The AI Visibility Gap
Every major AI assistant, from ChatGPT to Google's AI Overviews, pulls contractor recommendations from structured, verifiable data. Of the 756 roofers tracked in Pennsylvania, most provide almost none of it.
The state's average AI Trust Score sits at 38.6/100. The median is 37.0/100, which means the distribution isn't being pulled down by a few outliers: the majority of Pennsylvania roofers genuinely cluster near the bottom. Only 5 contractors score in the Excellent tier (80-100), representing 0.7% of the total. Another 11.9% score below 40, a threshold where AI recommendation engines largely stop surfacing results altogether.
The single biggest structural problem is JSON-LD adoption. Structured data markup tells AI crawlers exactly who you are, what you do, where you operate, and how customers rate you. Only 14% of Pennsylvania roofers have implemented it. That leaves roughly 650 contractors with websites that exist but can't communicate with the systems that generate AI-driven referrals.
The gap between tiers makes this concrete. The top 10% of Pennsylvania roofers average 66.1/100. The bottom 50% average 29.6/100. That 36-point spread comes down to three scoring categories:
- Identity (25 points): Consistency of your business name, address, and phone number across platforms.
- Legitimacy (35 points): Review volume, ratings, and license or insurance verification.
- Readability (40 points): Website quality, JSON-LD structured data, and mobile-friendliness.
Most contractors with low scores aren't failing on all three. They're losing the bulk of their points on Readability, specifically the absence of structured data, and on Legitimacy, where review volume separates visible contractors from invisible ones. Top performers average 106 reviews. Bottom 50% contractors average 17. That 6.2x gap in review count directly translates to a 6.2x gap in AI referral probability.
Pennsylvania's position nationally is mid-tier. At 38.6/100, the state trails New York (40.1) and Alberta (41.7), and sits well above California (20.2) and Florida (15.2). Being average in a market where only 0.7% of competitors have achieved excellence is actually an opportunity: the ceiling is almost entirely uncontested.
The 71.7% of contractors sitting in the Fair tier (40-59) are the most actionable group. These businesses have a foundation, typically a working website and some review history, but haven't closed the structured data gap that would move them into competitive range.
You can see every tracked Pennsylvania roofer, scored and ranked, at /roofer/pennsylvania/. If you want to know where you specifically stand across all three scoring categories, check your score at /find. The score is free. The gap it reveals is fixable.
What AI Models Check
The AI Trust Score runs on three categories. Each has a fixed weight. Understanding where the points come from tells you exactly where to focus.
Identity (25 points) covers NAP consistency: your business name, address, and phone number matching across Google Business Profile, directories, and your website. Pennsylvania's 100% website presence confirms that most roofers have at least established a digital footprint. But a website alone doesn't create trust signals. If your address appears differently on Google than on Yelp, or your phone number changed and the old version still populates third-party directories, AI systems register that inconsistency as a reliability problem. Identity points are the easiest to earn, and the most quietly lost.
Legitimacy (35 points) covers review volume, star ratings, and verified licensing and insurance. Pennsylvania roofers average 4.64 stars, which is genuinely strong. Ratings are not the problem here. Review count is. The state average sits at 34 reviews per contractor, but the median review count is 0.0. More than half of the 756 tracked roofers have no reviews in the dataset at all. AI recommendation engines treat review volume as a proxy for market activity. A contractor with 4.9 stars and 3 reviews loses this category to a competitor with 4.6 stars and 90 reviews. Legitimacy also factors in license and insurance verification: confirmation that you are who you say you are, not just a website claiming it.
Readability (40 points) is the heaviest category and the most commonly failed. It covers website quality, mobile-friendliness, and JSON-LD structured data. JSON-LD is the markup language that lets AI crawlers parse your business information directly. It removes ambiguity: instead of inferring that you're a roofer in Pittsburgh from your page copy, the crawler reads a structured field that states it explicitly.
Only 14% of Pennsylvania roofers have implemented JSON-LD. That means roughly 650 contractors have websites that are technically live but functionally invisible to AI parsing systems.
The contrast across verticals shows exactly what adoption does. Roofers in Pennsylvania lead all tracked verticals with an average score of 46.8, and 27% JSON-LD adoption within the vertical. General contractors in the same state average 35.7, with 0% JSON-LD adoption. The 11-point score gap between those two verticals traces directly to structured data implementation.
