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An independent audit of pbs.org, measured by Adnave on November 13, 2026. We read 12 pages of the site as a search engine first receives them and ran 53 checks. Organic health is 87 out of 100. Blocked from the site: ChatGPT, Perplexity.
Growth Navigator · pbs.org
11 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 2026-11-13 · each finding is what we saw on those pages; “what to do”, the score and the order are our judgment
A “noindex” instruction keeps these pages out of Google. That is right for things like a cart or login page, and a problem for pages you want found.
What to do: Review the list and remove noindex from any page that should appear in search.
robots.txt tells these assistants to stay out, so they cannot read or cite your pages. That is a legitimate choice, but it removes you from their answers.
What to do: If you want to appear in AI answers, remove the Disallow rules for these crawlers in robots.txt.
Only if you want those assistants' search to be able to cite you. Add to robots.txt and remove the matching Disallow lines. Training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot) are separate and can stay blocked.
User-agent: PerplexityBot Allow: /
Measured once from our server, so treat it as a rough signal. Slow pages lose visitors and rank lower.
What to do: Look at caching and hosting for these pages in particular.
A single H1 tells search engines what each page is about.
What to do: Give each page exactly one H1 that states its topic.
That is heavy for the page code alone, before any images load.
What to do: Remove unused code and inline data, and load non-essential parts later.
How to fix this: Core Web Vitals: how to make a slow website fastA description copied across pages tells searchers nothing about the one in front of them, and search engines usually replace it.
What to do: Write a description for each page that says what that page offers.
A 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 headers protect visitors from downgrade and content-sniffing attacks. Browsers and security scanners look for them.
What to do: Have the web server send Strict-Transport-Security and X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff on every response.
For an Apache server, add to the .htaccess file. On other servers, ask your host to send these two headers.
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
The site links to an old address that then redirects. Each one adds a wasted step for visitors and crawlers.
What to do: Update the links to point at the final address.
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.
# PBS: Public Broadcasting Service > Watch full episodes of your favorite PBS dramas, find in-depth news analysis and explore documentaries on history, science, art and more! ## Pages - [PBS: Public Broadcasting Service](https://www.pbs.org/) - [WETA Livestream](https://www.pbs.org/livestream/) - [All Shows | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/shows/) - [My Station | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/my-station/) - [My List: Shows | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/my-list/) - [Search | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/search/) - [Explore PBS Passport | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/explore/passport/) - [Arts & Music Shows | Artists, Creativity & Concerts | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/explore/arts/) - [Culture Shows & Documentaries | Heritage & Traditions | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/explore/culture/) - [Award-Winning Documentaries & Independent Films | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/explore/documentaries-and-indie-films/) - [Watch British Dramas, Romances, International Dramas & More | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/explore/drama/) - [Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. | Documentaries & Series | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/explore/henry-louis-gates-jr/)
“PBS: Public Broadcasting Service”
“Watch full episodes of your favorite PBS dramas, find in-depth news analysis and explore documentaries on history, science, art and more!”
“PBS”
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.
No links on the page use wording like “click here”.
Without the doctype line, browsers fall back to an old rendering mode and layouts can break.
Without it, accented letters and symbols can show as garbled text, in the browser and in search results.
Search engines treat this kind of redirect as a weak signal and visitors see a flash of the old page. It also breaks the back button.
Headings are the page's outline. When levels are skipped (a heading 2 followed by a heading 4), screen readers and search engines get a broken outline.
A field with no label is announced to screen-reader users as just “edit text”, and placeholder text disappears as soon as someone types. Clear labels also raise form completion.
An icon-only link or button with no text is invisible to screen readers and tells search engines nothing about where it leads.
Visitors and search engines get a secure connection.
Nothing on the page blocks it from being indexed.
The page declares a mobile viewport.
https://www.pbs.org/
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.
1 structured data block found.
Visitors who type http:// are moved to https automatically.
Both forms end at www.pbs.org.
Images, scripts and styles all load over https.
That is quick.
Scripts are loaded without delaying what visitors see.
The server shrinks the page before sending it.
Width and height are set, so the page does not jump as images load.
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.
Structured data found: Organization, SearchAction, EntryPoint.
Every internal link we followed loads.
Checked 11 other pages.
Checked 11 other pages.
Checked 11 other pages.
Checked 11 other pages.
| Page | Response | Time | Words |
|---|---|---|---|
PBS: Public Broadcasting Service https://www.pbs.org/ | 200 | 0.28s | 807 |
WETA Livestream https://www.pbs.org/livestream/ | 200 | 0.11s | 292 |
All Shows | PBS https://www.pbs.org/shows/ | 200 | 3.13s | 315 |
My Station | PBS https://www.pbs.org/my-station/ | 200 | 1.14s | 1,428 |
My List: Shows | PBS https://www.pbs.org/my-list/ | 200 | 0.10s | 290 |
Search | PBS https://www.pbs.org/search/ | 200 | 0.54s | 281 |
Explore PBS Passport | PBS https://www.pbs.org/explore/passport/ | 200 | 0.28s | 1,087 |
Arts & Music Shows | Artists, Creativity & Concerts | PBS https://www.pbs.org/explore/arts/ | 200 | 2.86s | 3,791 |
Culture Shows & Documentaries | Heritage & Traditions | PBS https://www.pbs.org/explore/culture/ | 200 | 0.91s | 2,391 |
Award-Winning Documentaries & Independent Films | PBS https://www.pbs.org/explore/documentaries-and-indie-films/ | 200 | 0.43s | 2,060 |
Watch British Dramas, Romances, International Dramas & More | PBS https://www.pbs.org/explore/drama/ | 200 | 1.06s | 1,546 |
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. | Documentaries & Series | PBS https://www.pbs.org/explore/henry-louis-gates-jr/ | 200 | 0.18s | 1,909 |
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. A Tag Manager container is present, so it may be loaded from there, which this check cannot see.
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. A Tag Manager container is present, so it may be loaded from there, which this check cannot see.
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. A Tag Manager container is present, so it may be loaded from there, which this check cannot see.
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. A Tag Manager container is present, so it may be loaded from there, which this check cannot see.
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 pbs.org. Adnave is not affiliated with it. If you run this site and something here is wrong, run a fresh audit and tell us.