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.

Is AEO only relevant for large businesses?

Not at all. Small businesses, local providers, niche e-commerce stores, solo consultants - they all benefit from AI visibility. We've seen smaller sites with well-structured content outperform larger competitors who haven't optimized for AI engines. Size matters less than structure.

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 is the difference between AI visibility and AI readiness?

Readiness is your technical foundation - whether your site has the right schema, llms.txt, clean HTML, and entity signals in place. Visibility is real-world performance - whether AI engines actually cite you when users ask relevant questions. You need readiness first, then visibility follows. Our audit measures readiness; our visibility analysis measures actual citation rates.

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.

tovala.com - AEO Audit Report | 35/100

WINTER 2016 tovala.com

Weak AI visibility with 17 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: schema.org structured data.

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.

Minimal 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%9/10+9.0

Original Data10%5/10+5.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%3/10+2.1

Fact & Data Density5%6/10+3.0

Definition Patterns4%0/10+0.0

Query-Answer Alignment8%5/10+4.0

Content Cannibalization5%3/10+1.5

Subtotal71%+26.0

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%0/10+0.0

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%5/10+5.0

Semantic HTML55%6/10+3.0

Table & List Extractability7%0/10+0.0

Schema Coverage3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal40%+8.0

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%2/10+2.0

Sitemap Completeness5%9/10+4.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+19.0

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%8/10+8.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%0/10+0.0

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%3/10+0.9

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+8.9

Overall Score100%35/100

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 v5

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

4/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

4/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

2/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

4/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

4/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 35/100 - tovala.com is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Duplicate Content Blocks, and Cross-Page Duplicate Content. Priority gaps: Schema.org Structured Data, Q&A Content Format, and RSS/Atom Feed.

Top priorities

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

Q&A Content FormatStructure+10 pts

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

#11067of 13300

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

35/100

Projected

74/100

42Total Fixes

7Quick Wins

~114hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Fix HTML structure and meta tagsConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd ai.txt and content licensingFix canonical URL strategyImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsMake pages solve the user task faster

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

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

Fix canonical URL strategy

Add rel="canonical" tags to all pages to prevent duplicate content confusion.

critical

low

Fix canonical URL strategy

critical|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

Reduce render-blocking resources

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

medium

low

Reduce render-blocking resources

medium|low

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI44

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Schema.org Structured Data

critical+10 pts0/10

Q&A Content Format

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Table & List Extractability

critical+10 pts0/10

Definition Patterns

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Author & Expert Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Canonical URL Strategy

critical+10 pts0/10

Schema Coverage & Depth

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Unlock Full Audit Report

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

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.tovala.com/blogFresh from Tovala | Recipes, Cooking Tips & Kitchen Technology

F22

blog

179

www.tovala.com/blogF22

Fresh from Tovala | Recipes, Cooking Tips & Kitchen Technology

www.tovala.com/learnHow it Works - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep | Tovala

F23

blog

www.tovala.com/learnF23

How it Works - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep | Tovala

www.tovala.com/menu/484Explore the Menu - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep. | Tovala

F25

blog

114

www.tovala.com/menu/484F25

Explore the Menu - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep. | Tovala

www.tovala.com/menu/cx/484Explore the Menu - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep. | Tovala

F25

blog

114

www.tovala.com/menu/cx/484F25

Explore the Menu - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep. | Tovala

www.tovala.com/menu/cxExplore the Menu - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep. | Tovala

F25

blog

110

www.tovala.com/menu/cxF25

Explore the Menu - Fresh Meal Delivery Service. 1 Minute of Prep. | Tovala

Unlock Full Page Analysis

Changes since v5Last audited 9 days ago

→

-4

View full comparison →

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

Schema.org JSON-LD: The Scoreboard AI Actually Reads

Tidio runs 4 JSON-LD schema types. Crisp runs zero. That's not a coincidence -it's the difference between a 63 and a 34. Structured data is the machine-readable layer AI trusts most.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

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

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

Table & List Extractability

Your comparison table looks great in the browser. But it's built with divs and CSS Grid, so ChatGPT sees a blob of text. Here's what that costs you.

Intermediate·5 min readRead guide →