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 content licensing signals does the audit check?

The audit looks for machine-readable licensing metadata: CreativeWork license properties in JSON-LD, meta tags indicating reuse policy, copyright notices, ai.txt declarations, and TDM Reservation Protocol headers. Clear licensing tells AI systems whether they can quote or reference your content in their answers.

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.

sitenna.com - AEO Audit Report | 51/100

SUMMER 2021 sitenna.com

Moderate AI visibility with 29 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: content licensing & ai permissions.

E-commerce E-commerce 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%5/10+7.5

FAQ Sections10%5/10+5.0

Original Data10%3/10+3.0

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%7/10+5.6

Content Cannibalization5%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+40.8

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%5/10+5.0

Semantic HTML55%4/10+2.0

Table & List Extractability7%5/10+3.5

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+28.5

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%10/10+10.0

Sitemap Completeness5%10/10+5.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%7/10+2.1

Subtotal33%+29.6

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%7/10+2.8

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%7/10+2.1

Visible Date Signals4%3/10+1.2

Subtotal29%+16.1

Overall Score100%51/100

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 →

↓7 since v10

Citation Avg

Coherence gate active - score capped at 60

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

6/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

6/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

4/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

7/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 51/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Schema.org Structured Data, and Internal Linking Structure. Priority gaps: Content Licensing & AI Permissions, Speakable Schema, and Image Context for AI. Topic coherence is moderate at 5/10, capping the score at 60. Tighter topical focus would lift this ceiling.

Top priorities

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Image Context for AITechnical+10 pts

#3486of 13300

#39of 237 in E-commerce

Ahead of you

elektrikapp.com51

agendapro.com52

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

51/100

Projected

80/100

33Total Fixes

15Quick Wins

~60hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Add question-based headingsFix HTML structure and meta tagsConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersBuild FAQ sections with schemaImplement semantic HTML5 elementsAdd structured tables and listsAdd definition-style contentAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingAdd visible date signalsFocus blog content on core expertiseIncrease content depth and structurePackage evidence for AI enginesClarify 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

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

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

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Top Opportunities10

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Image Context for AI

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Creator Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

Methodology Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

Answer Capsule Pattern

critical+8 pts2/10

Original Data & Expert Analysis

critical+7 pts3/10

Visible Date Signal

critical+7 pts3/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

critical+7 pts3/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

sitenna.com/data-power-progress-enabling-the-uks-decade-o...Data, Power, Progress: Enabling the UK’s Decade of Economic Transformation - Sitenna

F37

content

775

sitenna.com/data-power-progress-enabling-the-uks-decade-o...F37

Data, Power, Progress: Enabling the UK’s Decade of Economic Transformation - Sitenna

sitenna.com/the-hidden-challenge-behind-americas-race-to-...The Hidden Challenge Behind America’s Race to 5G and Broadband Access - Sitenna

F38

content

633

sitenna.com/the-hidden-challenge-behind-americas-race-to-...F38

The Hidden Challenge Behind America’s Race to 5G and Broadband Access - Sitenna

sitenna.com/to-future-proof-ev-growth-start-with-the-digi...To Future-Proof EV Growth, Start With the Digital Backbone - Sitenna

F39

content

617

sitenna.com/to-future-proof-ev-growth-start-with-the-digi...F39

To Future-Proof EV Growth, Start With the Digital Backbone - Sitenna

sitenna.com/one-platform-many-power-sourcesOne Platform, Many Power Sources - Sitenna

F35

content

582

sitenna.com/one-platform-many-power-sourcesF35

One Platform, Many Power Sources - Sitenna

Changes since v10Last audited 8 days ago

→

-7

View full comparison →

Criterion

v10

v11

Delta

Author & Expert Schema

9/10

7/10

-2

Citation-Ready Writing Quality

4/10

3/10

-1

Evidence Packaging

5/10

4/10

-1

Page Speed: Load Blockers

3/10

5/10

Page Speed: Page Size

4/10

3/10

-1

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

Content Licensing Signals

You want AI engines to cite your content. But have you actually told them they're allowed to? Most sites haven't -and AI systems default to conservative behavior.

Beginner·3 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

Image Context for AI: Your Pictures Are Worth Zero Words Without Markup

AI can't see your images. It reads the markup around them. A product photo with alt="image1.jpg" tells AI nothing. A figure with a descriptive figcaption and 8-word alt text tells AI exactly what it's looking at - and that context feeds directly into citation decisions.

Beginner·3 min readRead guide →

Criteria2/10

Creator Transparency: Show Who Wrote This and Why They Are Qualified

Anonymous content is untrusted content. AI engines check for author bylines, bio links, reviewer credits, and Person schema to decide whether a page comes from a credible creator. Creator Transparency measures how clearly your content identifies its authors and their qualifications.

Beginner·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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