SEO & AI-Search Audit · silvaris.com

A nationwide building-materials marketplace with the online footprint of a newcomer

Silvaris moves surplus building materials at national scale. In Google's organic results — and in the new AI answer engines that increasingly sit above them — almost none of that scale shows up. This report measures the gap with live data and lays out the plan to close it.

01 — Snapshot

Current standing

Every number here was pulled live from SEMrush for silvaris.com (United States) on Aug 14, 2026. These are directional search-intelligence estimates, not your own analytics — but they show the shape of the opportunity clearly.

1,919
Keywords you rank for
33
Rankings in the top 3
33 of 1,9191.7%
~1,401
Est. organic visits / mo
$1,855
Monthly value of that traffic
1,270
Keywords that trigger Google AI answers
0
Paid-search keywords

Source: SEMrush domain overview — silvaris.com (US database, live Aug 14, 2026). SEMrush Rank 881,579.

The gap in one picture

For a national operation with Silvaris's brand and catalog, ~1,401 organic visits a month is a fraction of what it can command. Only 33 keywords — under 2% of everything Silvaris ranks for — actually sit in the top three spots where nearly all clicks happen. Meanwhile 1,270 of your search terms already show an AI-generated answer at the top of Google, and Silvaris is rarely the source being quoted. That is the single largest untapped channel in this report.

Where the 1,919 ranking keywords sit

Positions 1–3
33
page-one winners
Positions 4–10
80
one nudge from the top
Positions 11–20
228
page two — effectively invisible
Positions 21+
1,578
deep, untapped
1,919 total

Source: SEMrush domain overview — silvaris.com (US), Aug 14, 2026. The 308 keywords in positions 4–20 are the fastest wins: they already rank, they just need to move up.

The full keyword-by-keyword gap list needs a live SEMrush seat
This report already includes the real backlink profile and a live Google view of competitors (below). The complete keyword-by-keyword gap list and ongoing rank tracking require an active SEMrush subscription on the account — included as a line item in the proposal so this data flows every month.
Included in plan

02 — Page speed

Google PageSpeed scores

Measured with Google's official PageSpeed Insights API on Aug 14, 2026. Desktop is excellent; mobile is where the work is — and mobile is how most buyers, and Google's crawler, experience the site.

54/100
Performance — mobile
95/100
Performance — desktop
92/100
SEO score
84/100
Accessibility

Core Web Vitals — Google PageSpeed lab

MetricMobileDesktopWhat it means
Largest Contentful Paint19.9s1.0sTime to show the main content
First Contentful Paint4.6s0.7sTime to first visible content
Total Blocking Time290ms140msHow long the page is frozen to taps
Cumulative Layout Shift0.000.007How much the page jumps as it loads
Speed Index6.5s1.1sHow quickly the page looks complete

Google real-user field data (CrUX, 28-day) rates the site "Average" overall, with layout stability and largest-paint "Fast" — so real phones fare better than the throttled lab test, but the lab shows real headroom. Biggest single fix: reduce unused JavaScript (~2.5s on mobile).

Summary: fast on desktop, slow on mobile — fix mobile first
Desktop performance is 95/100, but mobile is 54/100 with a ~20-second lab load of the main content, driven by heavy JavaScript and image weight. Because Google indexes mobile-first and most buyers browse on phones, mobile speed is the highest-leverage technical fix. A recommended plan of goals and tasks is on the Strategy tab.
Action needed

03 — Authority & backlinks

The link profile

Backlinks are other websites vouching for you — the single biggest driver of Google rankings, and a major factor in whether AI engines trust you as a source. Silvaris has a modest, beatable profile with real room to grow. Live SEMrush data, Aug 14, 2026.

25/100
Authority Score
585
Referring domains
2,841
Total backlinks
56%
Follow links (1,594)
Recommendation: earn 8–12 new referring domains every month
An Authority Score of 25 across 585 referring domains is a base to build on, not a moat. A steady 8–12 quality new domains a month — trade publications, mills and suppliers, industry directories, and digital-PR placements — is the pace that lifts rankings without tripping spam filters. Targets, anchor mix and the pages to point them at are on the Strategy tab.
Plan

Source: SEMrush Backlinks — silvaris.com (root domain), live Aug 14, 2026: Authority Score 25, 585 referring domains, 2,841 total backlinks (1,594 follow / 1,253 nofollow).

