{
  "title": "State of SEO 2026",
  "version": "1.0",
  "datePublished": "2026-08-31",
  "dateModified": "2026-08-31",
  "author": "Eduard Tymchenko",
  "publisher": "AuditMe",
  "methodology": {
    "dataCollection": {
      "engine": "AuditMe Crawl Engine v2.4",
      "method": "Breadth-first crawling",
      "respectRobotsTxt": true,
      "followCanonicals": true,
      "parseJsonLd": true,
      "measureCrux": true
    },
    "sampleSelection": {
      "totalWebsites": 10247,
      "collectionPeriod": "January - July 2026",
      "samplingMethod": "Stratified random sampling",
      "minPages": 5,
      "geographicDistribution": ["US", "EU", "Global"],
      "sizeDistribution": {
        "small": "<100 pages",
        "medium": "100-1000 pages",
        "large": "1000+ pages"
      }
    },
    "analysisFramework": {
      "categories": 13,
      "individualChecks": 86,
      "scoringMethod": "Weighted average",
      "categoryScoreFormula": "(passed_checks / total_checks) * 100"
    },
    "severityClassification": {
      "critical": "Blocks indexing or ranking",
      "high": "Significant SEO impact",
      "medium": "Moderate improvement possible",
      "low": "Best practice, minimal impact"
    },
    "limitations": [
      "Sample may skew toward SEO-conscious website owners",
      "CrUX data requires minimum traffic thresholds",
      "JavaScript-rendered content may not be fully captured",
      "Dynamic content may vary between crawls",
      "Server-side rendering configurations can affect results"
    ]
  }
}