The AI Visibility Gap
Of the 16,902 roofers tracked in Texas, only 1.7% score in the Excellent tier (80-100) on the AI Trust Score. The other 98.3% are competing for scraps of AI-generated attention, and most are not even in the race.
The average AI Trust Score across Texas roofers is 35.7/100. The median sits at 37.0/100. Those numbers reflect a market where most contractors have a website but almost nothing else AI assistants can use to verify, trust, or recommend them.
Here is the structural problem: 84% of Texas roofers have no JSON-LD structured data on their websites. JSON-LD is the machine-readable layer that tells AI systems who you are, where you operate, and what services you provide. Without it, your website is essentially a locked door. The AI cannot read it, so it ignores you. Only 16% of Texas roofers have implemented this basic signal, which already puts Texas ahead of the national average of 8.6% across 65 tracked states and regions. That is a low bar.
The score distribution makes the problem concrete:
| Score Range | Contractors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 2,166 | 13% |
| 10-39 | 7,860 | ~47% |
| 40-59 | 4,885 | ~29% |
| 60-79 | 1,738 | ~10% |
| 80-100 | 253 | 1.7% |
Nearly 1 in 4 Texas roofers (23.8%) scores below 40, which in practice means near-zero AI visibility. The 2,166 contractors in the 0-9 bucket have essentially no structured presence AI assistants can act on.
The review data tells the same story from a different angle. The median review count across all tracked Texas roofers is 0.0. Half of the 16,902 contractors in this dataset have no reviews on record. When a homeowner asks ChatGPT or Perplexity to recommend a roofer in their area, AI models weight Identity (25 points), Legitimacy (35 points), and Readability (40 points). Zero reviews destroys your Legitimacy score before the AI even looks at your website.
The gap between those who have invested in their digital signals and those who have not is measurable. The top 10% of Texas roofers average 69.7/100. The bottom 50% average 22.0/100. The top performers also carry 239 reviews on average, compared to 136 for the bottom half. That is a 1.8x review advantage layered on top of a 47.7-point score gap.
Texas roofers operate across 106 cities, from El Paso to Pasadena to Round Rock. The visibility problem is statewide, not concentrated in one market.
You can see where your business stands in the Texas roofer directory or check your individual AI Trust Score at /find. The score tells you exactly which of the three categories is pulling you down.
What AI Models Check
The AI Trust Score is built on three categories. Each one measures something different, and the weights are not equal.
Identity: 25 points. This covers NAP consistency (name, address, phone) across directories, your Google Business Profile accuracy, and whether your business information matches across platforms. Inconsistent data creates ambiguity. AI models resolve ambiguity by moving on to the next result.
Legitimacy: 35 points. Reviews, star ratings, and license and insurance verification. Texas roofers average 4.51 stars, which is a solid signal. The problem is volume. The average review count across 16,902 Texas roofers is 118.0, but the median is 0.0. That gap is not a rounding error: it means top performers are pulling the average up while half the market has no review presence at all.
The top 10% of Texas roofers carry an average of 239 reviews. The bottom 50% average 136. That 1.8x review gap compounds the score difference. More reviews mean more data points for an AI model to assess your credibility. Fewer reviews mean the model has little basis to recommend you over a competitor with a longer track record.
Readability: 40 points. This is the largest category, and the one where most Texas roofers have the most room to fail. Readability covers website quality, mobile-friendliness, and JSON-LD structured data.
JSON-LD is the part that most directly determines whether an AI can parse your business. It is the structured markup that tells a crawler your business name, service area, hours, and what you do. Without it, a model reading your site has to guess at those facts, and AI systems do not recommend businesses they cannot verify.
Only 16% of Texas roofers have JSON-LD on their sites. That sounds low, and it is, but it already exceeds the national average of 8.6% across 65 tracked states and regions. For context, Texas plumbers sit at 23% JSON-LD adoption. Texas roofers in the vertical benchmark are at 25%. The statewide average of 16% reflects how far the broader market lags behind even modest targets.