04 — Competitors

Who's winning the searches

A live Google view (Aug 14, 2026) of who ranks for Silvaris's core terms. Silvaris owns the "downfall" and buy-side wholesale searches — but is largely absent from the sell-side "liquidate / who buys surplus" searches, which are ceded to marketplaces and buyers.

Click any competitor to open the Silvaris-relevant terms they rank for. Columns are sortable — click a header. Search volume and estimated CTR fill in from the SEMrush seat included in the plan; the keyword lists are live Google observations (Aug 14, 2026).

6 terms contractorsupplyexchange.com — Buy/sell excess-materials marketplace
KeywordIntentVolumeEst. CTR
buy surplus lumber truckloadTransactional——
overstock building materialsTransactional——
sell / liquidate surplus materialsTransactional——
surplus roofingTransactional——
buy/sell excess building materialsTransactional——
downfall lumber distributorTransactional——
4 terms salvex.com — Surplus & salvage auction platform
KeywordIntentVolumeEst. CTR
surplus building materialsTransactional——
overstock building materialsTransactional——
surplus roofing materialsTransactional——
who buys surplus building materialsTransactional——
3 terms unbuilt.co — Excess/overstock materials marketplace
KeywordIntentVolumeEst. CTR
overstock building materialsTransactional——
buy/sell excess building materialsTransactional——
who buys surplus building materialsTransactional——
3 terms surpluslumber.com — Wholesale surplus lumberyard
KeywordIntentVolumeEst. CTR
downfall building materialsTransactional——
buy surplus lumber truckloadTransactional——
downfall lumber distributorTransactional——
3 terms mccarrensupply.com — Discounted building-materials dealer
KeywordIntentVolumeEst. CTR
surplus building materialsTransactional——
downfall lumber distributorTransactional——
who buys surplus building materialsTransactional——
3 terms centralcitygroup.com — Surplus buyer / liquidator
KeywordIntentVolumeEst. CTR
sell / liquidate surplus materialsTransactional——
buy/sell excess building materialsTransactional——
who buys surplus building materialsTransactional——
2 terms worldwiseusa.com — Surplus & roofing, export-focused
KeywordIntentVolumeEst. CTR
overstock building materialsTransactional——
surplus roofingTransactional——

Live Google organic results across 10 core queries, Aug 14, 2026 (which of Silvaris's terms each domain ranked for on page one). Marketplaces rank widest because they capture both buy and sell intent. Per-keyword search volume, exact position and CTR come from the SEMrush seat included in the plan.

The gap: sell-side demand Silvaris doesn't capture
Silvaris buys surplus, yet doesn't rank for "sell surplus building materials," "liquidate excess inventory," or "who buys surplus" — those first pages belong to marketplaces and buyers. Capturing this cluster is the single biggest competitive opening. The full target-keyword list and plan are on the Strategy tab.
Opportunity

05 — Priorities

Top three moves

The highest-return work, in order. Full detail lives in the Technical and AI Visibility tabs.

1

Make the homepage fast on mobile

The homepage scores just 54/100 on Google PageSpeed for mobile (95 on desktop) and weighs 5.4 MB. Speed is both a ranking factor and the first thing a buyer feels. This is the clearest, most visible win.

Medium effort · High impact
2

Win the AI answers

1,270 of your terms already trigger an AI answer box. Adding FAQ and comparison markup — content you already have, just not machine-readable — is what gets Silvaris quoted instead of a competitor.

Low effort · Very high impact
3

Lift the 308 near-misses

308 keywords already rank on pages one–two (positions 4–20). Strengthening those pages and their internal links moves existing rankings up into the click zone — no new pages required.

