Sector Index, September 2026
The smallest sector we scanned, and the one furthest behind on security.
We scanned 41 structural engineering websites across Surrey the way an AI assistant reads them. Thirty two could be scored. No practice is named.
The headline
Good median, small sample, weak foundations
A median of 60 is the best of the five professions we scanned, and half the firms sit in the 60s and 70s. Nobody reached 80.
This is a small index and we would rather say so than dress it up. Structural engineering in Surrey is a compact profession, and thirty two scored websites is enough to describe a pattern but not enough to be confident about a percentage. Treat the numbers here as indicative, and put more weight on the comparison with the larger sectors than on any single figure.
The spread
Where the 32 practices landed
No practice scored above 80 and only one fell below 20. The distribution is tight, which fits a profession of small specialist practices using similar website builders.
Where they differ
The checks that separate one practice from another
These are the tests some practices pass and others fail. They are what actually moves a score, because everything further down this page is failed by almost everybody.
| Failing check | Practices | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Content security policy | 28 of 32 | 15 points |
| Frame protection | 27 of 32 | 5 points |
| Author attribution | 25 of 32 | 10 points |
| Content map for AI | 24 of 32 | 20 points |
| Content type protection | 22 of 32 | 5 points |
| Strict transport security | 21 of 32 | 20 points |
| Primary page schema | 19 of 32 | 20 points |
| Content freshness signals | 18 of 32 | 5 points |
Five of the eight are web security settings, which is the highest proportion of any sector we scanned. Twenty eight of the thirty two practices have no content security policy and twenty one are not sending strict transport security.
None of that is about AI. It is about a profession whose whole output is signed calculations that somebody else builds from, publishing those from websites with the security headers switched off. Worth a conversation with whoever hosts your site regardless of anything else on this page.
What to fix first
Three changes that would move most practices
A short index of your key pages with one line each, written for machines rather than visitors. Twenty four of the thirty two practices do not have one, and at 20 points it is the highest value item on the list. It takes about an hour.
Strict transport security is worth 20 points and twenty one practices are missing it. A content security policy is worth 15 and twenty eight are missing that. Both are settings on your web server rather than changes to your website, and your host can usually do them in an afternoon.
Add a typed description saying this is a structural engineering practice, in this town, offering these services. Nineteen practices have nothing of the kind, so an assistant has to work it out from the prose.
None of these requires a new website. All three are changes to the one you have.
What comes next
Not one practice is ready for AI to act
Everything above is about reading. The next question is whether an assistant acting for a client can do anything on your website. Request a fee quote. Ask whether you take on domestic loft conversions. Book an inspection.
- A machine readable version of each page
- Any action an assistant could take on a client’s behalf
- A published description of what those actions are
- Discovery tags saying any of it exists
There is a realistic case here. A builder or homeowner asking an assistant to find a structural engineer who can inspect next week and quote for a specific job is a plausible request, and it is exactly the kind of well defined task these systems are getting good at. At the moment there is nothing in the profession for them to act on.
Method
How this was done
The list was built from public directories and local searches covering independent structural engineering practices across Surrey. It is the smallest of our five sector lists, which reflects the size of the profession locally rather than any filtering on our part.
Each website was checked from the outside, exactly as an AI assistant or answer engine sees it. One anonymous request per public page, no JavaScript, no logins, nothing that is not already published. The same tests were applied to every site on the same day, 15 September 2026.
Of the 41 websites we tried, 32 returned a readable page and are in the figures above. The other nine did not, a mixture of domains that no longer resolve, timeouts and expired certificates.
Sites that served nothing to a plain request were retried with a browser identity, to separate a site that is genuinely down from one that refuses anything that is not a browser. That distinction matters, because a site that only answers browsers is invisible to most AI crawlers by configuration rather than by content.
No practice is named here and no individual score is published. If your firm is in this index and you want your own result, ask and we will send it, whether or not you want anything else from us.
The honest part
What a score does not tell you
The sample is small. Thirty two websites is enough to see a pattern and not enough to publish a percentage with confidence. Where this page gives a proportion, read it as a rough shape rather than a measurement.
A low score does not mean a bad practice. Structural engineering is won almost entirely through architects, builders and repeat referral, and several of the lower scoring firms here are busy practices that have never needed a website to bring work in.
These tests measure only what a machine can read on one day. They do not measure whether an assistant recommends you when somebody asks for a structural engineer in Woking, which depends on what is written about you elsewhere as much as on your own website.
We built the scanner, so we have an obvious interest in what it measures. The tests are public standards rather than our invention, and where one is for something new that almost nobody has adopted, we have said so on this page instead of quietly counting it against people.
See where your practice sits
The same scan used for this index is free on your own website. About a minute, the same tests, the same score, and a list of what to fix first.
In this index and want your own result? Email dev@shopstartup.co.uk with your domain and we will send it.