Scoring System

22 weighted criteria across 4 categories determine your AEO score. Learn exactly how each criterion is measured and weighted.

Overview

Your AEO score (0 - 100) measures how well AI engines can discover, parse, and cite your website. The score is deterministic - every point traces to a specific check. No black-box algorithms, no hidden factors. Run the same audit twice and you get the same number.

The Formula

Each of the 22 criteria is scored 0 - 10 individually, then multiplied by its weight. The formula auto-normalizes by total weight, so sites audited on fewer criteria keep accurate scores.

formula

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

Auto-normalization

Older audits that evaluated only 10 criteria produce the same overall score they always did. The denominator adjusts automatically.

Four Categories

The 22 criteria fall into four dimensions of AI visibility. Each dimension answers a different question about your site.

Content7 criteria

“Is your content worth citing?”

Determines whether AI engines have substantive content to reference. These criteria evaluate the depth, format, and originality of what you publish.

Structure5 criteria

“Can machines parse your content?”

Measures how well your content is structured for machine consumption. Clean markup, schemas, and sitemaps help AI engines extract information reliably.

Discovery5 criteria

“Can AI engines find you?”

Covers discoverability signals that help AI engines locate your content. From llms.txt to internal linking, these criteria control whether you show up at all.

Trust Signals5 criteria

“Can AI verify your credibility?”

Trust and authority indicators that influence citation decisions. AI engines prefer sources they can verify through structured authority signals.

All 22 Criteria

Every criterion has a fixed weight that determines how much it contributes to the overall score. Criteria are grouped by category, sorted by weight (highest first).

#	Criterion	Category	Weight
Content - Is your content worth citing?
3	Q&A Content Format	Content	15%
7	FAQ Section	Content	10%
8	Original Data & Research	Content	10%
19	Table & List Extractability	Content	7%
11	Schema Coverage Ratio	Content	3%
15	Canonical URL Strategy	Content	4%
16	Content Licensing	Content	4%
Structure - Can machines parse your content?
2	Schema.org Markup	Structure	15%
4	Clean, Crawlable HTML	Structure	10%
22	Direct Answer Density	Structure	7%
10	Semantic HTML5	Structure	5%
14	Sitemap Completeness	Structure	5%
Discovery - Can AI engines find you?
1	llms.txt	Discovery	10%
9	Internal Linking	Discovery	10%
12	Content Freshness	Discovery	7%
6	robots.txt AI Directives	Discovery	5%
13	RSS Feed Presence	Discovery	3%
Trust Signals - Can AI verify your credibility?
5	Entity Authority	Trust Signals	10%
17	Fact Density	Trust Signals	5%
18	Definition Patterns	Trust Signals	4%
21	Author & Expert Schema	Trust Signals	4%
20	Content Velocity	Trust Signals	3%

Weights sum to more than 100%

The individual weights total approximately 153%. This is intentional - the formula divides by the sum of applicable weights, not by 100. The percentages represent relative importance, not absolute shares.

Score Ranges

Your overall score maps to one of six tiers. These labels appear on audit reports and in the API response.

Range	Label	Meaning
86 - 100	Excellent	AI engines actively cite your content
71 - 85	Good	Solid foundation with room for improvement
56 - 70	Average	Missing key optimization opportunities
41 - 55	Below Average	Significant gaps in AI visibility
26 - 40	Poor	Major structural issues limiting visibility
0 - 25	Critical	Fundamental problems preventing AI discovery

HTTPS Factor

Criterion #4 (Clean, Crawlable HTML) includes HTTPS availability. Sites without HTTPS are capped at 3/10 on this criterion, resulting in an approximate 3 - 4 point overall penalty. The audit checks HTTPS first and falls back to HTTP for all subsequent checks.

No HTTPS = guaranteed penalty

Even if your HTML is perfectly clean, lacking HTTPS caps criterion #4 at 3/10. This is one of the easiest points to recover - install an SSL certificate and gain 3 - 4 points immediately.

Benchmark Comparison

Your score is compared against peers in your sector and category. The API returns sector averages, and the web dashboard shows “Above Average”, “Average”, or “Below Average” badges based on a +/- 5 point threshold from the sector mean.

For example, if the average score in “Developer Tools > Cloud Infrastructure” is 62, a score of 68 or higher earns “Above Average”, 57 or lower shows “Below Average”, and anything in between is “Average”.

View the full benchmark data across all sectors and categories at /benchmarks.