What is AEO (AI Engine Optimization)?

AEO is the practice of structuring your website so AI answer engines - ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude - can find, understand, and cite it. SEO gets you ranked in search results. AEO gets you into AI-generated answers. Different game, different rules.

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.

What happens if my site scores below 20?

A score below 20 means most fundamental AEO infrastructure is missing - no llms.txt, no relevant schema, likely blocking AI crawlers, no FAQ content. The good news is the fastest gains come from this starting point. Adding llms.txt, basic Organization schema, and unblocking AI crawlers in robots.txt can double your score in a single day.

What is llms.txt and do I need one?

llms.txt is a plain-text file at your domain root — like robots.txt — that gives AI assistants a structured summary of your website. What your business does, key content areas, how to navigate your site. It helps AI systems understand your business without crawling every page. If you want AI visibility, you need one.

thndr.app - AEO Audit Report | 49/100

SUMMER 2020 thndr.app

Weak AI visibility with 26 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: llms.txt file.

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%2/10+3.0

FAQ Sections10%4/10+4.0

Original Data10%8/10+8.0

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%4/10+3.2

Content Cannibalization5%5/10+2.5

Subtotal71%+35.4

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%8/10+8.0

Semantic HTML55%8/10+4.0

Table & List Extractability7%6/10+4.2

Schema Coverage3%9/10+2.7

Subtotal40%+33.9

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%0/10+0.0

robots.txt for AI5%3/10+1.5

Internal Linking10%9/10+9.0

Sitemap Completeness5%9/10+4.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%8/10+2.4

Subtotal33%+17.4

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%7/10+2.8

Canonical URL4%8/10+3.2

Content Velocity3%2/10+0.6

Visible Date Signals4%3/10+1.2

Subtotal29%+14.6

Overall Score100%49/100

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 v6

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

7/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

4/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

6/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

6/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

4/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 49/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include Schema.org Structured Data, Fact & Data Density, and Internationalization Signals. Priority gaps: llms.txt File, Speakable Schema, and Owned Data Density.

Top priorities

llms.txt FileDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Owned Data DensityTrust+10 pts

#4668of 13300

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

49/100

Projected

80/100

43Total Fixes

13Quick Wins

~84hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Create /llms.txt fileConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersBuild FAQ sections with schemaLink orphan pages into site navigationAdd definition-style contentAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsMake pages solve the user task fasterImprove citation-ready writing qualityReduce extraction frictionAdd image context for AI engines

Fix

Impact

Effort

Create /llms.txt file

Add a machine-readable llms.txt file at your domain root that describes your site, services, and key pages for AI engines.

critical

low

Create /llms.txt file

critical|low

Add llms-full.txt with extended content

Create a comprehensive llms-full.txt with detailed page descriptions, content summaries, and topic taxonomy.

medium

low

Add llms-full.txt with extended content

medium|low

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

Update robots.txt to explicitly allow AI crawlers and include sitemap directive.

critical

low

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlers

critical|low

Reduce render-blocking resources

Minimize blocking scripts and stylesheets in <head> to improve content availability for AI crawlers.

critical

medium

Reduce render-blocking resources

critical|medium

Reduce document weight

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

critical

medium

Reduce document weight

critical|medium

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Top Opportunities10

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

llms.txt File

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Q&A Content Format

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+8 pts2/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Creator Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

Methodology Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+8 pts2/10

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URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

Changes since v6Last audited 9 days ago

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Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

llms.txt -The File That Separates 63 from 34

Tidio has a 251-line llms.txt. Crisp has zero. The score gap: +29 points. This single file tells AI assistants exactly what your site does -and without it, they're guessing.

Beginner·8 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 →

Criteria2/10

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 →

Criteria2/10

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 →

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Verdict

How to Improve

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI45

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Score Breakdown

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