Medium · High

Technical foundation

Site health

A live crawl of silvaris.com on Aug 14, 2026 — real page renders, not estimates. The foundation is sound: clean site plumbing and strong layout stability. The drag is weight and speed, and a handful of fixable on-page gaps.

Scorecard

What the crawl found

54/100
Google mobile speed (PageSpeed)
5.4MB
Homepage page weight
131
Requests on the homepage
0.007
Layout shift (CLS) — excellent

Page weight and request counts are from a live crawl (Aug 14, 2026); official speed scores come from Google PageSpeed Insights — see the "Page speed" section on the Report tab. Google real-user field data (CrUX) currently rates the site "Average" overall. Granting Search Console access (a client item in the plan) adds first-party field data.

The homepage is slow on mobile
Google PageSpeed scores the homepage 54/100 on mobile (95 on desktop). On a throttled phone the main content takes roughly 20 seconds to appear, driven by heavy JavaScript and a 5.4 MB page across 131 requests, with ~1s to first byte. Fix: reduce and defer unused JavaScript (~2.5s saving), compress and pre-load the hero image (WebP/AVIF), and cache the homepage. This is the #1 technical win.
Fix first
Every page is 5–6 MB with 120+ requests
Plywood 4.9 MB, Case Studies 6.4 MB — mostly uncompressed images plus third-party widgets. Fix: an image-compression pass and script cleanup will cut load times across the whole site at once.
Fix first
Two product and service pages have two H1 headings
Plywood, OSB Panels and Custom Services each use a second H1 for their FAQ section. Search engines expect one H1 per page. Fix: demote the second heading to an H2 — a five-minute change per page.
Action needed
Most images are missing descriptive alt text
The homepage has 27 images but only 3 with descriptive alt text; the plywood page, 5 of 23. This hurts accessibility, image search, and AI understanding of the page. Fix: add plain-language alt text to hero and product photos.
Action needed
A dead /resources/ URL and two menu links that go nowhere
The bare /resources/ address returns "not found", and the "Company" and "Resources" menu headers link to # even though a real /company/ page exists. Fix: point "Company" to /company/ and either build a /resources/ hub or remove the dead link.
Action needed
The homepage description is too long; two service pages are thin
The homepage meta description (199 characters) will be cut off in Google. Daily Deals (631 words) and Custom Services (787 words) are light for commercial pages. Fix: trim the description to ~155 characters; expand the two pages with process detail and FAQs.
Action needed

Page weight & response — three key pages (live crawl)

PageLayout shiftFirst byteRequestsTransfer
Homepage0.0071,015ms1315.4 MB
/products/plywood/0.001505ms1274.9 MB
/case-studies/0.005625ms1236.4 MB

On-page basics — six pages checked

PageTitleDescriptionH1sWordsCanonical
Homepage54 ✅199 ⚠️1 ✅1,135self ✅
/case-studies/58 ✅155 ✅1 ✅1,059self ✅
/products/plywood/35 ✅149 ✅2 ❌1,787self ✅
/products/osb-panels/42 ✅146 ✅2 ❌1,870self ✅
/services/custom-services/44 ✅147 ✅2 ❌787 ⚠️self ✅
/services/daily-deals/58 ✅156 ✅1 ✅631 ⚠️self ✅

Already correct

The foundation is solid

These are working well and need no attention — a genuinely healthy base to build on.

Clean site plumbing
One canonical address (http → https, www → non-www all redirect correctly), every page points to itself as the master copy, and the whole site is on HTTPS. Powered by WordPress with the Yoast SEO plugin; sitemap lists 258 pages.
Healthy
Search engines and AI crawlers are all welcome
The robots file allows every crawler, including AI bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and more). Nothing is accidentally blocked.
Healthy
Rock-solid layout stability
Pages barely shift as they load (CLS ≤ 0.007, well inside Google's "good" range) — a real strength most sites struggle with.
Healthy
Good baseline structured data
Organization, website, breadcrumb and page markup render on every page, and product pages carry proper Product + Brand + Offer data. This is a strong starting point to extend (see AI Visibility).
Healthy
Easy to navigate
Products, Services and Case Studies are all reachable in one to two clicks from the homepage — comfortably within best practice.
Healthy

AI search readiness

Getting cited by AI answers

Search is splitting in two. Alongside the classic list of blue links, Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity and others now write a direct answer and cite a few sources. Traditional SEO gets you ranked; AI-search optimization (AIO) gets you quoted. Silvaris already has a head start here — and one big, easy win left on the table.

