YourSalon Research Β· Methodology
Central European Salon AI Discoverability Benchmark 2026
Research question
How technically and editorially READY is a salon's website to be understood by search and AI systems β across the four markets?
Scope
A repeatable technical/content readiness audit of a salon's public website against measurable signals (crawlability, semantic HTML, structured data, entity consistency, service/price detail, multilingual structure, author/freshness). It measures READINESS. It does NOT test, promise or predict whether any specific salon appears in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews or any product.
Time period
2026 β single annual edition.
Markets
Czechia, Poland, Germany, Slovakia. (A European result is not assumed to hold for markets not sampled.) β Czechia, Poland, Germany, Slovakia
Target population
Salons with a public website (own domain or a hosted site) across business types in the four markets.
Planned sample
Target 300β600 salon websites, distributed across countries and salon types. The final number is disclosed only after collection.
Inclusion criteria
- Salons with a public website (own domain or hosted builder site).
- Across business types and across own-domain vs hosted/marketplace-hosted sites.
Exclusion criteria
- Salons with no website (social-profile only) β counted separately as 'no website', never scored as unready.
- Test/staging pages.
Data collection
- We read only PUBLIC pages and their served HTML/markup. No login, no scraping of private data.
- Two parts: (1) a technical/content audit of the site against the seven dimensions below; (2) a small, repeatable, NEUTRAL set of search/AI queries recorded only to describe readiness patterns β never used to claim a salon 'ranks' or 'appears'.
- Each site logs 15+ signals: crawlable/indexable, HTML availability of main content, semantic structure, LocalBusiness/BeautySalon schema validity, address/phone/hours/priceRange, entity/contact consistency, service detail pages, visible prices and durations, hreflang/language, cities/areas in text, author and update dates, FAQ quality, image alt, independent brand mentions.
Scoring framework
Each site scores 0β100 β the AI Discoverability Readiness Score. The direction is fixed: 100 = maximally ready to be understood by search/AI; 0 = effectively opaque to machines. This is a readiness measure, NOT a prediction of appearance in any AI or search product.
100 = maximally machine-readable/ready; 0 = effectively opaque to machines.
| Scoring framework | % | β |
|---|---|---|
| Crawlability & indexability | 15 | Page is crawlable and indexable (no accidental noindex/robots block), Main content is available in HTML, not only after JavaScript |
| Semantic, server-rendered content | 15 | Meaningful headings and structure, Key content (services, prices, contact) present in the served HTML |
| Structured data | 20 | Valid LocalBusiness / HairSalon / BeautySalon schema, Address, telephone, opening hours, priceRange present and valid |
| Business-entity & contact consistency | 15 | Consistent name, address and phone across site, schema and profiles, One clear canonical business entity |
| Service & price detail | 15 | Service detail pages a machine can read, Visible prices and durations, not only images/PDF |
| Multilingual & local relevance | 10 | Correct hreflang / language declaration, Cities and service areas described in text |
| Author, freshness & FAQ (E-E-A-T) | 10 | Real author and update dates, Useful FAQ, image alt text and independent brand mentions |
Formulas
- Dimension score:
normalized indicator points within the dimension weight - AI Discoverability Readiness Score:
Ξ£ dimension scores (0β100, higher = readier)
Missing data
A signal that cannot be assessed (e.g. no service pages) is recorded with its reason, not silently scored zero; the 'no website' rate is reported separately.
Quality control
- Structured-data validity is checked with a standard validator, not judged by eye.
- A random subset is re-audited by a second person and on a second device/network; disagreements are reconciled.
- The neutral query set is fixed in advance and logged verbatim so the readiness patterns are reproducible.
Potential bias
- Website builder / hosting mix differs by country and can shift a country's average β reported alongside the mix.
- Search and AI systems change frequently; a readiness snapshot is point-in-time.
Limitations
- Readiness is not ranking: a high score does NOT mean a salon appears in ChatGPT, Google AI or search β Google itself states structured data does not guarantee rich results.
- Public pages only; server logs and analytics are out of scope.
- No salon is named as 'worst'; only aggregated data and anonymized examples are published.
Privacy
- Only public pages are read; no personal data is collected.
- Only aggregated results and anonymized examples are published.
Correction policy
A salon or platform may request a correction with evidence before or after publication; verified corrections are logged.
Update policy
Annual edition; the change log records every update and correction.
Contact
Methodology and media questions: info@yoursalon.cz
Sources and methodology
- [1] LocalBusiness β schema.org type β Schema.org. https://schema.org/LocalBusiness(checked 2026-07-05)LocalBusiness vocabulary; HealthAndBeautyBusiness β HairSalon/BeautySalon/NailSalon are subtypes. Salon-relevant properties: name, address, telephone, openingHours, priceRange, geo. Technical basis for the schema/structured-data signals in the AI Discoverability Benchmark.
- [2] Local business (LocalBusiness) structured data β Google Search Central β Google (Search Central). https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business(checked 2026-07-05)Google's guidance on LocalBusiness structured data (required: name, address; recommended: telephone, url, openingHoursSpecification, geo, priceRange). Google explicitly states it 'does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results' β supports the readiness-not-guarantee framing of the AI Discoverability Benchmark.