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.

truenorth.co - AEO Audit Report | 45/100

truenorth.co

Weak AI visibility with 19 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: schema.org structured data.

Developer Tools & Infrastructure Developer 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%1/10+1.5

FAQ Sections10%2/10+2.0

Original Data10%8/10+8.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%2/10+1.4

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%5/10+4.0

Content Cannibalization5%6/10+3.0

Subtotal71%+29.1

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%8/10+8.0

Semantic HTML55%4/10+2.0

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal40%+12.1

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%3/10+1.5

Internal Linking10%5/10+5.0

Sitemap Completeness5%10/10+5.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+21.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%3/10+3.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%4/10+1.6

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%3/10+0.9

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+5.5

Overall Score100%45/100

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 →

↑1 since v10

Citation Avg

Coherence gate active - score capped at 55

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

4/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

2/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

4/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

5/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 45/100 - truenorth.co is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Sitemap Completeness, and Fact & Data Density. Priority gaps: Schema.org Structured Data, RSS/Atom Feed, and Content Licensing & AI Permissions. Topic coherence is 4/10, which caps the overall score at 55. Focusing content on core expertise areas is the single highest-impact improvement.

Top priorities

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

#7059of 13300

#1272of 2335 in Developer Tools & Infrastructure

Ahead of you

learnplatform.com45

waterplan.com45

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

45/100

Projected

80/100

40Total Fixes

14Quick Wins

~90hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationImplement semantic HTML5 elementsAdd ai.txt and content licensingEnhance author and expert schemaFix canonical URL strategyImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsFocus blog content on core expertiseIncrease content depth and structureMake pages solve the user task fasterImprove citation-ready writing qualityPackage evidence for AI enginesClarify entity boundaries

Fix

Impact

Effort

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

Fix canonical URL strategy

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

critical

low

Fix canonical URL strategy

critical|low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

Ensure clean, well-structured HTML with proper meta tags, HTTPS, and parseable content for AI crawlers.

low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

low|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 document weight

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

medium

low

Reduce document weight

medium|low

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI42

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Schema.org Structured Data

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Canonical URL Strategy

critical+10 pts0/10

Schema Coverage & Depth

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Visible Date Signal

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Q&A Content Format

critical+9 pts1/10

Creator Transparency

critical+9 pts1/10

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

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

truenorth.co/our-workOur Work

F23

content

1,452

truenorth.co/our-workF23

Our Work

truenorth.co/articles-%26-blogsArticles & Blogs

F24

blog

1,271

truenorth.co/articles-%26-blogsF24

Articles & Blogs

truenorth.co/the-need-for-speedThe need for speed

F28

content

1,198

truenorth.co/the-need-for-speedF28

The need for speed

truenorth.co/case-studiesCase Studies | TrueNorth

F26

cases

1,112

truenorth.co/case-studiesF26

Case Studies | TrueNorth

truenorth.co/our-companyOur Company

F26

content

727

truenorth.co/our-companyF26

Our Company

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Changes since v10Last audited 5 days ago

→

View full comparison →

Criterion

v10

v11

Delta

Sitemap Completeness

0/10

10/10

+10

Fact & Data Density

8/10

10/10

Content Publishing Velocity

0/10

3/10

Content Cannibalization

10/10

6/10

-4

Topic Coherence

5/10

4/10

-1

Content Depth

7/10

5/10

-2

Helpful Purpose Alignment

5/10

6/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

3/10

2/10

-1

Creator Transparency

2/10

1/10

-1

Citation-Ready Writing Quality

7/10

5/10

-2

Entity Disambiguation

2/10

4/10

Extraction Friction Score

2/10

3/10

Sentence Atomicity

2/10

4/10

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

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

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 →

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 →