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.

greaseboss.com.au - AEO Audit Report | 66/100

WINTER 2021 greaseboss.com.au

Moderate AI visibility with 22 of 34 criteria passing. Biggest gap: llms.txt file.

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%6/10+6.0

Original Data10%8/10+8.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%10/10+7.0

Fact & Data Density5%8/10+4.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%7/10+5.6

Content Cannibalization5%7/10+3.5

Subtotal71%+48.8

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%9/10+9.0

Semantic HTML55%6/10+3.0

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%9/10+2.7

Subtotal40%+30.3

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%0/10+0.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%10/10+10.0

Sitemap Completeness5%9/10+4.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal33%+20.0

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%2/10+0.8

Canonical URL4%7/10+2.8

Content Velocity3%10/10+3.0

Visible Date Signals4%10/10+4.0

Subtotal29%+16.6

Overall Score100%66/100

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 →

↓4 since v2

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

7/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

7/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

5/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

8/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

6/10

Verdict

Moderate AEO readiness at 66/100 with significant gaps to address. Key strengths include Internal Linking Structure, RSS/Atom Feed, and Direct Answer Paragraphs. Priority gaps: llms.txt File, Content Licensing & AI Permissions, and Speakable Schema.

Top priorities

llms.txt FileDiscovery+10 pts

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

#81of 13300

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

66/100

Projected

100/100

29Total Fixes

5Quick Wins

~48hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Create /llms.txt fileConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd ai.txt and content licensingIncrease content depth and structureImprove citation-ready writing quality

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

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

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI28

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

llms.txt File

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Author & Expert Schema

critical+8 pts2/10

Extraction Friction Score

critical+8 pts2/10

Table & List Extractability

critical+7 pts3/10

Evidence Packaging

critical+7 pts3/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+7 pts3/10

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See all 34 criteria with detailed findings and actionable fix recommendations.

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Site Pages

URLSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

greaseboss.io/case-studiesCase Studies - GreaseBoss

cases

784

greaseboss.io/case-studies42

Case Studies - GreaseBoss

greaseboss.io/fixed-plant-solutionsFixed plant solutions - GreaseBoss

content

638

greaseboss.io/fixed-plant-solutions43

Fixed plant solutions - GreaseBoss

greaseboss.io/industry/manufacturingManufacturing - GreaseBoss

content

538

greaseboss.io/industry/manufacturing47

Manufacturing - GreaseBoss

greaseboss.io/mobile-equipmentMobile Equipment - GreaseBoss

content

949

greaseboss.io/mobile-equipment48

Mobile Equipment - GreaseBoss

greaseboss.io/solution/critical-point-monitoringCritical Point Monitoring - GreaseBoss

content

786

greaseboss.io/solution/critical-point-monitoring48

Critical Point Monitoring - GreaseBoss

greaseboss.io/solution/bulk-lubrication-managementBulk Lubrication Management - GreaseBoss

content

1,038

greaseboss.io/solution/bulk-lubrication-management49

Bulk Lubrication Management - GreaseBoss

greaseboss.io/solution/critical-point-monitoring-mobile-e...Critical Point Monitoring - GreaseBoss

content

1,087

greaseboss.io/solution/critical-point-monitoring-mobile-e...52

Critical Point Monitoring - GreaseBoss

Unlock Full Page Analysis

Changes since v2Last audited 29 days ago

→

-4

View full comparison →

Improve Citation-Ready WritingPackage Evidence for AIRestructure Content as Q&AImprove Query-Answer Alignment

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

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 →

Criteria2/10

Schema Coverage Ratio

Your homepage has perfect JSON-LD. Your other 200 pages? Zero. Here's how we measure the gap -and why AI engines judge your whole domain by it.

Advanced·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria2/10

Definition Pattern Detection

"What is AEO?" -14% of all AI queries start with "What is." If your content doesn't answer with a clean definition sentence, someone else's will.

Intermediate·5 min readRead guide →