What are the 22 AEO criteria?

The 22 criteria are organized into 4 dimensions. CONTENT (7 criteria) - is your content worth citing? Q&A Content Format, FAQ Sections, Original Data, Content Freshness, Definition Patterns, Direct Answer Paragraphs, Fact Density. STRUCTURE (5) - can machines parse it? Schema.org Structured Data, Clean Crawlable HTML, Semantic HTML5, Sitemap Completeness, Schema Coverage. DISCOVERY (5) - can AI engines find you? llms.txt, robots.txt for AI Crawlers, Internal Linking, Sitemap Completeness, RSS Feed. TRUST SIGNALS (5) - can AI verify your credibility? Entity Authority, Content Licensing, Author Schema, Canonical URL, Content Velocity. Each is scored 0–10, weighted, and rolled up to a total out of 100.

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 does the technical audit check sitemap completeness?

The audit compares URLs in your sitemap.xml against pages discovered by crawling. It checks for missing URLs, stale lastmod timestamps that don't reflect actual changes, incorrect priority values, and orphaned entries pointing to deleted pages. A complete, accurate sitemap ensures AI crawlers discover every page you want indexed.

What are audit versions and how do they work?

Each time we re-audit a domain, a new version is created. You can view any previous version and compare two side by side to see exactly which criteria changed. This is how you measure the impact of your AEO work over time.

Can I compare my AEO score over time?

Yes. Every audit is versioned. You can see exactly how your score changed between audits — which criteria improved, which declined, and the overall trajectory. This is how you measure the impact of your AEO work.

inventive.ai - AEO Audit Report | 54/100

Inventive AIinventive.aiDeveloper Tools & Infrastructure AI & ML Platforms

Moderate AI visibility with 13 of 22 criteria passing. Biggest gap: rss/atom feed.

Scoring Methodology

How Your AEO Score Is Calculated

A weighted average of 22 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

Content7 criteria

Q&A Content Format15%5/10+7.5

FAQ Sections10%10/10+10.0

Original Data10%8/10+8.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%4/10+2.8

Fact & Data Density5%6/10+3.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Subtotal58%+35.5

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%6/10+9.0

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%8/10+8.0

Semantic HTML55%5/10+2.5

Table & List Extractability7%0/10+0.0

Schema Coverage3%3/10+0.9

Subtotal40%+20.4

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%8/10+8.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%6/10+6.0

Sitemap Completeness5%7/10+3.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+20.0

Trust Signals5 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%2/10+0.8

Canonical URL4%1/10+0.4

Content Velocity3%2/10+0.6

Subtotal25%+8.6

Overall Score100%54/100

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

Schema.org and Q&A format carry the highest weight at 15% each across 22 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 →

0-49

50-69

69-100

ContentCategory Average

6/10

StructureCategory Average

5/10

DiscoveryCategory Average

6/10

Trust SignalsCategory Average

3/10

Verdict

inventive.ai shows a mid-stage AEO foundation with an overall score of 54/100: technical crawlability is solid, but machine-consumable authority and freshness signals are underdeveloped. Strengths include a strong FAQ implementation (10/10), robust llms.txt presence (8/10), and clean crawlable HTML (8/10), plus a large sitemap with 534 URLs. The biggest drag is in trust and recency signals, including RSS/Atom (0/10), table/list extractability (0/10), canonical strategy (1/10), and multiple 2/10 areas such as content freshness, author schema, licensing/AI permissions, and publishing velocity. In short, the site is discoverable but not yet optimized for consistent AI citation and answer extraction.

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Scoreboard

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Freshness Signals2/10Without date metadata and lastmod indicators, AI systems have weaker confidence in recency and citation priority.

RSS/Atom Availability0/10No machine subscription endpoint means slower discovery of newly published content by downstream systems.

Sitemap Scale534 URLsLarge indexed footprint creates strong potential reach once freshness, canonicalization, and schema consistency are tightened.

Fix It With AI

Copy-paste these prompts into Claude Code or Cursor to fix each criterion.

These prompts are designed for projects where you have direct access to the codebase (Next.js, React, static HTML, WordPress, etc.). If your site runs on a hosted platform like Webflow, switch to the "Webflow" tab for platform-specific instructions. Using a different hosted platform? Contact us for custom guidance.

Top Opportunities

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.

EasyLow impactRead 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.

EasyMedium impactRead guide →

Criteria1/10

Content Publishing Velocity

You published a great blog post in January. It's now February and nothing else has appeared. AI engines notice -and they're crawling less often because of it.

HardMedium impactRead 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.

HardHigh impactRead guide →