Methodology
Readout diagnoses machine-legibility, not AI-ranking. Every check below maps to a published guideline, an observed failure pattern, or a clearly labeled heuristic. Nothing here predicts citations.
| Check | Severity | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Claim not visible on page (content-mismatch) | high | Google: do not add structured data for content not visible to users. source |
| Missing required properties (rich-result-blocked) | high | Google structured-data type requirements; absence blocks the named rich result. source |
| Broken sameAs identity link | high | A sameAs URL returning 404 or 410 is flagged as definitively dead. 403, 5xx, or unreachable (0) are not flagged because they are usually bot-blocks or transient failures, not truly broken links. sameAs only helps when it points to an authoritative representation of the same entity; it is not a trust switch. source |
| Identity conflict (same type, different name / dangling @id) | medium | Contradictory identity fields prevent machines from merging references into one entity. Observed-pattern heuristic. |
| Missing provenance (author/publisher/datePublished on Article) | medium | Google Article guidance recommends author, datePublished, publisher for attribution of factual claims. source |
| Thin entity (missing recommended properties) | medium | Valid but under-described; recommended properties per the type's Google documentation. source |
| Identity not anchored | low | Labeled heuristic: an entity declares sameAs links but none point to a closed allowlist of identity authorities (Wikipedia, Wikidata, LinkedIn, ...). |
No single score is produced. Findings are a decomposable tally. Readout does not query AI engines, track mentions, or persist anything you submit.