Readiness

Where Silvaris stands with AI

1,270
Your terms that show an AI answer
33
Top-3 rankings — so rarely the cited source
✓
llms.txt file already live
0
FAQ pages marked up for AI

"AI answer" counts from SEMrush (silvaris.com, US, Aug 14, 2026). Other findings from the live page crawl the same day.

An llms.txt file is already published — ahead of most B2B peers
Silvaris already serves a machine-readable summary for AI engines at /llms.txt (auto-generated by Yoast). Most competitors have nothing. Minor cleanup: a few characters render oddly (e.g. "Win\-Win") and two location labels are swapped. Quick fix, real head start.
Strength
Pages open with a clear, quotable answer
Each page starts with a self-contained definition an AI can lift verbatim — e.g. the homepage: "We simplify buying and selling semi-truckload quantities of Downfall building materials and surplus products." This is exactly the format AI engines prefer.
Strength
Your FAQs aren't machine-readable — the biggest miss
Product pages already have rich FAQ sections (the plywood page alone has 30 expandable questions) and there's a dedicated FAQ page — but none of it carries "FAQ" structured data. That markup is what feeds AI answers and rich Google results. Adding it is low effort and high return; it's the single biggest AI-search opportunity on the site.
Fix first
No comparison tables anywhere
There are zero comparison tables site-wide, even though the intent is obvious — the OSB page's own description mentions "OSB vs. plywood." Side-by-side tables are one of the most-cited formats in AI answers. Fix: add genuine comparison tables (grades, OSB vs plywood, use cases).
Action needed
Case studies and blog posts lack author and article markup
206 blog posts and the case-study library show little in the way of visible authors, credentials, or "article" markup. AI engines weight expertise signals heavily. Fix: add author bylines with credentials and mark case studies up as articles.
Action needed

Order of work

How we earn AI citations

Ranked by return. Research on what makes content get quoted by AI (Princeton's GEO study, KDD 2024) is clear: citing sources, adding statistics, and clear comparison content lift AI visibility the most — while keyword stuffing actively hurts.

1

Mark up every FAQ

Turn the FAQs you already have into "FAQ" structured data across product pages and the FAQ page. Fastest path to AI answers and rich results.

Low effort · Very high impact
2

Add comparison tables

Grade-by-grade and OSB-vs-plywood tables — a top format for getting quoted, and genuinely useful to buyers.

Medium · High
3

Strengthen expertise signals

Author bylines and credentials on blog and case-study content, plus article markup, so AI engines trust Silvaris as a source.

Medium · High
4

Polish the llms.txt

Fix the character glitches and swapped labels so the file you already publish reads cleanly to every AI engine.

Low · Medium

Engagement plan

How we close the gap

An ongoing program that improves how Silvaris shows up in both classic Google results and the new AI answer engines. The two overlap — a fast, well-structured, authoritative site wins in both — but each also needs its own dedicated work. Below is what the engagement covers and the three levels it comes in.

Two channels, one program

SEO and AI-search, side by side

Where they overlap
Site speed, clean structure, helpful content, credible links, and solid structured data lift both classic rankings and AI citations at the same time. Most foundation work pays off twice.
Where they differ
Classic SEO chases ranking positions and clicks. AI-search chases being the quoted source inside an answer — which rewards FAQ/comparison markup, machine-readable files, and third-party presence even when you're not #1.

What's included

The work we do each month

  • Technical SEO — speed, crawlability, fixes
  • On-page optimization — titles, headings, structure
  • Content production — new and improved pages
  • AI-search optimization — FAQ & comparison markup, llms.txt, answer-ready content
  • Digital PR & link building — earned authority
  • Competitor & keyword tracking (via SEMrush)
  • Structured-data / schema expansion
  • Monthly reporting in plain language

The work, in detail

Recommended goals & tasks

The engagement organized into five goals, each with the concrete tasks behind it. Priorities are marked P1 (do first) to P3. This is the working plan the monthly retainer executes against.