The three categories interact. Strong Identity without Legitimacy reviews loses 35 points. Strong Legitimacy without Readability structured data loses 40. You can't outscore a weak Readability result with perfect Identity, because the weights don't allow it.
For the full breakdown of where Pennsylvania contractors stand across all three categories, see the Pennsylvania State of the Market report. To see your own score across Identity, Legitimacy, and Readability, check /find.
Score Distribution Across Pennsylvania
The tier breakdown across 756 tracked roofers shows how concentrated the problem is.
| Score Range | Contractors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 90-100 | 1 | 0% |
| 80-89 | 3 | 0% |
| 70-79 | 9 | 1% |
| 60-69 | 60 | 8% |
| 50-59 | 63 | 8% |
| 40-49 | 149 | 20% |
| 30-39 | 309 | 41% |
| 20-29 | 157 | 21% |
| 10-19 | 5 | 1% |
| 0-9 | 0 | 0% |
309 contractors, 41% of the state, score between 30 and 39. That single band holds more Pennsylvania roofers than every score above 50 combined.
The Excellent tier (80-100) contains 5 contractors out of 756. The Good tier (60-79) holds 119 contractors, or 15.7%. Below that, 542 contractors, 71.7% of the state, are parked in the Fair range (40-59). These businesses have enough of a digital presence to generate a score above the floor, but not enough structured credibility to register as a recommendation-worthy result.
The separation between tiers isn't marginal. The top 10% average 66.1/100 with 106 reviews. The bottom 50% average 29.6/100 with 17 reviews. That 6.2x review gap is the clearest signal in the data: AI systems read review volume as proof of operating activity, and the bottom half of Pennsylvania roofers simply don't have enough of it.
Where Pennsylvania Sits Against Comparable Markets
At 38.6/100, Pennsylvania trails most comparable tracked markets. New York averages 40.1, Ontario 39.6, and Alberta 41.7. Pennsylvania's own median of 37.0 confirms the distribution isn't skewed by a handful of outliers pulling the average up: the bulk of the state genuinely clusters in the 30-39 band.
That said, the competitive ceiling in Pennsylvania is almost entirely open. Only 0.7% of roofers have reached the Excellent tier. Reaching 70/100 would place you in the top 2% of the state.
Readability Is the Weakest Category Statewide
The score is built from three weighted categories: Identity (25 points), Legitimacy (35 points), and Readability (40 points). Readability carries the most weight, and it shows the worst adoption numbers.
JSON-LD adoption among all Pennsylvania contractors tracked sits at 14%. That means 86% of roofers have no structured data markup, the single most direct signal Readability rewards.
The vertical comparison within Pennsylvania makes this concrete. Roofers lead all tracked verticals in the state with an average score of 46.8 and 27% JSON-LD adoption. General contractors average 35.7, with 0% JSON-LD adoption. The 11-point gap between those two verticals comes almost entirely from structured data implementation.
Painters and landscapers in Pennsylvania average 65.0 with 100% JSON-LD adoption. That comparison shows what full Readability compliance actually produces in the score. Roofers at 27% adoption are ahead of general contractors, but well behind the verticals that have treated structured data as standard practice.
Both major cities track below the state average for all contractors: Pittsburgh at 39.0/100 and Philadelphia at 38.3/100. Neither city offers a localized advantage. Score position in Pennsylvania is determined by implementation, not geography.
The full ranked list of tracked Pennsylvania roofers is at /roofer/pennsylvania/. To see how your own score breaks down across all three categories, check /find.
Action Steps: How to Close the Gap
The top 10% of Pennsylvania roofers average 66.1/100. If you're sitting at 38 or below, that's a 28-point gap. Here's where those points come from and in what order to pursue them.
Start With Readability: 40 Points Available
Readability carries the highest weight in the scoring model, and it's where most Pennsylvania roofers are leaving the most points behind.
JSON-LD structured data is the highest-impact single fix available. Only 14% of Pennsylvania roofers have implemented it, meaning 86% are missing structured signals that AI crawlers rely on to categorize and surface your business. Adding JSON-LD markup to your website, correctly declaring your business type, service area, address, phone, and hours, can move a contractor from the Fair tier (40-59) into the Good tier (60-79) without changing anything else. That one implementation step addresses the largest gap in the state's data.
