- Visibility13
- Citations2
- Sentiment73
- Site quality73
- AI readiness43
AI assistants name Ace Hardware in 15% of answers, which is more often than the typical company in the retail sector, named in 6.7% of answers. Its overall score is 35 out of 100, ranking 822nd of 2,047 companies. The Ace Hardware website passes 6 out of 14 technical checks that measure how ready it is for AI tools.
We asked 15 unbranded questions about the retail market: none named Ace Hardware. AI assistants named it in 9 of 60 answers (15.0%). The typical retail company is named in 6.7% of answers. By how often it is named, Ace Hardware ranks 194 of 640 in its sector.
Every dot is a company in the study. Hover one to see it; click to open its report.
This companySame sectorEvery other companyNever named
Five parts, each scored out of 100.
How often AI assistants name the company
How often AI uses the company's own website as a source
How positively AI describes the company
How well built the website's own pages are
How easily AI tools can read and use the website
Visibility is calculated from the answers on this page. How the score is built.
640 companies in this sector. The line on each bar is the typical company.
An answer that names the company
“Where can I find quality tools and garden supplies for small DIY projects?”
Great — here are reliable places and practical tips for finding quality tools and garden supplies for small DIY projects.
Where to buy (options that cover convenience, quality, and specialty needs)
Big-box home centers (wide selection, competitive prices, tool rental at many stores): The Home Depot is a good one to check for power tools, hand tools, and equipment rental. (homedepot.com)
Local hardware stores & co-ops (helpful staff, quick pickup, often higher-quality hand tools): Ace Hardware locations offer c …
The AI’s answer as we received it, shortened and not checked for accuracy.
How the mentions in these answers were split between this company and its rivals
Answers naming it, out of answers received
What this website publishes for an AI agent to read, use and buy from, on a scale of six levels.
This website turned most of our scan away, so it has no level. None of the checks could run. That reflects the website’s rules for automated visitors, and an AI agent arriving by itself meets the same rules.
We could not tell. The website turned away our requests for the files an agent would read. An agent arriving by itself is turned away the same way.
- UCPCould not check
- ACPCould not check
- AP2Not present
- x402Not present
- MPPCould not check
Show every check, for your technical teamHide the checks
- study: 92.0%robots.txtCould not check
Publish a valid robots.txt with crawl rules and a Sitemap line.
- study: 86.8%SitemapCould not check
Serve an XML sitemap and reference it from robots.txt.
- study: 0.3%Link headersCould not check
Send Link headers such as rel="api-catalog" or rel="describedby" on the homepage.
- study: 5.5%DNS for AI DiscoveryNot present
Advertise agent endpoints with SVCB records under _agents.
- study: 1.9%Markdown negotiationCould not check
Return a markdown version when asked with Accept: text/markdown, for example at the CDN.
- study: 25.1%llms.txtCould not check
Publish an llms.txt with a short summary and the key links.
- study: 93.4%AI bot rulesCould not check
Add explicit robots.txt groups for the main AI crawlers.
- study: 1.4%Content SignalsCould not check
Add a Content-Signal line for search, ai-input and ai-train to robots.txt.
- study: 0.2%Web Bot AuthCould not check
Only relevant if you run your own agents or crawlers: publish a signing key directory.
- study: 0.3%API CatalogCould not check
List public APIs in a linkset at /.well-known/api-catalog.
- study: 11.8%OAuth discoveryCould not check
Publish OpenID Connect or OAuth server metadata under /.well-known.
- study: 10.3%OAuth Protected ResourceCould not check
Serve protected resource metadata at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource.
- study: 0.0%auth.mdCould not check
Publish an auth.md describing how agents sign in.
- study: 0.2%MCP Server CardCould not check
Offer an MCP server and publish its server card under /.well-known.
- study: 0.1%A2A Agent CardCould not check
Publish an agent card at /.well-known/agent-card.json.
- study: 0.2%Agent SkillsCould not check
Publish a skills index with the main tasks agents can do.