1

Make the site fast on mobile

Google PageSpeed 54 → 90+
  • Reduce and defer unused JavaScript — the single biggest mobile win (~2.5s)P1
  • Compress and preload hero & product images; serve WebP/AVIFP1
  • Cut page weight from 5.4 MB / 131 requests toward ~2 MB; trim third-party scriptsP1
  • Add full-page caching so the homepage answers in under 300msP2
  • Re-test in PageSpeed weekly; hold Performance 90+ on mobileP2
2

Get cited by AI answers

1,270 AI-answer terms
  • Add FAQ structured data to product pages and the FAQ page (30+ Q&As already written)P1
  • Build OSB-vs-plywood and grade-comparison tables — a top AI-cited formatP1
  • Add author bylines, credentials and Article markup to blog & case studiesP2
  • Track citations across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity monthlyP2
  • Clean up llms.txt (escaping glitches + two swapped location labels)P3
3

Build authority through backlinks

Authority 25 → 35+
  • Earn 8–12 quality new referring domains every month (585 today)P1
  • Land trade-press, supplier and mill links; reclaim relevant directory listingsP2
  • Publish one digital-PR / data story per quarter (surplus-market insights)P2
  • Point new links at money pages & the sell-side hub, not just the homepageP2
  • Monitor anchor mix; disavow spam as neededP3
4

Capture the sell-side keyword gap

competitor opening
  • Build a "Sell Your Surplus / We Buy Surplus" landing hubP1
  • Create pages for "liquidate excess inventory" and "who buys surplus materials"P1
  • Publish comparison / definition content ("surplus vs downfall", "what is liquidation")P2
  • Defend and expand the "downfall" cluster with deeper category pagesP2
  • Add sell-side CTAs and lead capture to convert the new trafficP2
5

Lift the 308 near-win keywords

positions 4–20
  • Strengthen pages already ranking 4–20 (content depth + internal links)P1
  • Fix the two-H1 product/service pages and expand the thin service pagesP2
  • Add internal links from the 206 blog posts into product & category pagesP2
  • Re-write titles & descriptions of near-win pages for click-throughP3

Backlink plan

How many, how often, and where

Silvaris today: Authority Score 25, 585 referring domains, 2,841 backlinks (SEMrush, Aug 14, 2026). The goal is steady, natural growth that lifts rankings and AI trust without tripping spam filters.

8–12
New referring domains / month
~120
New domains / year (target)
35+
Authority Score goal (12 mo)
585 →
Referring domains today

The monthly link mix

Source typeShareWhy it matters
Editorial & content links~50%Guides, comparisons and data others cite — strongest, most durable
Industry: suppliers, mills, trade press, associations~30%Relevant, trusted links inside the building-materials niche
Digital PR / data stories~20%Surplus-market insights that earn press pickups (1 per quarter)

Anchor text: mostly branded ("Silvaris") and plain URLs, with roughly 20–30% partial-match phrases (e.g. "surplus building materials", "downfall lumber", "sell surplus materials"). Over-using exact-match anchors is what triggers penalties — we keep it natural. Links point at category and sell-side money pages, not only the homepage. The $750–$1,500/mo third-party line item funds the paid portion of this.

Competitors & keyword gaps

Where the ground is open

A live Google view of the field (Aug 14, 2026). The niche splits into two camps — distributors that sell surplus in bulk (Silvaris's lane) and marketplaces / buyers that rank for both buying and selling. The marketplaces out-rank distributors because they own the sell-side searches Silvaris ignores.

