{
  "dataset": "EU AI Readiness Observatory",
  "report": "Report 01: A high SEO score does not predict AI readiness",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "VerisAI",
    "legal_name": "BELVO, s.r.o.",
    "url": "https://verisai.eu"
  },
  "url": "https://verisai.eu/observatory/report-01-seo-does-not-predict-ai-readiness",
  "version": "1.0",
  "published": "2026-08-18",
  "data_collected_until": "2026-08-13",
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
    "attribution_required": true,
    "attribution_string": "VerisAI, EU AI Readiness Observatory, verisai.eu"
  },
  "cite_as": "VerisAI (2026). EU AI Readiness Observatory, Report 01: A high SEO score does not predict AI readiness. 46,588 EU-27 companies measured to 13 August 2026. https://verisai.eu/observatory/report-01-seo-does-not-predict-ai-readiness",
  "sample": {
    "definition": "Companies headquartered in an EU-27 country according to firmographic data. Domain extension is not used: a .com owned by a German company is in scope, a .eu owned by a US company is not.",
    "eu27_companies_in_index": 70669,
    "excluded_blocking_ai_crawlers": 24081,
    "analysed": 46588,
    "note": "Conservative by design: companies with unknown headquarters country are excluded entirely, so real EU coverage is higher than the figures above."
  },
  "definitions": {
    "seo_composite": "Mean of technical SEO (L5), on-page SEO (L6) and publishing activity (L8), 0-100.",
    "ai_composite": "Mean of crawler access (L1), server-side rendering (L2), indexability (L3), ground-truth content (L4) and citation readiness (L7), 0-100.",
    "citation_readiness": "Layer 7. A structural measurement of whether a site is built so an AI system can use it as a source. NOT a record of live citations inside any AI assistant.",
    "citation_gap": "The difference between a website's classic SEO score and its AI citation readiness, measured on the same 0-100 scale. Positive means citation readiness trails SEO.",
    "threshold": "70, the product's existing PASS boundary."
  },
  "headline_findings": {
    "correlation_seo_vs_ai_composite": 0.54,
    "correlation_seo_vs_citation_readiness": 0.44,
    "variance_explained_pct": 29,
    "citation_gap_lowest_seo_band": -8.4,
    "citation_gap_highest_seo_band": 22.9,
    "strong_seo_companies": 16515,
    "strong_seo_below_threshold_pct": 72.4,
    "widest_country_gap": {
      "country": "Czechia",
      "citation_gap": 9.6
    },
    "narrowest_country_gap": {
      "country": "France",
      "citation_gap": 5.2
    }
  },
  "limits": [
    "Citation readiness is structural, not evidence of live citation in any AI assistant.",
    "Not a random sample of European business; relationships between layers are the finding, absolute averages are context.",
    "Correlation is not causation.",
    "24,081 EU companies that block AI crawlers outright are excluded from all averages.",
    "Countries with fewer than 400 measured companies are excluded from the country table."
  ],
  "tables": {
    "by_seo_band": [
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 20,
        "companies": 598,
        "seo_composite": 25.4,
        "citation_readiness": 40.5,
        "citation_gap": -15.1,
        "ai_composite": 63.2
      },
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 30,
        "companies": 2473,
        "seo_composite": 35.1,
        "citation_readiness": 43.5,
        "citation_gap": -8.4,
        "ai_composite": 66.3
      },
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 40,
        "companies": 6082,
        "seo_composite": 44.9,
        "citation_readiness": 46.9,
        "citation_gap": -2.0,
        "ai_composite": 69.9
      },
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 50,
        "companies": 9382,
        "seo_composite": 54.7,
        "citation_readiness": 51.8,
        "citation_gap": 2.9,
        "ai_composite": 73.8
      },
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 60,
        "companies": 11466,
        "seo_composite": 64.6,
        "citation_readiness": 56.3,
        "citation_gap": 8.4,
        "ai_composite": 77.1
      },
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 70,
        "companies": 11278,
        "seo_composite": 74.2,
        "citation_readiness": 59.8,
        "citation_gap": 14.4,
        "ai_composite": 80.2
      },