The critical distinction: 100% of Texas roofers in this dataset have a website. Website presence is not the same as Readability. A site that loads slowly, has no structured data, and is not mobile-optimized earns a low Readability score regardless of how much content it contains. The AI cannot extract the facts it needs to surface your business confidently.
Readability carries the highest weight because structured data is how AI systems build their picture of you. Identity tells the AI who you are. Legitimacy tells it whether to trust you. Readability determines whether it can read you at all.
If you are missing JSON-LD, you are invisible to AI crawlers by default, no matter how strong your ratings are.
Check which category is pulling your score down at /find.
Scoring Deep-Dive
The score distribution across 16,902 Texas roofers is heavily concentrated in the middle tiers, with a long tail of contractors who have essentially no AI-readable presence.
| Score Range | Contractors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 2,166 | 13% |
| 10-19 | 403 | 2% |
| 20-29 | 2,453 | 15% |
| 30-39 | 5,004 | 30% |
| 40-49 | 3,388 | 20% |
| 50-59 | 1,497 | 9% |
| 60-69 | 1,410 | 8% |
| 70-79 | 328 | 2% |
| 80-89 | 229 | 1% |
| 90-100 | 24 | <1% |
The 30-39 band holds the single largest concentration: 5,004 contractors, or 30% of the state. That tier is competitive in the worst sense. Enough structure to not score zero, but not enough for AI models to confidently recommend you over anyone else in the results set.
Only 24 contractors statewide score between 90 and 100. That is 24 businesses, out of 16,902, with a fully AI-readable presence.
The tier breakdown reinforces the problem: 56.8% of Texas roofers fall in the Fair range (40-59), 23.8% score below 40, and only 1.7% reach Excellent (80-100). The Good tier (60-79) holds 17.7%. If you are in that Good tier, you are already ahead of more than 80% of your state.
Texas roofers vs. other verticals
Roofing underperforms most other trades in Texas. The statewide roofer average of 35.7 sits below plumbers (42.3), painters (41.1), HVAC contractors (40.2), and foundation specialists (39.1). Only landscapers (35.1) and general contractors (34.1) score lower.
The JSON-LD gap reinforces this. Texas plumbers have 23% JSON-LD adoption. Texas HVAC contractors are at 22%. Roofers in the vertical benchmark sit at 25%, but the statewide average of 16% across all roofing businesses shows how far the broader market lags behind even that benchmark. Readability is the category pulling the sector down.
Texas vs. other states
Texas performs better than several major markets. Ontario averages 38.5, Quebec 37.9. California sits at 21.5, Florida at 19.8. In absolute terms, though, a 35.7 average is still a failing grade. Outperforming Florida and California is not a competitive advantage when homeowners are asking AI assistants to recommend a specific contractor in a specific zip code.
City-level gaps
The top-performing cities in Texas show what is achievable without reaching the Excellent tier. Haslet leads at 47.2/100, followed by Round Rock at 47.0, Cedar Park at 46.4, Leander at 46.0, and Bastrop at 45.7. Those are Fair-to-Good scores, not standout numbers, but they represent markets where more contractors have invested in at least some structured signals.
The bottom five cities (Texas City, Smithville, Santa Fe, San Leon, and Red Rock) all average 0.0. That reflects markets where contractors have profiles but no machine-readable data for AI systems to work with.
The largest contractor concentrations are in major metros: El Paso (116 roofers), San Antonio (99), Corpus Christi (78), Houston (76), Austin (75), and Round Rock (70). Density does not translate to score quality. Round Rock is the exception, averaging 47.0 with 70 tracked contractors. The other major metros have not yet converted their scale into AI visibility.
See where every tracked roofer in the state stands at the Texas state market report.
Action Steps
Moving from the state average of 35.7 to a score of 60 or above is not a stretch goal. It places you in the top 19.4% of all Texas roofers, and the three scoring categories tell you exactly where to start.
1. Fix Readability first: up to 40 points
Readability carries the most weight in the AI Trust Score, and it has the clearest technical fix. Add JSON-LD structured data to your website.
