Study Finds On-Site SEO Scores Have No Meaningful Link to AI Citation Rates
A study by Causabi analyzed 44 domains using a six-category on-site readiness algorithm to test whether technical SEO optimizations predict how often AI engines cite a website. The correlation between on-site scores and citation rates was near zero (Pearson r ≈ -0.08), and 86% of domains received no citations at all during the study window. Brand prominence emerged as the dominant factor, with well-known domains cited far more frequently regardless of their markup quality. The researchers acknowledge key limitations, including a small sample size, use of only one AI engine (Claude), and no longitudinal before-and-after testing. Two mechanical exceptions noted were robots.txt blocking, which can entirely prevent AI citations, and FAQ schema, which may influence how content is cited rather than whether it is cited.
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