The competitive field

CompetitorTypeWhere they beat Silvaris
contractorsupplyexchange.comMarketplaceBuy & sell excess; widest coverage (6 of 10 terms)
salvex.comAuction platformGeneric "surplus building materials", surplus roofing
unbuilt.coMarketplaceOverstock & "buy/sell excess" framing
centralcitygroup.comBuyer / liquidatorSell-side: "who buys surplus", "liquidate"
repurposedmaterialsinc.comLiquidator + contentSell-side how-to / educational content
mccarrensupply.comDiscount dealerGeneric surplus & downfall distributor terms
surpluslumber.comSurplus lumberyardOnly rival on "downfall" (via surplus-vs-downfall content)

Live Google organic results, 10 core queries, Aug 14, 2026. Silvaris owns page one for "downfall" and buy-side wholesale terms; the gap is the sell-side cluster below. Deeper SEMrush keyword-gap data is included in the plan.

Keywords competitors win that Silvaris does not
Sell-side cluster — "sell surplus building materials", "liquidate excess inventory", "who buys surplus building materials": real demand, owned entirely by marketplaces and buyers. Marketplace framing — "buy/sell excess building materials". Generic surplus/overstock — where Silvaris surfaces only via a blog post, not a landing page. Surplus roofing — competitive and winnable.
Gap

Target keywords to pursue

KeywordIntentWhy
sell surplus building materialsTransactionalSell-side gap — Silvaris buys surplus but doesn't rank here
liquidate excess building materials inventoryTransactionalSell-side gap
who buys surplus building materialsTransactionalSell-side gap
surplus building materials wholesaleTransactionalGeneric head term, currently thin
overstock building materials wholesaleTransactionalGeneric head term
downfall lumber (by species / grade)TransactionalDefensible, near-proprietary — expand it
wholesale surplus / B-grade plywood truckloadTransactionalCore catalog
surplus OSB panels wholesaleTransactionalCore catalog
surplus roofing materials wholesaleTransactionalCompetitive & winnable
surplus siding wholesaleTransactionalCore catalog
surplus vs downfall lumberInformationalComparison content that gets cited
what is surplus liquidation / how to sell surplus materialsInformationalFeeds the sell-side sourcing funnel
1

Own the sell-side

Build the "We Buy / Sell Your Surplus" hub and supporting pages to capture liquidation demand competitors currently own.

High impact
2

Publish comparison & definition content

"Surplus vs downfall", grade guides, "what is liquidation" — the formats that rank and get cited by AI.

Medium · High
3

Defend & deepen "downfall"

Extend the near-proprietary "downfall" cluster with species/grade category pages before rivals move in.

Medium

Investment

Packages

Same discipline, three intensities. Monthly management fee shown per package; third-party costs (SEMrush, backlinks) are separate — see Tools & media below.

Low
Foundation

~$1,000 /mo

Fix what's broken and build a healthy base.

  • Core technical fixes (speed, headings, links)
  • On-page optimization of key pages
  • Baseline AI-search setup (FAQ markup, llms.txt)
  • Light monthly content + link building
  • Monthly reporting
Medium
Aggressive

$2,000–$3,500 /mo

Push hard on growth across both channels.

  • Everything in Foundation
  • Higher content velocity
  • Full AI-search program (FAQ, comparison tables, expertise signals)
  • Competitor displacement on target terms
  • Expanded link building & digital PR
High · Recommended
Best Foot Forward

$3,500–$7,500 /mo

The full weight of the team, maxed for results.

  • Everything in Aggressive
  • Highest content & link velocity
  • Digital PR program for earned authority
  • Programmatic category & location pages at scale
  • Dedicated strategist + priority AI-answer capture
  • Paid-search alignment

Tools & media

Pass-through costs, billed at cost

A couple of outside services power the work. We pass these through at cost — no markup — separate from the monthly fee.

$300/moSEMrush subscription — keyword, competitor and rank data that feeds the whole program.
$750–$1,500/moBacklink acquisition through a vetted third-party provider — earned authority that lifts rankings and AI trust.

To get started

What we'll need from you

A short list to kick the engagement off on the right foot.

  • Your list of main competitors
  • A current products & services list
  • Access to your existing ad accounts
  • Any keywords you already want to target
  • Access to Google Search Console & Analytics (for accurate reporting)