How is AEO different from SEO?

SEO optimizes for page rankings. AEO optimizes for AI citations - being the source AI systems reference when answering questions. SEO runs on keywords and backlinks. AEO runs on structured data, clean HTML, entity authority, and Q&A content format. They're complementary, but AEO addresses the growing share of searches that never reach traditional results.

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 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.

How is the AEO readiness score calculated?

Each criterion is scored 0–10 based on presence, quality, and completeness. AEORank then normalizes those criteria inside 5 fixed-weight pillars, applies a topic-coherence cap when coherence is below 6/10, and blends the site score with a weighted page-fleet score from sampled pages. Audits also return score confidence plus split headline scores for foundation and content fleet. Below 40 means major gaps. 40–60 means partial implementation. 60–80 is solid. Above 80 is excellent.

mfmlegal.com - AEO Audit Report | 57/100

mfmlegal.com

Moderate AI visibility with 26 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: q&a content format.

Legal & Professional Services Law Practice

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.

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%0/10+0.0

FAQ Sections10%0/10+0.0

Original Data10%5/10+5.0

Content Freshness7%7/10+4.9

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%4/10+2.8

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%5/10+2.0

Query-Answer Alignment8%0/10+0.0

Content Cannibalization5%9/10+4.5

Subtotal71%+24.2

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%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%9/10+2.7

Subtotal40%+27.8

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%10/10+10.0

Sitemap Completeness5%0/10+0.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+22.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%7/10+2.8

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%0/10+0.0

Visible Date Signals4%9/10+3.6

Subtotal29%+17.2

Overall Score100%57/100

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 →

↑4 since v6

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

7/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

3/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

7/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

5/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

5/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 57/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Schema.org Structured Data, and Internal Linking Structure. Priority gaps: Q&A Content Format, Comprehensive FAQ Section, and Sitemap Completeness.

Top priorities

Q&A Content FormatStructure+10 pts

Comprehensive FAQ SectionStructure+10 pts

Sitemap CompletenessDiscovery+10 pts

#1346of 13300

#39of 259 in Legal & Professional Services

Ahead of you

darrow.ai57

mhtl.com57

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

57/100

Projected

83/100

36Total Fixes

9Quick Wins

~81hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Fix HTML structure and meta tagsConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd definition-style contentAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingMake pages solve the user task fasterMake content creators clearly visibleClarify entity boundariesReduce render-blocking resources

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

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.

high

trivial

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

high|trivial

Improve server response efficiency

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

critical

medium

Improve server response efficiency

critical|medium

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

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI39

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Q&A Content Format

critical+10 pts0/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+10 pts0/10

Sitemap Completeness

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Query-Answer Alignment

critical+10 pts0/10

Evidence Packaging

critical+10 pts0/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

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

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.mfmlegal.com/newsNews Archives - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

F30

content

23,513

www.mfmlegal.com/newsF30

News Archives - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

www.mfmlegal.com/tom-nash-appointed-to-florida-transporta...Tom Nash Appointed to Florida Transportation Commission - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

F28

content

23,250

www.mfmlegal.com/tom-nash-appointed-to-florida-transporta...F28

Tom Nash Appointed to Florida Transportation Commission - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

www.mfmlegal.com/brian-aungst-appointed-to-board-of-south...Brian Aungst Appointed to Board of Southwest Florida Water Management District - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

F27

content

23,167

www.mfmlegal.com/brian-aungst-appointed-to-board-of-south...F27

Brian Aungst Appointed to Board of Southwest Florida Water Management District - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

www.mfmlegal.com/officesOffices - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

F28

content

23,129

www.mfmlegal.com/officesF28

Offices - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

www.mfmlegal.com/brian-aungst-appointed-to-board-of-south...Brian Aungst Appointed to Board of Southwest Florida Water Management District - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

F27

content

23,167

www.mfmlegal.com/brian-aungst-appointed-to-board-of-south...F27

Brian Aungst Appointed to Board of Southwest Florida Water Management District - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

www.mfmlegal.com/practice-areas/educationEducation - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

F24

content

23,147

www.mfmlegal.com/practice-areas/educationF24

Education - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

www.mfmlegal.com/officesOffices - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

F28

content

23,129

www.mfmlegal.com/officesF28

Offices - Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen

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Changes since v6Last audited 16 days ago

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Criterion

Delta

Original Data & Expert Analysis

3/10

5/10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

5/10

6/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

0/10

2/10

Fact & Data Density

8/10

10/10

Visible Date Signal

3/10

9/10

Entity Disambiguation

3/10

4/10

Add Answer Capsule PatternsImprove Citation-Ready WritingAdd First-Hand Experience SignalsReduce Extraction FrictionIncrease Publishing FrequencyAdd Entity Disambiguation

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

Q&A Content Format: Write Like AI Reads

AI assistants are question-answering machines. When your content is already shaped as questions and answers, you're handing AI a pre-formatted citation. Sites that do this right get extracted -sites that don't get skipped.

Beginner·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

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 →

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 →