- study: 33.7%WebMCPCould not check
Register key actions such as search or cart as WebMCP tools.
- study: 0.1%ARD manifestCould not check
Publish an ai-catalog.json listing every agent interface.
0% of checks could run · checked on October 4, 2026 · www.acehardware.com · 2,047 companies scanned
6 of 14 passed. This list is for your technical team. The percentage is how many companies in the study pass each check.
These 14 checks ran during the audit and are what the AI readiness part of the overall score counts. The scan above ran later and is stricter on Link headers and Markdown, so a check can pass here and not there.
Show the 14 checksHide them
- Passedrobots.txt publishedstudy: 85.0%
- PassedXML sitemapstudy: 73.2%
- Not metHTTP Link headers (RFC 8288)study: 29.0%
- Not metMarkdown content negotiationstudy: 8.3%
- Passedllms.txt publishedstudy: 21.7%
- PassedToken budget (page weight)study: 95.2%
- PassedExplicit AI bot rulesstudy: 13.0%
- Not metAPI Catalog (.well-known/api-catalog)study: 0.2%
- Not metOAuth Authorization Server discoverystudy: 10.1%
- PassedOAuth Protected Resource discoverystudy: 9.3%
- Not metMCP Server Cardstudy: 0.0%
- Not metA2A Agent Cardstudy: 0.0%
- Not metWebMCP toolsstudy: 4.2%
- Not metAgent Skills declaredstudy: 0.0%
This website sets rules for 1 AI crawler by name. All others follow its general rules.
- GPTBotpartly
- ClaudeBotpartly
- Anthropic-AIpartly
- Google-Extended*allowed
- Applebot-Extendedpartly
- Meta-ExternalAgentpartly
- FacebookBotpartly
- Bytespiderpartly
- CCBotpartly
- Diffbotpartly
- Omgilibotpartly
- OAI-SearchBotpartly
- Claude-SearchBotpartly
- PerplexityBotpartly
- Applebotpartly
- Amazonbotpartly
- YouBotpartly
- ChatGPT-Userpartly
- Claude-Userpartly
- Perplexity-Userpartly
- DuckAssistBotpartly
- MistralAI-Userpartly
Read from the website’s own rules file (robots.txt). An asterisk marks a crawler the file names. The rest follow its general rules. “Partly” means only some pages are blocked.
How many times each website was listed as a source in these answers
In the study as NRF Top 100 retailers. Number 19 on the NRF Top 100 Retailers 2026 list, ranked by US retail sales.
- Where can I find quality tools and garden supplies for small DIY projects?
- What is the average cost for quality paint and painting supplies at hardware retailers in the US?
- Are independent hardware retailers better for finding unique home improvement materials?
- Is it worth paying extra for specialty lawn and garden equipment at local hardware stores?
- Is there a major difference between full-service hardware stores and big-box home improvement centers?
- What kind of retailers offer project planning advice for DIY home renovations?
- Where can small business owners find reliable supplies for custom lawn care services?
- How do home improvement warehouses differ from neighborhood hardware stores?
- Where else can renters find affordable tools for small repair projects?
- What are cost-effective alternatives to shopping at large hardware chains for home improvement supplies?
- What options exist for buying discounted outdoor power equipment besides major home improvement retailers?
- What should I do if my online hardware order arrives with missing parts?
- Who should I contact if a power tool from a home improvement store stops working under warranty?
- What are the best hardware stores for first-time homeowners in the US?
- Do most home improvement stores have free delivery minimums, and what is the typical threshold?
Columns, left to right: OpenAI, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini. The AI assistants often disagree. Across the study, on 40% of the questions where a company is named, only one of the four names it.
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<a href="https://aeo-audit.rezolve.com/us/acehardware.com"><img src="https://aeo-audit.rezolve.com/us/badges/acehardware.com.svg" alt="Overall score 35 of 100, US AI Visibility Study 2026" width="280" height="64"></a>