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.

hitpayapp.com - AEO Audit Report | 63/100

SUMMER 2021 hitpayapp.com

Moderate AI visibility with 23 of 34 criteria passing. Biggest gap: rss/atom feed.

Finance & Payments Corporate Finance Platforms

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%9/10+13.5

FAQ Sections10%7/10+7.0

Original Data10%4/10+4.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%10/10+7.0

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%4/10+3.2

Content Cannibalization5%7/10+3.5

Subtotal71%+47.4

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%10/10+15.0

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%5/10+5.0

Semantic HTML55%6/10+3.0

Table & List Extractability7%10/10+7.0

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+33.0

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%2/10+2.0

Sitemap Completeness5%8/10+4.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+18.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%4/10+1.6

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%2/10+0.6

Visible Date Signals4%8/10+3.2

Subtotal29%+15.4

Overall Score100%63/100

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 →

↓2 since v3

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

8/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

5/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

6/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

5/10

Verdict

Moderate AEO readiness at 63/100 with significant gaps to address. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Schema.org Structured Data, and Table & List Extractability. Priority gaps: RSS/Atom Feed, Content Licensing & AI Permissions, and Speakable Schema.

Top priorities

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

#237of 13300

#26of 1389 in Finance & Payments

Ahead of you

lemonade.com63

flagright.com63

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

63/100

Projected

100/100

28Total Fixes

6Quick Wins

~60hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Fix HTML structure and meta tagsConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd ai.txt and content licensingEnhance author and expert schemaImprove query-answer alignmentClarify entity boundaries

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.

high

low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

high|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

Create complete sitemap.xml

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

low

Create complete sitemap.xml

low|low

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI27

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Internal Linking Structure

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+8 pts2/10

Image Context for AI

critical+8 pts2/10

Original Data & Expert Analysis

moderate+6 pts4/10

Author & Expert Schema

moderate+6 pts4/10

Query-Answer Alignment

moderate+6 pts4/10

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

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Site Pages

URLSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

hitpayapp.com/sitegiantAccept Payments on SiteGiant | SiteGiant Payment Gateway

content

731

hitpayapp.com/sitegiant29

Accept Payments on SiteGiant | SiteGiant Payment Gateway

hitpayapp.com/resources/trust-complianceTrust & Compliance | Secure Payments with HitPay

blog

603

hitpayapp.com/resources/trust-compliance30

Trust & Compliance | Secure Payments with HitPay

hitpayapp.com/sg/hitpay-terminal-outpost-climbingOutpost Climbing Saves With HitPay Terminal | Singapore POS

blog

1,034

hitpayapp.com/sg/hitpay-terminal-outpost-climbing30

Outpost Climbing Saves With HitPay Terminal | Singapore POS

hitpayapp.com/sitegiantAccept Payments on SiteGiant | SiteGiant Payment Gateway

content

731

hitpayapp.com/sitegiant29

Accept Payments on SiteGiant | SiteGiant Payment Gateway

hitpayapp.com/resources/trust-complianceTrust & Compliance | Secure Payments with HitPay

blog

603

hitpayapp.com/resources/trust-compliance30

Trust & Compliance | Secure Payments with HitPay

hitpayapp.com/solutions/retailRetail POS & Payment System | HitPay Southeast Asia

blog

1,121

hitpayapp.com/solutions/retail30

Retail POS & Payment System | HitPay Southeast Asia

Unlock Full Page Analysis

Changes since v3Last audited 26 days ago

→

-2

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Table & List Extractability

9/10

10/10

Content Cannibalization

9/10

7/10

-2

Topic Coherence

8/10

7/10

-1

Focus Content on Core TopicsImprove Citation-Ready WritingBuild Comprehensive FAQ SectionFix HTML Structure & Enable HTTPS

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 →

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

Internal Linking: The Web AI Uses to Map Your Expertise

AI crawlers follow internal links to discover and contextualize content. A page with zero inbound links is a page AI will never find. Hub pages linking to 20+ related articles signal topical authority that both engines reward.

Intermediate·5 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 →