What are the 48 AEO criteria?

The 48 criteria are organized into 5 pillars with fixed target shares: Answer Readiness 40%, Content Structure 25%, Trust & Authority 15%, Technical Foundation 10%, and AI Discovery 10%. Inside those pillars, criteria cover topic coherence, original data, depth, fact density, direct answers, Q&A structure, entity authority, freshness, visible dates, schema, semantic HTML, extraction friction, llms.txt, robots.txt, licensing, canonicals, sitemap coverage, and RSS. Each criterion is scored 0–10, converted into an effective weight after confidence and overlap controls, then rolled into the final score.

What does the RSS feed audit check?

The audit verifies your site has a discoverable RSS or Atom feed with proper metadata. It checks feed existence at common paths, a link tag in the HTML head, adequate item count, and pubDate per item. RSS feeds let AI indexing systems detect new content automatically without waiting for a full crawl.

How do AI answer engines decide which sources to cite?

AI systems evaluate structured data quality, content relevance, entity authority signals, content freshness, and how well the format matches the question. Sites with Schema.org markup, clear entity information, and Q&A-formatted content get cited far more often than sites with unstructured, anonymous content.

What makes content "original" for AEO purposes?

Proprietary data, first-hand research, expert analysis with author credentials, unique case studies, perspectives you won't find elsewhere. AI engines value original sources because they add new information to the knowledge base. Rephrasing content from other sources adds zero value for AI citation.

How is fact density calculated in the technical audit?

Fact density counts verifiable claims per 1,000 words — named statistics, specific numbers, dated references, attributable statements. The audit uses NLP to identify factual assertions versus opinions or filler. Pages with fact density above 5 claims per 1,000 words are significantly more likely to be cited by AI engines. It's one of the strongest predictors of citation-worthiness.

expel.io - AEO Audit Report | 64/100

expel.io

Moderate AI visibility with 22 of 34 criteria passing. Biggest gap: rss/atom feed.

Developer Tools & Infrastructure Security & Compliance

Scoring Methodology

How Your AEO Site Rank Is Calculated

A weighted average of 34 deterministic criteria. Each scored 0-10, each with a specific weight. No AI judgment calls - every point is traceable.

Moderate 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%7/10+10.5

FAQ Sections10%5/10+5.0

Original Data10%6/10+6.0

Content Freshness7%7/10+4.9

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%4/10+2.8

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%9/10+3.6

Query-Answer Alignment8%4/10+3.2

Content Cannibalization5%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+46.0

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%9/10+13.5

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%9/10+9.0

Semantic HTML55%4/10+2.0

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+29.6

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%10/10+10.0

Sitemap Completeness5%10/10+5.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+27.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%8/10+8.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%4/10+1.6

Canonical URL4%7/10+2.8

Content Velocity3%10/10+3.0

Visible Date Signals4%8/10+3.2

Subtotal29%+19.4

Overall Score100%64/100

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 34 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 →

↑9 since v3

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

5/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

7/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

7/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

8/10

Verdict

Moderate AEO readiness at 64/100 with significant gaps to address. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Internal Linking Structure, and Sitemap Completeness. Priority gaps: RSS/Atom Feed, Speakable Schema, and Answer-First Placement.

Top priorities

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Answer-First PlacementAnswer+9 pts

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How to Improve

Current

64/100

Projected

100/100

26Total Fixes

9Quick Wins

~41hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersBuild FAQ sections with schemaImplement semantic HTML5 elementsAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingEnhance author and expert schemaImprove query-answer alignmentImprove citation-ready writing qualityPackage evidence for AI engines

Fix

Impact

Effort

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

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

high

trivial

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

high|trivial

Fix canonical URL strategy

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

medium

trivial

Fix canonical URL strategy

medium|trivial

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

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

low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

low|low

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Top Opportunities10

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Answer-First Placement

critical+9 pts1/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+9 pts1/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

Extraction Friction Score

critical+8 pts2/10

Table & List Extractability

critical+7 pts3/10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

moderate+6 pts4/10

Direct Answer Paragraphs

moderate+6 pts4/10

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Site Pages

URLSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

expel.com/customersCustomers | Expel

content

13,785

expel.com/customers24

Customers | Expel

expel.com/resource-type/newsNews Archives | Expel

content

13,810

expel.com/resource-type/news24

News Archives | Expel

expel.com/cyberspeakExpel CyberSpeak Glossary | Expel

content

13,783

expel.com/cyberspeak25

Expel CyberSpeak Glossary | Expel

expel.com/resources/?type=briefs-datasheetsResources | Expel

resources

1,189

expel.com/resources/?type=briefs-datasheets43

Resources | Expel

expel.com/why-expelWhy Expel? | Security without compromise

content

1,482

expel.com/why-expel48

Why Expel? | Security without compromise

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Changes since v3Last audited 29 days ago

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View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Schema.org Structured Data

0/10

9/10

Q&A Content Format

3/10

7/10

Clean, Crawlable HTML

3/10

9/10

Entity Authority & NAP Consistency

3/10

8/10

Internal Linking Structure

4/10

10/10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

2/10

4/10

Content Freshness Signals

2/10

7/10

Definition Patterns

7/10

9/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

0/10

2/10

Canonical URL Strategy

0/10

7/10

Add Answer-First PlacementBuild Comprehensive FAQ SectionImprove Citation-Ready WritingEnhance Author & Expert SchemaAdd Entity DisambiguationRestructure Content as Q&AStrengthen Entity Authority (NAP)Add Content Freshness SignalsAdd Schema.org Structured DataImprove Internal Linking Architecture

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

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 →

Criteria2/10

Fact Density Measurement

AI engines are citation machines -they need specific facts to quote. A page full of general advice with zero data points gives them nothing to work with.

Advanced·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria3/10

Sitemap Completeness

Your sitemap says 500 pages exist. Our crawl finds 700. Those 200 missing URLs? AI crawlers will never know they exist.

Beginner·5 min readRead guide →

Criteria4/10

Semantic HTML5: The Difference Between a Page and a Page AI Can Parse

A page built with <div> everywhere looks the same to AI as a page with no structure at all. Semantic elements -<main>, <article>, <section>, <time> -are the markup that tells AI where your content starts, what it means, and how it's organized.

Intermediate·3 min readRead guide →

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Verdict

How to Improve

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI26

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Score Breakdown

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