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 do AI answer engines decide which sources to cite?

AI systems evaluate structured data quality, content relevance, entity authority signals, content freshness, and how well the format matches the question. Sites with Schema.org markup, clear entity information, and Q&A-formatted content get cited far more often than sites with unstructured, anonymous content.

What makes content "original" for AEO purposes?

Proprietary data, first-hand research, expert analysis with author credentials, unique case studies, perspectives you won't find elsewhere. AI engines value original sources because they add new information to the knowledge base. Rephrasing content from other sources adds zero value for AI citation.

How is fact density calculated in the technical audit?

Fact density counts verifiable claims per 1,000 words — named statistics, specific numbers, dated references, attributable statements. The audit uses NLP to identify factual assertions versus opinions or filler. Pages with fact density above 5 claims per 1,000 words are significantly more likely to be cited by AI engines. It's one of the strongest predictors of citation-worthiness.

What makes AEO content different from regular AI-generated content?

Two things. First, every piece is structured for AI citation from day one — proper schema, Q&A formatting, entity signals, fact density. Second, everything passes through our humanizer. No robotic phrasing, no filler, no telltale AI patterns. The result reads like it was written by your subject-matter expert, not a language model.

skywatch.co - AEO Audit Report | 57/100

skywatch.co

Moderate AI visibility with 20 of 34 criteria passing. Biggest gap: content licensing & ai permissions.

Developer Tools & Infrastructure AI & ML Platforms

Scoring Methodology

How Your AEO Site Rank Is Calculated

A weighted average of 34 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%5/10+7.5

FAQ Sections10%4/10+4.0

Original Data10%4/10+4.0

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%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+35.2

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%3/10+3.0

Semantic HTML55%7/10+3.5

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+25.1

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%8/10+8.0

Sitemap Completeness5%6/10+3.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal33%+26.5

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%2/10+0.6

Visible Date Signals4%8/10+3.2

Subtotal29%+16.6

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 34 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 v1

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

3/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

7/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

6/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

6/10

Verdict

Moderate AEO readiness at 57/100 with significant gaps to address. Key strengths include llms.txt File, RSS/Atom Feed, and Fact & Data Density. Priority gaps: Content Licensing & AI Permissions, Speakable Schema, and Query-Answer Alignment. HTTPS is not enabled, which caps several criteria scores and reduces AI crawler trust.

Top priorities

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Query-Answer AlignmentStructure+10 pts

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Ahead of you

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View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

57/100

Projected

100/100

29Total Fixes

10Quick Wins

~63hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Add question-based headingsConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersBuild FAQ sections with schemaLink orphan pages into site navigationAdd definition-style contentAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingIncrease content depth and structureImprove citation-ready writing qualityReduce 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.

critical

medium

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

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

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Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI28

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Query-Answer Alignment

critical+10 pts0/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+8 pts2/10

Clean, Crawlable HTML

critical+7 pts3/10

Table & List Extractability

critical+7 pts3/10

Evidence Packaging

critical+7 pts3/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+7 pts3/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

moderate+6 pts4/10

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Site Pages

URLSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

skywatch.com/contactContact - SkyWatch

contact

507

skywatch.com/contact31

Contact - SkyWatch

skywatch.com/case-studiesCase studies - SkyWatch

cases

451

skywatch.com/case-studies31

Case studies - SkyWatch

skywatch.coHome - SkyWatch

homepage

652

skywatch.co32

Home - SkyWatch

skywatch.comHome - SkyWatch

pricing

652

skywatch.com32

Home - SkyWatch

skywatch.comHome - SkyWatch

services

652

skywatch.com32

Home - SkyWatch

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Changes since v1Last audited 39 days ago

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Improve Citation-Ready WritingPackage Evidence for AIAdd Content Licensing & ai.txtIncrease Publishing Frequency

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

Fact Density Measurement

AI engines are citation machines -they need specific facts to quote. A page full of general advice with zero data points gives them nothing to work with.

Advanced·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria2/10

Author & Expert Schema: The Byline AI Actually Checks

AI doesn't take your word for it. When you publish content as "Admin" or "Staff Writer," you're telling AI engines that nobody at your company was willing to put their name on it. Person schema, author bios, and credential markup are how you prove a real expert wrote your content.

Intermediate·5 min readRead guide →

Criteria3/10

Clean HTML: If Crawlers Can't See It, It Doesn't Exist

Most AI crawlers don't run JavaScript. If your content loads after page render -behind accordions, SPAs, or API calls -you're invisible. We've seen entire FAQ sections vanish from AI's perspective because of one accordion widget.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria3/10

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 →