What are conditional audit criteria?

Conditional criteria are checks that only apply to certain site types. Product/Offer schema applies only to e-commerce. Hreflang only to multilingual sites. ai.txt/TDM policy only to sites with substantial original content. Speakable schema was previously conditional but is now an active scored criterion in the 48-criteria framework. The remaining conditional criteria supplement the 34 universal audit criteria.

What is query-answer alignment and how do I improve it?

Query-Answer Alignment measures how well your content's headings and phrasing match the natural language questions users ask AI engines. Generic headings like "Overview" or "Features" don't match any real queries. Rewrite them as questions users actually ask: "How Much Does Live Chat Cost?" or "How Do I Set Up AI Support?" Use your visibility report's MISS queries as a roadmap.

How does direct answer density work?

Direct Answer Density (5% weight) measures how consistently your content leads with the answer right after each heading. AI doesn't read full articles - it scans headings and grabs the first 1-2 sentences. If those sentences contain filler ("In today's fast-paced world..."), AI moves on. Lead every section with a concrete fact or answer, then elaborate. This applies to all headings, not just questions.

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.

Do I need technical skills to improve my AEO Site Rank?

Some improvements — writing FAQ content, adding author bios — require zero technical skills. Others — deploying JSON-LD schema, modifying robots.txt — require basic HTML knowledge or developer access. Our Knowledge Base guides include code examples for each criterion. For hands-on help, we offer professional services.

inreachce.com - AEO Audit Report | 52/100

inreachce.com

Moderate AI visibility with 29 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: speakable schema.

Developer Tools & Infrastructure Developer Platforms

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%3/10+4.5

FAQ Sections10%1/10+1.0

Original Data10%4/10+4.0

Content Freshness7%7/10+4.9

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%7/10+4.9

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%5/10+2.0

Query-Answer Alignment8%0/10+0.0

Content Cannibalization5%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+31.3

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%9/10+9.0

Semantic HTML55%7/10+3.5

Table & List Extractability7%5/10+3.5

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+34.0

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%3/10+1.5

Internal Linking10%8/10+8.0

Sitemap Completeness5%10/10+5.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal33%+27.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%9/10+3.6

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%3/10+0.9

Visible Date Signals4%9/10+3.6

Subtotal29%+18.9

Overall Score100%52/100

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 →

↓1 since v10

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

5/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

6/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

6/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

7/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 52/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Schema.org Structured Data, and Sitemap Completeness. Priority gaps: Speakable Schema, Query-Answer Alignment, and Owned Data Density.

Top priorities

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Query-Answer AlignmentStructure+10 pts

Owned Data DensityTrust+10 pts

#3132of 13300

#620of 2335 in Developer Tools & Infrastructure

Ahead of you

hydrosat.com52

aira.io52

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

52/100

Projected

81/100

33Total Fixes

9Quick Wins

~67hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd structured tables and listsAdd definition-style contentAdd ai.txt and content licensingIncrease content depth and structureImprove citation-ready writing qualityClarify entity boundariesReduce extraction frictionReduce render-blocking resources

Fix

Impact

Effort

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.

high

low

Reduce render-blocking resources

high|low

Add internationalization signals

Implement hreflang tags and lang attributes so AI engines serve the correct language version when answering queries.

critical

medium

Add internationalization signals

critical|medium

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

Improve server response efficiency

Optimize compression, cache headers, redirect chains, and HTML payload size for faster AI crawler access.

low

Improve server response efficiency

low|low

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI36

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Query-Answer Alignment

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+9 pts1/10

Evidence Packaging

critical+9 pts1/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Image Context for AI

critical+8 pts2/10

Answer Capsule Pattern

critical+8 pts2/10

Q&A Content Format

critical+7 pts3/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

inreachce.com/inreach-cems-blogBlog - InReach Continuing Education Management System

F31

blog

1,600

inreachce.com/inreach-cems-blogF31

Blog - InReach Continuing Education Management System

inreachce.com/products/cemsCE and Learning Management System - InReach Continuing Education Management System

F30

services

731

inreachce.com/products/cemsF30

CE and Learning Management System - InReach Continuing Education Management System

Changes since v10Last audited 8 days ago

→

-1

View full comparison →

Criterion

v10

v11

Delta

Q&A Content Format

4/10

3/10

-1

Direct Answer Paragraphs

4/10

7/10

Query-Answer Alignment

4/10

0/10

-4

Extraction Friction Score

4/10

5/10

Answer Capsule Pattern

4/10

2/10

-2

Add Answer Capsule PatternsAdd Direct Answer Paragraphs

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

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 →

Criteria0/10

Query-Answer Alignment: Does Your Content Match What People Actually Ask?

You wrote a 3,000-word guide on "customer support automation." But people ask AI "how do I reduce support ticket volume?" If your content doesn't match the actual queries, AI can't connect the dots.

Beginner·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria1/10

FAQ Sections: 87 Questions Turned Our Score Into 88

Our site runs 87 FAQ items across 9 categories with FAQPage schema on every one. That's not excessive -it's how we hit 88/100. Each Q&A pair is a citation opportunity AI can extract in seconds.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria1/10

Evidence Packaging: Why AI Trusts Some Claims and Ignores Others

A statistic without a source is a liability. A claim without attribution is invisible. We track evidence packaging across every audit and the pattern is clear - sites that cite their sources get cited by AI. Sites that state facts without attribution get skipped.

Intermediate·5 min readRead guide →

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Verdict

How to Improve

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI36

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Score Breakdown

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