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.

howler.co.za - AEO Audit Report | 40/100

howler.co.za

Weak AI visibility with 17 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: llms.txt file.

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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.

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%3/10+3.0

Original Data10%5/10+5.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%2/10+1.4

Fact & Data Density5%6/10+3.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%5/10+4.0

Content Cannibalization5%5/10+2.5

Subtotal71%+24.6

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%7/10+7.0

Semantic HTML55%6/10+3.0

Table & List Extractability7%9/10+6.3

Schema Coverage3%5/10+1.5

Subtotal40%+17.8

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%0/10+0.0

robots.txt for AI5%2/10+1.0

Internal Linking10%6/10+6.0

Sitemap Completeness5%0/10+0.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+7.0

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%3/10+3.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%2/10+0.8

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%0/10+0.0

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+3.8

Overall Score100%40/100

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 →

↓3 since v7

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

5/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

5/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

2/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

4/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

2/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 40/100 - howler.co.za is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include Topic Coherence, Cross-Page Duplicate Content, and Entity Density. Priority gaps: llms.txt File, Schema.org Structured Data, and Sitemap Completeness.

Top priorities

llms.txt FileDiscovery+10 pts

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

Sitemap CompletenessDiscovery+10 pts

#9573of 13300

#43of 57 in Customer Support

Ahead of you

unthread.io41

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How to Improve

Current

40/100

Projected

76/100

43Total Fixes

9Quick Wins

~108hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Create /llms.txt fileConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationAdd ai.txt and content licensingFix canonical URL strategyExtend schema to inner pagesImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsMake pages solve the user task faster

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

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

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

critical

low

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

critical|low

Reduce render-blocking resources

Minimize blocking scripts and stylesheets in <head> to improve content availability for AI crawlers.

critical

medium

Reduce render-blocking resources

critical|medium

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI45

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

llms.txt File

critical+10 pts0/10

Schema.org Structured Data

critical+10 pts0/10

Sitemap Completeness

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Canonical URL Strategy

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Visible Date Signal

critical+10 pts0/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+10 pts0/10

Unlock Full Audit Report

See all 48 criteria with detailed findings and actionable fix recommendations.

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.howler.co.za/privacy_policyPrivacy Policy | Howler

F31

content

6,092

www.howler.co.za/privacy_policyF31

www.howler.co.za/terms_and_conditionsTerms & Conditions | Howler

F38

content

5,415

www.howler.co.za/terms_and_conditionsF38

Terms & Conditions | Howler

www.howler.co.za/activeHowler Active | Howler

F25

content

636

www.howler.co.za/activeF25

Howler Active | Howler

www.howler.co.za/events/mini-doughnut-decorating-workshop...Mini Doughnut Decorating Workshop | Howler

F27

content

528

www.howler.co.za/events/mini-doughnut-decorating-workshop...F27

Mini Doughnut Decorating Workshop | Howler

www.howler.co.za/events/canvas-painting-workshop-7f7fCanvas Painting Workshop | Howler

F26

content

522

www.howler.co.za/events/canvas-painting-workshop-7f7fF26

Canvas Painting Workshop | Howler

Changes since v7Last audited 9 days ago

→

-3

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Page Speed: Server Response

8/10

7/10

-1

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

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

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

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 →