M&A Advisor Visibility Index 2026: 33 Firms Ranked by Domain Authority

Key findings (May 2026 snapshot)

The rankings: all 33 firms by Domain Rating

Sorted by Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR) descending. Firms with no measurable data show a dash. Click any domain to visit the firm's site (links open in new tab, marked nofollow).

Visibility by tier

The 33 tracked firms split into five tiers. Bulge-bracket and large investment banks dominate Domain Rating. Middle Market and Lower Middle Market specialists score lower on average but earn most of their traffic from buyer-intent keywords. Marketplaces like Axial and DealRoom punch above their weight in AI search citation share.

Top 10 by Domain Rating

1. Pitchbook (pitchbook.com). DR 83, 163,791 keywords, 715,789 monthly organic visits.
2. Raymond James (raymondjames.com). DR 79, 0 keywords, 0 monthly organic visits.
3. BizBuySell (bizbuysell.com). DR 77, 0 keywords, 0 monthly organic visits.
4. Lazard (lazard.com). DR 75, 21 keywords, 59 monthly organic visits.
5. Jefferies (jefferies.com). DR 74, 3 keywords, 27 monthly organic visits.
6. Stifel (stifel.com). DR 73, 0 keywords, 0 monthly organic visits.
7. Piper Sandler (pipersandler.com). DR 73, 0 keywords, 0 monthly organic visits.
8. Baird (rwbaird.com). DR 71, 0 keywords, 0 monthly organic visits.
9. Mergers & Acquisitions (themiddlemarket.com). DR 70, 2 keywords, 0 monthly organic visits.
10. Houlihan Lokey (hl.com). DR 69, 3,255 keywords, 39,012 monthly organic visits.

What this means for the M&A advisory space

Three patterns stand out in the May 2026 snapshot:

1. Domain Rating distribution is bimodal. Bulge-bracket banks and major marketplaces cluster at DR 60-83. Middle market and lower middle market specialists cluster at DR 0-50. Very few firms occupy the middle (DR 50-60). For a lower-middle-market M&A advisor competing for buyer attention, the DR gap to overcome the bulge bracket is typically 30-50 points.

2. Marketplaces are the AI citation source layer. Axial, DealRoom, BizBuySell, and Pitchbook earn the highest DR scores in the index outside the bulge bracket. These platforms are the dominant citation source when AI engines answer M&A questions, because they aggregate firm data the engines can extract. Getting listed and content-cited on these platforms matters more for AI visibility than most agency tactics.

3. Top-3 keywords concentrate at the top. The top 5 firms by Domain Rating capture a disproportionate share of total top-3 ranking keywords. This is a moat. Once a firm reaches DR 60+, ranking gains compound because Google trusts the domain enough to rank new pages quickly.

Methodology

Data is pulled monthly from the Ahrefs API v3 using the site-explorer/domain-rating and site-explorer/metrics endpoints with monthly volume normalization. The full TrustRank measurement framework (which adds AI engine citation tracking on top of Ahrefs data) is documented at /about/methodology/.

Inclusion criteria. Firms are included if they (a) have an active US-facing M&A advisory practice, (b) are publicly identifiable as an M&A advisor, investment bank, or M&A marketplace, and (c) have an active root-domain website. The list is curated, not algorithmic. Tier assignment is editorial based on disclosed deal sizes and target market.

What this index does not measure. This is a backlink-and-organic-search snapshot, not a deal-flow or revenue ranking. A firm with high DR is not necessarily winning more mandates than one with lower DR. Domain Rating measures discoverability and SEO authority, not deal volume.

Known biases. Ahrefs' index undercounts traffic on domains with anti-bot protection or behind login walls. BizBuySell and BizQuest in particular show 0 organic traffic in this snapshot despite high DR scores; this likely reflects an Ahrefs data limitation, not a real traffic floor.

How to cite this index

ProCloser.ai. (2026). M&A advisor visibility index 2026. Retrieved 2026-05-04 from https://procloser.ai/blog/ma-advisor-visibility-index/

@misc{procloser_ma_index_2026,
  author = {{ProCloser.ai Research Team}},
  title  = {M&A Advisor Visibility Index 2026},
  year   = {2026},
  month  = {May},
  url    = {https://procloser.ai/blog/ma-advisor-visibility-index/}
}

<blockquote cite="https://procloser.ai/blog/ma-advisor-visibility-index/">
  Per ProCloser.ai's M&A Advisor Visibility Index, the average Domain Rating across 33 tracked M&A advisory firms and marketplaces is 51.2, with the top firm scoring DR 83. Last refreshed 2026-05-04.
</blockquote>

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