BackTier Press.

CENTRAL FLORIDA, October 4, 2026 — BackTier has revised the public AI Visibility Index after identifying a conflict in how it presented its own position. An earlier version ranked BackTier first among AI visibility agencies. BackTier is now excluded from its own rankings, and the Index page discloses that the study is an internal experiment, not an independent audit. Its scores have not been independently verified.

The remaining agency entries moved up one rank after the removal. The edition's downloadable CSV and JSON now reflect the revised ranking. The Index page provides its scoring model, run dates and data downloads so readers can examine what BackTier published rather than relying on the ranking alone.

The Index evaluates selection rate, citation rate, position and entity accuracy across a five-engine panel. Those are BackTier's own measures; they should not be mistaken for independent validation or a promise that any brand will appear in future AI answers.

This update is a correction to the presentation of an existing edition, not a newly conducted measurement run. Journalists and researchers should cite the revised files and include the internal-experiment disclosure.

CENTRAL FLORIDA, October 4, 2026 — BackTier is making the methodology and downloadable data for edition 2026.1 of its AI Visibility Index available to reporters and researchers. The edition is dated 2026-07-27; its stated prompt-run window is 2026-07-06 through 2026-07-24. This release describes that existing edition and does not claim a new run on October 4.

The Index records how brands appear in answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot. Its AIV Score is a BackTier-defined composite of Selection rate (40%), Citation rate (25%), Position (20%), Entity accuracy (15%). The site publishes the formula and provides edition data in CSV and JSON formats.

The published schedule is twice a year — published 26 january and 27 july. Edition 2026.2 is scheduled for 2027-01-26; it has not been published. BackTier is excluded from its own rankings. The scores are internally produced, not independently audited, and should be described as directional findings rather than verified market-wide performance.

For attribution, identify BackTier as both the publisher and the party that designed the scoring. The methodology page and data files are the primary sources for the edition; neither the Index nor this release establishes a causal effect on search or AI recommendations.

CENTRAL FLORIDA, October 4, 2026 — BackTier, founded in 2022 by Jason AI Wade, has introduced Authority Canon: one approved, versioned account of a business that serves as the source for its public-facing material. The offering extends BackTier's work on how businesses are identified, described and cited in search and AI answers.

Wade's 2025 book, AI Visibility: How to Win in the Age of Search, Chat & Smart Customers, addresses entity clarity, retrievable evidence and measurement. Authority Canon applies the same attention to source consistency: establish the facts first, then derive website pages, profiles, articles and other assets from the approved account.

The public offering has two options: a Book for experts and professional firms, and a Story for local, service, retail and product businesses. Each is prepared in text, web and audio editions. When a fact changes, the Canon is updated first; downstream materials are then brought into line. BackTier positions this as clarity, authority and distribution work, not a rebrand.

The offering page describes the process and formats. This announcement does not claim client results, independently measured gains in AI citations, or endorsements. Reporters can verify the book's publication details on BackTier's books page and contact Wade directly for comment.