AI recommends whoever it can read, verify and quote. Everything else is detail.
| layer | what's in it | effect |
|---|---|---|
| readability | SSR or prerender, unblocking AI crawlers, llms.txt, page weight | AI sees your content for the first time |
| entity | Wikidata, consistent Crunchbase and LinkedIn, the full JSON-LD stack, named authors | AI can verify you're real |
| citability | answer-shaped pages, listicles, industry sources, a trust hub | AI starts naming you in the category |
why the order matters
The layers only work bottom-up. Entity work on a site the crawler cannot read is invisible. Citation work on a brand the model cannot verify is unstable — the name appears, then drops out. Fix readability first, prove you exist second, earn the citation third.
why now
The market's average health score is 35 out of 100, and in a hundred audits not one site cleared 60. That means almost any category is currently winnable from a standing start — by whoever makes the first three moves before the neighbour does.