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 80,
        "companies": 4763,
        "seo_composite": 83.2,
        "citation_readiness": 63.8,
        "citation_gap": 19.4,
        "ai_composite": 82.8
      },
      {
        "seo_band_lower": 90,
        "companies": 472,
        "seo_composite": 91.9,
        "citation_readiness": 69.0,
        "citation_gap": 22.9,
        "ai_composite": 86.1
      }
    ],
    "by_country": [
      {
        "country": "Czechia",
        "companies": 11857,
        "seo_composite": 61.4,
        "citation_readiness": 51.8,
        "citation_gap": 9.6
      },
      {
        "country": "Portugal",
        "companies": 564,
        "seo_composite": 64.8,
        "citation_readiness": 56.7,
        "citation_gap": 8.1
      },
      {
        "country": "Slovakia",
        "companies": 4462,
        "seo_composite": 61.0,
        "citation_readiness": 53.0,
        "citation_gap": 8.0
      },
      {
        "country": "Spain",
        "companies": 2953,
        "seo_composite": 65.1,
        "citation_readiness": 58.0,
        "citation_gap": 7.1
      },
      {
        "country": "Belgium",
        "companies": 632,
        "seo_composite": 65.5,
        "citation_readiness": 58.4,
        "citation_gap": 7.1
      },
      {
        "country": "Austria",
        "companies": 1886,
        "seo_composite": 63.7,
        "citation_readiness": 56.5,
        "citation_gap": 7.1
      },
      {
        "country": "Italy",
        "companies": 2417,
        "seo_composite": 63.6,
        "citation_readiness": 56.8,
        "citation_gap": 6.8
      },
      {
        "country": "The Netherlands",
        "companies": 1461,
        "seo_composite": 65.9,
        "citation_readiness": 59.4,
        "citation_gap": 6.5
      },
      {
        "country": "Germany",
        "companies": 12189,
        "seo_composite": 60.8,
        "citation_readiness": 54.6,
        "citation_gap": 6.2
      },
      {
        "country": "Poland",
        "companies": 1143,
        "seo_composite": 63.3,
        "citation_readiness": 57.4,
        "citation_gap": 5.9
      },
      {
        "country": "Romania",
        "companies": 420,
        "seo_composite": 63.2,
        "citation_readiness": 57.9,
        "citation_gap": 5.2
      },
      {
        "country": "France",
        "companies": 3709,
        "seo_composite": 64.6,
        "citation_readiness": 59.4,
        "citation_gap": 5.2
      }
    ],
    "by_layer": [
      {
        "layer": "L1 crawler access",
        "mean_score": 91.6
      },
      {
        "layer": "L2 server-side rendering",
        "mean_score": 80.6
      },
      {
        "layer": "L3 indexability",
        "mean_score": 92.9
      },
      {
        "layer": "L4 ground-truth content",
        "mean_score": 60.6
      },
      {
        "layer": "L5 technical SEO",
        "mean_score": 76.5
      },
      {
        "layer": "L6 on-page SEO",
        "mean_score": 66.4
      },
      {
        "layer": "L7 citation readiness",
        "mean_score": 55.0
      },
      {
        "layer": "L8 publishing activity",
        "mean_score": 44.3
      }
    ],
    "segments": [
      {
        "segment": "weak_on_both",
        "companies": 26800,
        "share_pct": 57.5,
        "seo_composite": 53.4,
        "citation_readiness": 48.5
      },
      {
        "segment": "strong_seo_below_threshold",
        "companies": 11958,
        "share_pct": 25.7,
        "seo_composite": 76.8,
        "citation_readiness": 54.9
      },
      {
        "segment": "strong_seo_above_threshold",
        "companies": 4557,
        "share_pct": 9.8,
        "seo_composite": 78.7,
        "citation_readiness": 77.8
      },
      {
        "segment": "weak_seo_above_threshold",
        "companies": 3273,
        "share_pct": 7.0,
        "seo_composite": 60.8,
        "citation_readiness": 76.5
      }
    ],
    "strong_seo_split": [
      {
        "group_name": "above_threshold",
        "companies": 4557,
        "l2_ssr": 96.3,
        "l4_content": 77.2,
        "l5_technical_seo": 85.6,
        "l6_onpage_seo": 87.1,
        "l8_activity": 63.3
      },
      {
        "group_name": "below_threshold",
        "companies": 11958,
        "l2_ssr": 84.1,
        "l4_content": 64.3,
        "l5_technical_seo": 88.0,
        "l6_onpage_seo": 82.0,
        "l8_activity": 60.3
      }
    ]
  }
}