The open-web answer audit
Across 251 employer questions searched on 2026-08-24 and 2026-08-25, 172 found no answering page and 16 went unrecorded.
Updated
https://olive.is/answers/benchmarks/open-web-answers/ · Edition 2026Q3| Name | Questions | Base |
|---|---|---|
| No answering page found | 172 | 251 |
| An answering page found | 63 | 251 |
| Not recorded | 16 | 251 |
Olive. The open-web answer audit, edition 2026Q3. Measured 2026-08-25. https://olive.is/answers/benchmarks/open-web-answers/ Accessed __.
https://olive.is/answers/benchmarks/open-web-answers/ · Edition 2026Q3| Name | Questions | Base |
|---|---|---|
| Top results noted | 219 | 251 |
| Search not run | 32 | 251 |
Olive. Search coverage, edition 2026Q3. Measured 2026-08-25. https://olive.is/answers/benchmarks/open-web-answers/ Accessed __.
https://olive.is/answers/benchmarks/open-web-answers/ · Edition 2026Q3| Name | Questions | Base |
|---|---|---|
| Unanswered and worth answering | 143 | 251 |
| Evidence thin | 64 | 251 |
| Not taken forward | 44 | 251 |
Olive. Where each question landed, edition 2026Q3. Measured 2026-08-25. https://olive.is/answers/benchmarks/open-web-answers/ Accessed __.
Checked
Unmeasured. No verification pass has run against this edition, so no checked-on date exists to print.
Source
Live web search, one recorded file per employer question
Extract
olive-stories/data/serp-evidence/
Reproduce
One file per question, carrying the query strings run and the top results noted. 518 searches were run across the 251 files and 1,483 top results noted.
8 rows. Every published, withheld and excluded cell. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
What this cannot tell you
- This supports what the open web returned on two named days, 2026-08-24 and 2026-08-25, and nothing about share of search or trend.
- 32 of the 251 questions carry a recorded query and no result list, because the search budget was exhausted before the query ran. All 32 of them name that cause in their own file. They are an unrun stratum and never a low score.
- The unrun stratum splits 27 weak and 5 drop, re-derived from the same directory. No question in it carries the keep verdict.
- 16 questions record no answer state. Null is the absence of a reading and never a measured no.
- The kind recorded against a top result is a free string rather than a closed list, with 30 distinct values across the directory, so no breakdown by kind is published here.
- A result list is one client's, on one day, from one place. A second run on a second day is a second measurement and not a check of this one.
- kFloor is null. A question is not a person, nothing here can be re-identified, and no floor is declared for this corpus.
- checkedOn is null. No verification pass has run since the last question was searched.
Claims this data does not support
- No share of search, no impression count, no ranking position and no trend. Two days support none of them.
- No rate. The cells are counts of questions, and dividing them would invite a share-of-search reading the data cannot carry.
- No claim that a named site failed to answer a question. A cell counts what a result list contained.
- No verdict presented as a property of the open web. Keep, weak and drop are decisions taken against this corpus; the answer-state figure is the measured half.
- No number standing for a person.
Place this chart
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title="Verdicts on the open-web answers returned for 251 employer questions"></iframe>
<p>Source: <a href="https://olive.is/answers/benchmarks/open-web-answers/" rel="nofollow">Olive</a></p>
The attribution link sits outside the frame, so it survives a host that refuses framing. It carries rel="nofollow" and passes no authority, on purpose. Embed licence.