Mobile-friendliness and page speed also contribute to Readability. If your site loads slowly or breaks on mobile, you're losing points in the same 40-point category. A technical audit of your current site typically surfaces these issues in under an hour.
Realistically, a contractor currently at 38 can gain 10-15 Readability points from structured data implementation and basic site performance fixes alone.
Then Address Legitimacy: 35 Points Available
Pennsylvania roofers average 4.64 stars, so ratings aren't the problem. Volume is.
The state average is 34 reviews per contractor. The top 10% average 106. The median review count in the structured data feed is 0.0, meaning more than half of tracked roofers have no reviews that AI systems can read at all.
The practical target: crossing 50 verified reviews puts you in range of top-10% Legitimacy scores. A direct ask after job completion, sent by text or email, is still the highest-conversion review acquisition method. Fifteen additional reviews over six months is achievable for any active contractor.
License and insurance verification also contribute here. If your credentials aren't confirmed in the data sources AI systems pull from, you're leaving Legitimacy points unclaimed regardless of your review count.
Then Lock In Identity: 25 Points Available
Identity is the lowest ceiling but the easiest to secure. Your business name, address, and phone number need to match exactly across Google Business Profile, Yelp, Angi, the BBB, and your own website.
Pennsylvania has 100% website presence, so the foundation exists. But address formatting inconsistencies, old phone numbers on third-party directories, and name variations (LLC versus no LLC, abbreviations) all erode Identity points quietly. A full NAP audit across your five or six most visible directory listings takes less than two hours and can close most of this gap.
What the Target Looks Like
Moving from 38 to 66 requires real gains across all three categories: Readability improvements from structured data, Legitimacy gains from review volume, and Identity cleanup from consistent NAP data. None of these require paid tools or an agency. They require time and deliberate execution.
Check your current score across all three categories at /find. The breakdown shows exactly where your points are being lost. The full ranked list of Pennsylvania roofers is at /roofer/pennsylvania/.
FAQ
What is an AI Trust Score and how is it calculated?
The AI Trust Score is a 100-point rating that measures how visible and credible your business appears to AI recommendation systems like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews. It breaks into three weighted categories: Identity (25 points) covering business name, address, and phone consistency; Legitimacy (35 points) covering reviews, ratings, and license verification; and Readability (40 points) covering website quality, mobile-friendliness, and JSON-LD structured data. Pennsylvania roofers currently average 38.6/100, meaning the typical contractor is leaving more than 60% of available points unclaimed.
Why does my AI Trust Score matter for getting roofing leads?
AI assistants increasingly filter contractor recommendations by structured signals, not just search rankings. In Pennsylvania, only 0.7% of roofers score in the Excellent tier (80-100), meaning the top of the recommendation pool is nearly empty. If your score sits below 40, you fall into a range where AI systems largely stop surfacing results. The top 10% of Pennsylvania roofers average 66.1/100 and 106 reviews. The bottom 50% average 29.6/100 and 17 reviews. That 6.2x review gap directly affects which contractors get recommended.
What is JSON-LD and why do roofers need it?
JSON-LD is structured data markup added to your website that tells AI crawlers exactly who you are, what services you provide, and where you operate. Without it, AI systems have to infer that information from your page copy, and frequently get it wrong or skip your business entirely. Only 14% of Pennsylvania roofers have implemented JSON-LD. The verticals that have adopted it fully, painters and landscapers in Pennsylvania, average 65.0/100. Roofers, at 27% adoption within the vertical, average 46.8/100. The gap is structural, not accidental.
Why does review count matter more than star rating for AI visibility?
Pennsylvania roofers average 4.64 stars, a strong rating by any measure. But the median review count in the dataset is 0.0, meaning more than half of tracked roofers have no reviews that AI systems can read. A 4.9-star contractor with 3 reviews loses the Legitimacy category to a 4.6-star competitor with 90 reviews. Volume signals operating activity. Rating alone does not.
How do I check my AI Trust Score?
You can check your score, broken down across all three categories, at /find. The full ranked list of Pennsylvania roofers is at /roofer/pennsylvania/.