	26.1%	Down 3.3 points
Omniscient Digital	14.8%	14.3%	Down 0.5 points
NoGood	11.7%	13.0%	Up 1.3 points
iPullRank	16.6%	10.8%	Down 5.8 points
Seer Interactive	16.8%	10.4%	Down 6.4 points
Avenue Z	0.2%	0.2%	No change

Largest Decline: First Page Sage

First Page Sage recorded the largest coverage decline in the September 2026 index, falling to 28.9% from 43.7% in July 2026, a drop of 14.8 percentage points. The brand declined in each of the two months since the baseline, with its largest single-month decrease of 12.9 percentage points occurring between August and September 2026. Its presence rate also moved down to 33.5% in September 2026 from 48.2% in July 2026. The scale and speed of this decline suggest a material loss of AI recommendation visibility, not routine fluctuation.

Additional Notable Decliners

Seer Interactive declined to 10.4% in September 2026 from 16.8% in July 2026, a drop of 6.4 percentage points. The brand fell sharply between July and August 2026 to 9.7%, then edged up 0.7 percentage points in September.

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iPullRank declined to 10.8% in September 2026 from 16.6% in July 2026, a drop of 5.8 percentage points. The decline occurred entirely between July and August 2026, followed by no change in September.

Largest Increase: NoGood

NoGood recorded the largest gain in valid recommendation coverage among tracked brands this period, rising to 13.0% in September 2026 from 11.7% in July 2026, an increase of 1.3 percentage points. The brand posted gains across both tracked intervals, moving from 11.7% in July to 11.9% in August to 13.0% in September 2026. The movement is modest and should not yet be treated as a trend.

Category Leader: WebFX

WebFX remains the category leader with 66.1% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, even after declining from 73.8% in the July 2026 baseline, including a 5.8-point move between August and September 2026. The brand's top-three rate of 47.4% and rank-one rate of 29.1% remain the highest in the index. Its rank-one rate rose to 29.1% in September 2026 from 24.2% in July 2026, even as its overall coverage moved down over the same period. A stable leadership position masks a strengthening first-choice preference.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage shows how often a brand appears, but not how prominently. WebFX leads on placement as well, appearing in the top three in 47.4% of observations and first in 29.1% of observations in September 2026. Searchbloom's top-three rate of 19.9% and rank-one rate of 5.8% show a mid-pack placement profile. Searchbloom's second-place coverage does not translate into a comparable first-choice position.

Brand	Sep 2026 top-three rate	Sep 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
WebFX	47.4%	29.1%	50.2%	24.2%
Searchbloom	19.9%	5.8%	23.3%	9.2%
First Page Sage	17.9%	9.2%	26.9%	15.5%

Close coverage levels can still hide different first-position rates. WebFX's rank-one rate rose to 29.1% in September 2026 from 24.2% in July 2026, even as its coverage moved down over the same period.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in September 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class, consistent with July and August 2026.

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Sep 2026
Brand Recommendation	446	502
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	446	502

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery only and cannot answer pricing or comparison questions.

Historical Measurement Record

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Coverage movement vs. prior month
July 2026 (baseline)	446	WebFX	73.8%	Baseline month; no prior comparison
August 2026	455	WebFX	71.9%	Seer Interactive, down 7.1 points (Jul to Aug)
September 2026	502	WebFX	66.1%	First Page Sage, down 12.9 points (Aug to Sep)

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

Market share or revenue attribution
Actual sales or conversions from AI recommendations
Every possible AI response to a given query
Organic-search ranking positions
Social media mention volume
Private or sponsored AI channels
Causality from a metric movement alone

Two months of directional change is insufficient to establish a durable trend.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index is a neutral, repeatable industry benchmark that tracks how often brands appear, are recommended, and are placed in AI-generated answers across six canonical AI/search surface families. New measurements are added to the same evergreen report each month.

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper. The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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