Loading the report…
Loading the report…
An independent audit of duckduckgo.com, measured by Adnave on November 12, 2026. We read 12 pages of the site as a search engine first receives them and ran 45 checks. Organic health is 84 out of 100. The site lets the main AI assistants read it.
Growth Navigator · duckduckgo.com
13 opportunities to improve
12 pages read in full, 30 more links checked
Organic health
out of 100
Ads readiness
out of 100
Our suggested order: biggest obstacles first, quickest first among equals. The effect of each fix is not measured. 1 takes minutes.
Step 1 · Organic
Everything here was observed on the site. Fixing it removes a known obstacle; no one can promise a specific ranking in return.
Observed · AdnaveBot's reading of 12 pages on 2026-11-12 · each finding is what we saw on those pages; “what to do”, the score and the order are our judgment
The http:// version of the site still answers on its own, so some visitors and links stay on an insecure copy.
What to do: Redirect every http:// address to its https:// equivalent with a permanent (301) redirect.
For an Apache server, add to the top of the .htaccess file. Many hosts also offer this as a switch called “Force HTTPS”.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]There is no structured data, so an assistant has to guess what the business is from loose text.
What to do: Add schema.org markup for the organisation, plus the type that fits the page: Product, Service, Article, FAQPage or SoftwareApplication.
Paste inside the <head> of the page. Fill in the name and logo address.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "duckduckgo.com",
"url": "https://duckduckgo.com",
"logo": "https://duckduckgo.com/your-logo.png"
}
</script>A page should have one H1. Several of them blur what the page is about.
What to do: Keep one H1 and turn the others into H2 subheadings.
How to fix this: How to write page titles and meta descriptionsAs first delivered the page was nearly empty; in a browser it shows 2,102 words. Google usually runs scripts, though later and less reliably. Most AI assistants and several other search engines do not.
What to do: Have the site send its main text in the page itself (server-side rendering or pre-rendering).
Pages under about 200 words rarely rank for anything.
What to do: Expand these pages with useful detail, merge them into a stronger page, or hide them from search.
Without a width and height, the page shifts as each image arrives. That is the layout shift Core Web Vitals penalise.
What to do: Add width and height attributes to every image tag.
How to fix this: Image SEO: alt text, file size and layout shiftA made-up address did not return a 404. Search engines can end up indexing endless empty pages.
What to do: Make the site answer unknown addresses with a 404 status and a helpful “page not found” page.
How to fix this: How to find and fix broken links on your websiteThese scripts must download and run before anything is shown.
What to do: Add defer or async to scripts in the page head, or move them to the end.
How to fix this: Core Web Vitals: how to make a slow website fastA single H1 tells search engines what each page is about.
What to do: Give each page exactly one H1 that states its topic.
Structured data lets Google show extras such as ratings, prices, opening hours and FAQs in your result.
What to do: Add schema.org markup that fits the business (Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, FAQ).
Paste inside the <head> of the page. Fill in the name and logo address.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "duckduckgo.com",
"url": "https://duckduckgo.com",
"logo": "https://duckduckgo.com/your-logo.png"
}
</script>Search engines and screen readers use a link's words to understand the page it leads to. “Learn more” tells them nothing.
What to do: Reword each link to name its destination, for example “See our pricing” instead of “Learn more”.
Assistants quote pages that state a question and answer it plainly. This page has no question-style headings.
What to do: Add a short section of real customer questions as headings, each answered in two or three sentences.
How to fix this: AI search readiness: how to be found by AI assistantsAn optional plain-text summary of the site for AI assistants. It is cheap to add, but there is no evidence yet that it changes how often a site is cited.
What to do: Optionally add /llms.txt with a short description of the site and links to its most important pages.
Optional. Save as llms.txt at the top level of the site. Edit the first lines to describe what you do.
# DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind. > The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs. ## Pages - [DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind.](https://duckduckgo.com/) - [DuckDuckGo Settings](https://duckduckgo.com/settings) - [How To Add the DuckDuckGo Extension to Your Browser - DuckDuckGo Help Pages](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/desktop/adding-duckduckgo-to-your-browser/) - [Get Email Protection: More Privacy, Same Inbox](https://duckduckgo.com/email) - [DuckDuckGo Privacy Newsletter](https://duckduckgo.com/newsletter) - [DuckDuckGo Collaborations](https://duckduckgo.com/collaborations) - [What’s New in DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/updates) - [Which browsers and extensions are best for online privacy](https://duckduckgo.com/compare-privacy) - [About DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/about) - [Welcome - DuckDuckGo Help Pages](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/) - [DuckDuckGo is Hiring!](https://duckduckgo.com/hiring) - [DuckDuckGo Privacy Policy](https://duckduckgo.com/privacy)
“DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind.”
“The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.”
Subheadings help readers and search engines scan the page.
The page gives search engines real content to work with.
Alt text helps image search and screen-reader users.
Visitors and search engines get a secure connection.
Nothing on the page blocks it from being indexed.
The page declares a mobile viewport.
https://duckduckgo.com/
Search engines and screen readers know which language to expect.
Search engines have instructions for crawling the site.
Search engines have a list of your pages.
Both forms end at duckduckgo.com.
Browsers are told to always use the secure connection and not to guess file types.
Images, scripts and styles all load over https.
That is quick.
A reasonable size for the page itself, before images.
The server shrinks the page before sending it.
Shared links show a title, description and image on Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and others.
Links shared on X show a rich preview.
Your icon appears in browser tabs and search results.
Nothing in robots.txt shuts out the crawlers behind ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Gemini.
Every internal link we followed loads.
Checked 11 other pages.
Checked 11 other pages.
Checked 11 other pages.
Checked 11 other pages.
Checked 11 other pages.
| Page | Response | Time | Words |
|---|---|---|---|
DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind. https://duckduckgo.com/ | 200 | 0.07s | 26 |
DuckDuckGo Settings https://duckduckgo.com/settings | 200 | 0.03s | 1 |
How To Add the DuckDuckGo Extension to Your Browser - DuckDuckGo Help Pages https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/desktop/adding-duckduckgo-to-your-browser/ | 200 | 0.07s | 1,411 |
Get Email Protection: More Privacy, Same Inbox https://duckduckgo.com/email | 200 | 0.25s | 0 |
DuckDuckGo Privacy Newsletter https://duckduckgo.com/newsletter | 200 | 0.10s | 260 |
DuckDuckGo Collaborations https://duckduckgo.com/collaborations | 200 | 0.01s | 368 |
What’s New in DuckDuckGo https://duckduckgo.com/updates | 200 | 0.05s | 1,656 |
Which browsers and extensions are best for online privacy https://duckduckgo.com/compare-privacy | 200 | 0.14s | 922 |
About DuckDuckGo https://duckduckgo.com/about | 200 | 0.08s | 1,100 |
Welcome - DuckDuckGo Help Pages https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/ | 200 | 0.11s | 1,403 |
DuckDuckGo is Hiring! https://duckduckgo.com/hiring | 200 | 0.10s | 427 |
DuckDuckGo Privacy Policy https://duckduckgo.com/privacy | 200 | 0.05s | 2,132 |
Step 2 · Ads
Ads only pay off when the site can measure what they bring in. We look for tracking tags in the page code; tags that load later, through a consent banner or tag manager, will not show up here.
Without analytics you cannot see where visitors come from or what they do.
What to do: Set up Google Analytics 4 and add its tag to every page.
How to fix this: What to set up before you spend on adsGoogle Ads cannot learn which clicks turn into customers without it.
What to do: Create a conversion action in Google Ads and add the tag, or import conversions from Analytics.
How to fix this: What to set up before you spend on adsFacebook and Instagram ads need the Pixel to track sales and build audiences.
What to do: Create a Pixel in Meta Events Manager and add it to every page.
How to fix this: What to set up before you spend on adsTikTok ads need the Pixel to measure results and optimize delivery.
What to do: Create a Pixel in TikTok Ads Manager and add it to every page.
How to fix this: What to set up before you spend on adsAudit run on . It reads up to 12 pages (60 with a free account) as a search engine first receives them and checks further internal links for errors. Scores are a weighted share of the checks passed.
Run the same audit on your own site, free. No sign-up needed.
This page reports only what our audit observed on public pages of duckduckgo.com. Adnave is not affiliated with it. If you run this site and something here is wrong, run a fresh audit and tell us.