84% of Texas roofers have no JSON-LD. That is the single largest scoring gap in the state. JSON-LD tells AI crawlers your business name, service area, hours, and what you do. Without it, AI models cannot verify your business and will not recommend it. Every point available in this category is at risk when structured data is missing.
Beyond JSON-LD, pass Core Web Vitals and confirm your site is mobile-responsive. A site that loads slowly or breaks on a phone earns a low Readability score regardless of its content volume. All three fixes address the same underlying problem: your site needs to be readable by machines, not just humans.
2. Build Legitimacy: up to 35 points
The Texas roofer average is 118 reviews. The top 10% average 239. Getting your review count above 118 moves you into top-performer territory for Legitimacy and gives AI models more data points to assess your credibility.
Start requesting reviews systematically: post-job follow-up texts, direct links to your Google Business Profile, and a process for every completed project. One review at a time adds up faster than most contractors expect.
License and insurance verification also contributes to this category. If your credentials are not confirmed on your profile, you are leaving Legitimacy points on the table. Verify both and ensure they are reflected wherever your business appears online.
3. Audit Identity: up to 25 points
Identity measures NAP consistency: whether your business name, address, and phone number match exactly across your Google Business Profile, your website, and every directory where you appear. Inconsistencies create ambiguity. AI systems do not resolve ambiguity in your favor.
Run a directory audit. Check Google Business Profile, Yelp, Angi, the Better Business Bureau, and any local directories where your business is listed. A single mismatched phone number or abbreviated address can undermine your Identity score across all platforms.
What these fixes add up to
The state average is 35.7. The Good tier starts at 60. That 24-point gap is achievable by addressing all three categories, and Readability alone (adding JSON-LD, passing Core Web Vitals, confirming mobile responsiveness) is the highest-leverage starting point. The top 10% average 69.7, which is a realistic target once all three categories are addressed with consistency.
Check your current score at /find to see which category is pulling your number down. The breakdown shows you exactly where the points are going missing. For competitive context on how other Texas roofers are positioned, see the Texas roofer directory.
Frequently Asked Questions
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 assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity. It breaks into three categories: Identity (25 points, covering NAP consistency), Legitimacy (35 points, covering reviews, ratings, and license verification), and Readability (40 points, covering website quality, mobile-friendliness, and structured data). The average Texas roofer currently scores 35.7/100. Check your score at /find.
How do AI assistants decide which contractors to recommend?
AI models pull from structured, verifiable signals: consistent business information, confirmed credentials, review volume, and machine-readable website data. When those signals are weak or missing, the model skips your business and recommends someone whose profile it can actually parse. Only 19.4% of Texas roofers score 60 or above, meaning more than 80% of the state's 16,902 tracked contractors are effectively invisible to AI-generated recommendations. See how the full market is distributed at the Texas roofer directory.
What is JSON-LD and why does it matter for roofing contractors?
JSON-LD is structured markup added to your website that tells AI crawlers your business name, service area, hours, and what you do. Without it, AI models have to guess at those facts, and they rarely guess in your favor. Readability carries 40 of the 100 possible points in the AI Trust Score, and JSON-LD is its most direct component. Currently, 84% of Texas roofers have no JSON-LD on their sites. That is the largest single scoring gap in the state.
How does Texas compare to other states on AI readiness?
Texas averages 35.7/100 across all tracked contractors, which outperforms California (21.5) and Florida (19.8). Texas also leads on JSON-LD adoption at 16%, compared to the cross-state average of 8.6% across 65 tracked states and regions. That said, 35.7 still falls well short of what AI models need to recommend a contractor confidently.
How many reviews does a Texas roofer need to be competitive?
The top 10% of Texas roofers average 239 reviews. The statewide average is 118. The median review count across all 16,902 tracked contractors is 0.0, meaning half the market has no reviews on record at all. Crossing the 118-review threshold puts you in top-performer territory for the Legitimacy category. Check your current review standing at /find.