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.

Is AEO only relevant for large businesses?

Not at all. Small businesses, local providers, niche e-commerce stores, solo consultants - they all benefit from AI visibility. We've seen smaller sites with well-structured content outperform larger competitors who haven't optimized for AI engines. Size matters less than structure.

Can AEO help with voice search and smart assistants?

Yes. Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant increasingly pull AI-generated answers from web content. The same structured data, Q&A formatting, and entity authority that drive AEO also make your content the go-to source for voice search answers.

What is the difference between AI visibility and AI readiness?

Readiness is your technical foundation - whether your site has the right schema, llms.txt, clean HTML, and entity signals in place. Visibility is real-world performance - whether AI engines actually cite you when users ask relevant questions. You need readiness first, then visibility follows. Our audit measures readiness; our visibility analysis measures actual citation rates.

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.

honeytococoa.com - AEO Audit Report | 35/100

honeytococoa.com

Weak AI visibility with 14 of 34 criteria passing. Biggest gap: schema.org structured data.

SaaS & Productivity Analytics

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.

Minimal 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%1/10+1.5

FAQ Sections10%2/10+2.0

Original Data10%2/10+2.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%2/10+1.4

Fact & Data Density5%8/10+4.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%5/10+4.0

Content Cannibalization5%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+24.1

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%0/10+0.0

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%6/10+6.0

Semantic HTML55%6/10+3.0

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%9/10+2.7

Subtotal40%+13.8

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%0/10+0.0

Sitemap Completeness5%6/10+3.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%5/10+1.5

Subtotal33%+17.0

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%3/10+3.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%0/10+0.0

Canonical URL4%7/10+2.8

Content Velocity3%2/10+0.6

Visible Date Signals4%7/10+2.8

Subtotal29%+9.2

Overall Score100%35/100

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 →

↓1 since v2

Coherence gate active - score capped at 60

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

4/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

3/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

1/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

6/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

6/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 35/100 - honeytococoa.com is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Content Cannibalization, and Schema Coverage & Depth. Priority gaps: Schema.org Structured Data, Internal Linking Structure, and Content Licensing & AI Permissions.

Top priorities

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

Internal Linking StructureTrust+10 pts

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

#11002of 13300

#425of 531 in SaaS & Productivity

Ahead of you

mesmer.co35

projectchiron.org35

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

35/100

Projected

100/100

33Total Fixes

6Quick Wins

~85hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationDeploy RSS/Atom feedAdd ai.txt and content licensingImprove query-answer alignmentFocus blog content on core expertise

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 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

Create complete sitemap.xml

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

medium

low

Create complete sitemap.xml

medium|low

Fix canonical URL strategy

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

medium

trivial

Fix canonical URL strategy

medium|trivial

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI32

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Schema.org Structured Data

critical+10 pts0/10

Internal Linking Structure

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Author & Expert Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+10 pts0/10

Q&A Content Format

critical+9 pts1/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+8 pts2/10

Original Data & Expert Analysis

critical+8 pts2/10

Unlock Full Audit Report

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

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Site Pages

URLSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

honeytococoa.comHoney to Cocoa

homepage

769

honeytococoa.com19

Honey to Cocoa

honeytococoa.com/aboutAbout - Honey to Cocoa

about

478

honeytococoa.com/about25

About - Honey to Cocoa

honeytococoa.com/contactContact - Honey to Cocoa

contact

101

honeytococoa.com/contact26

Contact - Honey to Cocoa

Changes since v2Last audited 29 days ago

→

-1

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Definition Patterns

5/10

7/10

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

Schema.org JSON-LD: The Scoreboard AI Actually Reads

Tidio runs 4 JSON-LD schema types. Crisp runs zero. That's not a coincidence -it's the difference between a 63 and a 34. Structured data is the machine-readable layer AI trusts most.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

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 →

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 →

Criteria0/10

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 →