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 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.

What is content cannibalization and how does it hurt AI visibility?

Content cannibalization happens when multiple pages on your site target the same topic, forcing AI to guess which one to cite. The scorer compares page titles and content similarity across your site. Fix it by consolidating competing pages into one authoritative resource with 301 redirects from the old URLs. When Topic Coherence is low, the cannibalization penalty becomes more aggressive.

How does canonical URL strategy affect AI visibility?

When multiple URLs serve the same content — with/without www, HTTP/HTTPS, trailing slashes — AI crawlers split signals across duplicates. The audit checks every page for a rel=canonical link pointing to the correct URL. Missing or conflicting canonicals confuse crawlers about which version to index, diluting your AI visibility.

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.

rockhopper.co - AEO Audit Report | 52/100

rockhopper.co

Moderate AI visibility with 28 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: rss/atom feed.

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%6/10+9.0

FAQ Sections10%1/10+1.0

Original Data10%8/10+8.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%10/10+7.0

Fact & Data Density5%6/10+3.0

Definition Patterns4%5/10+2.0

Query-Answer Alignment8%4/10+3.2

Content Cannibalization5%9/10+4.5

Subtotal71%+39.1

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%9/10+13.5

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%7/10+7.0

Semantic HTML55%10/10+5.0

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+30.6

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%3/10+1.5

Internal Linking10%6/10+6.0

Sitemap Completeness5%8/10+4.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+21.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%9/10+3.6

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%10/10+3.0

Visible Date Signals4%3/10+1.2

Subtotal29%+14.6

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 →

↓3 since v5

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

5/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

6/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

5/10

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, Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility, and Direct Answer Paragraphs. Priority gaps: RSS/Atom Feed, Canonical URL Strategy, and Speakable Schema.

Top priorities

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

Canonical URL StrategyDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

#2946of 13300

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

52/100

Projected

82/100

38Total Fixes

11Quick Wins

~79hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Strengthen entity authority (NAP)Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationImplement semantic HTML5 elementsAdd structured tables and listsAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingEnhance author and expert schemaAdd visible date signalsAdd answer-first content placementReduce extraction friction

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.

medium

low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

medium|low

Reduce document weight

Trim oversized HTML, excessive DOM nodes, and large inline payloads that slow AI crawlers.

critical

medium

Reduce document weight

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

Create complete sitemap.xml

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

medium

low

Create complete sitemap.xml

medium|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

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Top Opportunities10

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Canonical URL Strategy

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Depth

critical+10 pts0/10

Creator Transparency

critical+10 pts0/10

Evidence Packaging

critical+10 pts0/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+9 pts1/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

critical+9 pts1/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.rockhopper.co/blogBlog | Finance Insights, Spreadsheet Work, Future of Finance

F35

blog

1,560

www.rockhopper.co/blogF35

Blog | Finance Insights, Spreadsheet Work, Future of Finance

www.rockhopper.co/case-studies/howard-hughesTaking Howard Hughes to New Heights - Rockhopper

F33

blog

1,173

www.rockhopper.co/case-studies/howard-hughesF33

Taking Howard Hughes to New Heights - Rockhopper

Changes since v5Last audited 9 days ago

→

-3

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Schema.org Structured Data

0/10

9/10

Clean, Crawlable HTML

6/10

7/10

Entity Authority & NAP Consistency

4/10

6/10

robots.txt for AI Crawlers

5/10

3/10

-2

Comprehensive FAQ Section

3/10

1/10

-2

Internal Linking Structure

2/10

6/10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

5/10

10/10

Sitemap Completeness

6/10

8/10

Table & List Extractability

5/10

3/10

-2

Definition Patterns

7/10

5/10

-2

Direct Answer Paragraphs

4/10

10/10

Author & Expert Schema

4/10

9/10

Fact & Data Density

10/10

6/10

-4

Canonical URL Strategy

10/10

0/10

-10

Content Publishing Velocity

2/10

10/10

Schema Coverage & Depth

0/10

10/10

+10

Query-Answer Alignment

0/10

4/10

Content Cannibalization

10/10

9/10

-1

Visible Date Signal

0/10

3/10

Topic Coherence

10/10

6/10

-4

Content Depth

6/10

0/10

-6

Creator Transparency

1/10

0/10

-1

Answer-First Placement

4/10

10/10

Evidence Packaging

3/10

0/10

-3

Entity Disambiguation

3/10

4/10

Extraction Friction Score

5/10

6/10

Image Context for AI

1/10

2/10

Duplicate Content Blocks

7/10

10/10

Cross-Page Duplicate Content

10/10

9/10

-1

Page Speed: Server Response

6/10

8/10

Page Speed: Load Blockers

7/10

9/10

Page Speed: Page Size

2/10

9/10

Answer Capsule Pattern

0/10

2/10

Sentence Atomicity

10/10

8/10

-2

Focus Content on Core TopicsBuild Comprehensive FAQ SectionIncrease Fact & Data DensityAdd Direct Answer ParagraphsImprove Internal Linking ArchitectureStrengthen Entity Authority (NAP)

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.

Beginner·3 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

Canonical URL Strategy

Same content, three URLs, zero canonical tags. Congratulations -you just split your authority three ways and gave AI crawlers a headache.

Intermediate·5 min readRead guide →

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

Content Depth: Why Thin Pages Are Invisible to AI

A 300-word page cannot compete with a 3,000-word deep dive for an AI citation. Content Depth measures the substance on your pages - word counts, heading structure, and the ratio of deep pages to thin ones across your site.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

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Verdict

How to Improve

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Top Opportunities10

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Score Breakdown

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