What is AEO (AI Engine Optimization)?

AEO is the practice of structuring your website so AI answer engines - ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude - can find, understand, and cite it. SEO gets you ranked in search results. AEO gets you into AI-generated answers. Different game, different rules.

Is AEO only relevant for large businesses?

Not at all. Small businesses, local providers, niche e-commerce stores, solo consultants - they all benefit from AI visibility. We've seen smaller sites with well-structured content outperform larger competitors who haven't optimized for AI engines. Size matters less than structure.

Can AEO help with voice search and smart assistants?

Yes. Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant increasingly pull AI-generated answers from web content. The same structured data, Q&A formatting, and entity authority that drive AEO also make your content the go-to source for voice search answers.

What is the difference between AI visibility and AI readiness?

Readiness is your technical foundation - whether your site has the right schema, llms.txt, clean HTML, and entity signals in place. Visibility is real-world performance - whether AI engines actually cite you when users ask relevant questions. You need readiness first, then visibility follows. Our audit measures readiness; our visibility analysis measures actual citation rates.

What does the free AEO audit include?

The free audit analyzes your website across 48 criteria that determine AI visibility, including llms.txt, Schema.org structured data, Q&A content format, clean crawlable HTML, entity authority, robots.txt AI policy, FAQ sections, original data, content freshness, fact density, canonical URLs, and more. You get a score out of 100 with specific findings and actionable recommendations.

better-auth.com - AEO Audit Report | 43/100

SPRING 2025 better-auth.com

Weak AI visibility with 21 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: schema.org structured data.

Developer Tools & Infrastructure Developer Platforms

Scoring Methodology

How Your AEO Site Rank Is Calculated

A weighted average of 48 deterministic criteria. Each scored 0-10, each with a specific weight. No AI judgment calls - every point is traceable.

Weak visibilityOut of 100 possible points

The Formula

Score = sum(criterion_score / 10 * weight * 100) / sum(weights)

Each criterion is scored 0-10 by deterministic checks, multiplied by its weight, and summed to produce a 0-100 overall score.

Your Score Breakdown

Content9 criteria

Q&A Content Format15%0/10+0.0

FAQ Sections10%0/10+0.0

Original Data10%1/10+1.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%2/10+1.4

Fact & Data Density5%8/10+4.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%0/10+0.0

Content Cannibalization5%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+15.6

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%0/10+0.0

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%6/10+6.0

Semantic HTML55%10/10+5.0

Table & List Extractability7%8/10+5.6

Schema Coverage3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal40%+16.6

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%8/10+8.0

robots.txt for AI5%2/10+1.0

Internal Linking10%4/10+4.0

Sitemap Completeness5%9/10+4.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+17.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%4/10+4.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%4/10+1.6

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%3/10+0.9

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+6.5

Overall Score100%43/100

Score Ranges

86-100AI-first content architecture

71-85Strong AI visibility

56-70Moderate visibility

41-55Weak visibility

26-40Minimal visibility

0-25Not on the radar

Key Points

Topic Coherence carries the highest weight at 14%, followed by Original Data at 10%, across 48 total criteria.

No HTTPS means Clean HTML is capped at 3/10, costing approximately 3-4 overall points.

Every criterion uses deterministic checks. Same site, same audit, same score - every time.

Read full scoring methodology →

↓5 since v5

Citation Avg

Coherence gate active - score capped at 60

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

5/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

4/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

2/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

5/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

5/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 43/100 - better-auth.com is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility, Content Cannibalization, and Duplicate Content Blocks. Priority gaps: Schema.org Structured Data, Q&A Content Format, and Comprehensive FAQ Section. Topic coherence is moderate at 5/10, capping the score at 60. Tighter topical focus would lift this ceiling.

Top priorities

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

Q&A Content FormatStructure+10 pts

Comprehensive FAQ SectionStructure+10 pts

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How to Improve

Current

43/100

Projected

77/100

41Total Fixes

15Quick Wins

~85hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Strengthen entity authority (NAP)Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationAdd ai.txt and content licensingEnhance author and expert schemaFix canonical URL strategyAdd visible date signalsFocus blog content on core expertiseImprove citation-ready writing qualityAdd answer-first content placementPackage evidence for AI enginesClarify entity boundariesReduce extraction frictionEliminate cross-page duplicate contentImprove server response efficiency

Fix

Impact

Effort

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

Ensure clean, well-structured HTML with proper meta tags, HTTPS, and parseable content for AI crawlers.

medium

low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

medium|low

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

Update robots.txt to explicitly allow AI crawlers and include sitemap directive.

critical

low

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

critical|low

Fix canonical URL strategy

Add rel="canonical" tags to all pages to prevent duplicate content confusion.

critical

low

Fix canonical URL strategy

critical|low

Add internationalization signals

Implement hreflang tags and lang attributes so AI engines serve the correct language version when answering queries.

critical

medium

Add internationalization signals

critical|medium

Improve server response efficiency

Optimize compression, cache headers, redirect chains, and HTML payload size for faster AI crawler access.

high

low

Improve server response efficiency

high|low

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI43

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

43 copy-paste prompts ready - sign in to access.

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Schema.org Structured Data

critical+10 pts0/10

Q&A Content Format

critical+10 pts0/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Canonical URL Strategy

critical+10 pts0/10

Schema Coverage & Depth

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Query-Answer Alignment

critical+10 pts0/10

Visible Date Signal

critical+10 pts0/10

Unlock Full Audit Report

See all 48 criteria with detailed findings and actionable fix recommendations.

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

better-auth.com/changelogChangelog | Better Auth

F38

content

6,255

better-auth.com/changelogF38

Changelog | Better Auth

Changes since v5Last audited 9 days ago

→

-5

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Internal Linking Structure

5/10

4/10

-1

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

Schema.org JSON-LD: The Scoreboard AI Actually Reads

Tidio runs 4 JSON-LD schema types. Crisp runs zero. That's not a coincidence -it's the difference between a 63 and a 34. Structured data is the machine-readable layer AI trusts most.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

Q&A Content Format: Write Like AI Reads

AI assistants are question-answering machines. When your content is already shaped as questions and answers, you're handing AI a pre-formatted citation. Sites that do this right get extracted -sites that don't get skipped.

Beginner·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

FAQ Sections: 87 Questions Turned Our Score Into 88

Our site runs 87 FAQ items across 9 categories with FAQPage schema on every one. That's not excessive -it's how we hit 88/100. Each Q&A pair is a citation opportunity AI can extract in seconds.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

RSS Feed Presence & Quality

Sitemaps tell crawlers what exists. RSS feeds tell them what changed. If you don't have one, your new content waits days -or weeks -to be discovered.

Beginner·3 min readRead guide →