{"slug": "we-fetched-104-ai-built-sites-the-way-gptbot-does-61-were-empty", "title": "We fetched 104 AI-built sites the way GPTBot does. 61% were empty.", "summary": "A team at 402registry fetched 120 sites built with AI app builders the way AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot do—a single plain HTTP request with no JavaScript—and found that 61% of the 104 that responded returned HTML with fewer than 300 characters of visible text. The study, run on 20 September 2026, included a control group and proposed fixes for the empty-page problem.", "body_md": "On 20 September 2026 we fetched 120 sites made with AI app builders the way AI crawlers do: plain HTTP, no JavaScript. 61% of the live ones were empty. The data, the control group and the fixes.\n\nOn 20 September 2026 we fetched 120 websites built with AI app builders the way GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot fetch a page: one plain HTTP request, no browser, no JavaScript. 104 of them answered. For 63 of those 104 (61%), the HTML held fewer than 300 characters of visible text.\n\n**Read the full post on 402registry:** [https://402registry.com/blog/ai-built-sites-empty-without-javascript](https://402registry.com/blog/ai-built-sites-empty-without-javascript)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-fetched-104-ai-built-sites-the-way-gptbot-does-61-were-empty", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/georgi_kalchev_85d01f7368/we-fetched-104-ai-built-sites-the-way-gptbot-does-61-were-empty-2om0", "published_at": "2026-10-17 20:01:22+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-17 20:06:22.256731+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-crawlers", "generative-engine-optimization", "ai-search"], "entities": ["402registry", "GPTBot", "ClaudeBot", "PerplexityBot"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-fetched-104-ai-built-sites-the-way-gptbot-does-61-were-empty", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-fetched-104-ai-built-sites-the-way-gptbot-does-61-were-empty.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-fetched-104-ai-built-sites-the-way-gptbot-does-61-were-empty.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/we-fetched-104-ai-built-sites-the-way-gptbot-does-61-were-empty.jsonld"}}