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.

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.

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 happens if my site scores below 20?

A score below 20 means most fundamental AEO infrastructure is missing - no llms.txt, no relevant schema, likely blocking AI crawlers, no FAQ content. The good news is the fastest gains come from this starting point. Adding llms.txt, basic Organization schema, and unblocking AI crawlers in robots.txt can double your score in a single day.

What is llms.txt and do I need one?

llms.txt is a plain-text file at your domain root — like robots.txt — that gives AI assistants a structured summary of your website. What your business does, key content areas, how to navigate your site. It helps AI systems understand your business without crawling every page. If you want AI visibility, you need one.

gocardless.com - AEO Audit Report | 44/100

SUMMER 2011 gocardless.com

Weak AI visibility with 28 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: llms.txt file.

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%10/10+15.0

FAQ Sections10%7/10+7.0

Original Data10%7/10+7.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%10/10+7.0

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%5/10+2.0

Query-Answer Alignment8%10/10+8.0

Content Cannibalization5%5/10+2.5

Subtotal71%+54.9

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%5/10+7.5

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%6/10+6.0

Semantic HTML55%6/10+3.0

Table & List Extractability7%4/10+2.8

Schema Coverage3%3/10+0.9

Subtotal40%+20.2

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%0/10+0.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%8/10+8.0

Sitemap Completeness5%0/10+0.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal33%+13.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%5/10+5.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%4/10+1.6

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%0/10+0.0

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+11.4

Overall Score100%44/100

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 →

↑10 since v6

Citation Avg

Coherence gate active - score capped at 50

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

5/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

8/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

4/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

5/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

3/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 44/100 - gocardless.com is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include Q&A Content Format, RSS/Atom Feed, and Direct Answer Paragraphs. Priority gaps: llms.txt File, Sitemap Completeness, and Content Publishing Velocity. Topic coherence is 3/10, which caps the overall score at 50. Focusing content on core expertise areas is the single highest-impact improvement.

Top priorities

llms.txt FileDiscovery+10 pts

Sitemap CompletenessDiscovery+10 pts

Content Publishing VelocityDiscovery+10 pts

#7443of 13300

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

44/100

Projected

78/100

39Total Fixes

13Quick Wins

~75hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Create /llms.txt fileAdd JSON-LD structured dataStrengthen entity authority (NAP)Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationAdd structured tables and listsAdd definition-style contentAdd ai.txt and content licensingEnhance author and expert schemaAdd visible date signalsAdd first-hand experience signalsEliminate cross-page duplicate contentReduce document weight

Fix

Impact

Effort

Create /llms.txt file

Add a machine-readable llms.txt file at your domain root that describes your site, services, and key pages for AI engines.

critical

low

Create /llms.txt file

critical|low

Add llms-full.txt with extended content

Create a comprehensive llms-full.txt with detailed page descriptions, content summaries, and topic taxonomy.

medium

low

Add llms-full.txt with extended content

medium|low

Create complete sitemap.xml

Generate a comprehensive sitemap with lastmod dates for all important pages.

critical

medium

Create complete sitemap.xml

critical|medium

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

Reduce document weight

Trim oversized HTML, excessive DOM nodes, and large inline payloads that slow AI crawlers.

high

low

Reduce document weight

high|low

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI41

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

llms.txt File

critical+10 pts0/10

Sitemap Completeness

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Visible Date Signal

critical+10 pts0/10

Image Context for AI

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

Creator Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+8 pts2/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

gocardless.com/enterpriseMade for recurring payments at scale | GoCardless

F32

content

2,656

gocardless.com/enterpriseF32

Made for recurring payments at scale | GoCardless

gocardless.com/developersDevelopers | GoCardless

F31

content

1,315

gocardless.com/developersF31

Developers | GoCardless

gocardless.com/sustainabilitySustainability | GoCardless

F30

content

1,079

gocardless.com/sustainabilityF30

Sustainability | GoCardless

gocardless.com/partner-with-usPartner with us | GoCardless

F31

content

1,061

gocardless.com/partner-with-usF31

Partner with us | GoCardless

gocardless.com/resourcesLatest news and resources | GoCardless

F28

resources

1,014

gocardless.com/resourcesF28

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Changes since v6Last audited 8 days ago

→

+10

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Content Freshness Signals

0/10

2/10

Direct Answer Paragraphs

8/10

10/10

Content Cannibalization

3/10

5/10

Topic Coherence

0/10

3/10

Creator Transparency

3/10

2/10

-1

Answer-First Placement

8/10

6/10

-2

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

llms.txt -The File That Separates 63 from 34

Tidio has a 251-line llms.txt. Crisp has zero. The score gap: +29 points. This single file tells AI assistants exactly what your site does -and without it, they're guessing.

Beginner·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

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 →

Criteria0/10

Content Publishing Velocity

You published a great blog post in January. It's now February and nothing else has appeared. AI engines notice -and they're crawling less often because of it.

Advanced·5 min readRead guide →

supplementary0/10

Speakable Schema Markup

Voice assistants need to pick which paragraph to read aloud from your page. Without Speakable markup, they guess -and they frequently guess wrong, reading your cookie notice.

Beginner·3 min readRead guide →

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Verdict

How to Improve

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI41

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

Score Breakdown

Unlock Full Audit Report

Your competitors are already optimizing for AI

Site Pages

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Related Questions

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