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.

Can I request a re-audit of my website?

Yes. After making improvements based on audit recommendations, request a fresh audit to see your updated score. Each re-audit creates a new version you can compare against previous ones to quantify progress.

How long does it take for AEO changes to affect AI visibility?

Technical changes — Schema.org, robots.txt — get picked up by AI crawlers within days to weeks. Content changes — FAQ pages, Q&A restructuring — take weeks to months to be fully indexed and reflected in AI answers. Unlike SEO, there's no established timeline. AI systems re-index on their own schedules.

How often are benchmarks updated?

Automatically, whenever new audits are published. Each audit includes a timestamp so you know how current the data is. Industries with more audited domains have more reliable benchmarks. We're continuously expanding coverage across sectors.

Should I update old content or create new content?

Both — but updating existing high-performing content often yields faster results. Add Q&A headings, FAQ schema, author attribution, and internal links to existing pages. For new content, focus on topics where you have genuine expertise or original data. AI engines value freshness, so update publication dates when you substantially revise content.

zepto.com - AEO Audit Report | 59/100

WINTER 2021 zepto.com

Moderate AI visibility with 28 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: content freshness signals.

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.

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%6/10+9.0

FAQ Sections10%5/10+5.0

Original Data10%5/10+5.0

Content Freshness7%0/10+0.0

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%10/10+7.0

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%4/10+3.2

Content Cannibalization5%5/10+2.5

Subtotal71%+39.5

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%6/10+6.0

Semantic HTML55%6/10+3.0

Table & List Extractability7%10/10+7.0

Schema Coverage3%6/10+1.8

Subtotal40%+32.8

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%2/10+2.0

Sitemap Completeness5%10/10+5.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+19.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%8/10+8.0

Content Licensing4%4/10+1.6

Author & Expert Schema4%2/10+0.8

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%3/10+0.9

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+15.3

Overall Score100%59/100

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 v4

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

7/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

7/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

3/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

4/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

6/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 59/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Schema.org Structured Data, and Sitemap Completeness. Priority gaps: Content Freshness Signals, RSS/Atom Feed, and Speakable Schema.

Top priorities

Content Freshness SignalsTrust+10 pts

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

#774of 13300

#9of 237 in E-commerce

Ahead of you

synder.com60

copyt.io60

View full rankings →

How to Improve

Current

59/100

Projected

84/100

36Total Fixes

9Quick Wins

~91hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersBuild FAQ sections with schemaAdd ai.txt and content licensingImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsMake pages solve the user task fasterImprove citation-ready writing qualityClarify entity boundariesReduce document weight

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.

medium

low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

medium|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

Improve server response efficiency

Optimize compression, cache headers, redirect chains, and HTML payload size for faster AI crawler access.

critical

medium

Improve server response efficiency

critical|medium

Reduce document weight

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

high

low

Reduce document weight

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

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI38

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Content Freshness Signals

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Visible Date Signal

critical+10 pts0/10

Evidence Packaging

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Internal Linking Structure

critical+8 pts2/10

Author & Expert Schema

critical+8 pts2/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.zepto.com/s/responsible-disclosure-policyResponsible Disclosure Policy - Zepto

F23

content

1,295

www.zepto.com/s/responsible-disclosure-policyF23

Responsible Disclosure Policy - Zepto

www.zepto.com/liteBuy Cigarettes Online - Gold Flake, Marlboro, Dunhill & More | Zepto Lite

F29

content

752

www.zepto.com/liteF29

Buy Cigarettes Online - Gold Flake, Marlboro, Dunhill & More | Zepto Lite

Changes since v4Last audited 22 days ago

→

-1

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Q&A Content Format

8/10

6/10

-2

Entity Authority & NAP Consistency

6/10

8/10

Content Publishing Velocity

10/10

3/10

-7

Content Cannibalization

10/10

5/10

-5

Content Depth

7/10

6/10

-1

Helpful Purpose Alignment

3/10

5/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

3/10

2/10

-1

Creator Transparency

0/10

2/10

Methodology Transparency

4/10

2/10

-2

Citation-Ready Writing Quality

4/10

5/10

Answer-First Placement

1/10

3/10

Add Owned Data SignalsAdd First-Hand Experience SignalsEnhance Author & Expert SchemaStrengthen Entity Authority (NAP)

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

Content Freshness Signals

No date on your page? AI engines treat it like a rumor -undated and deprioritized. Here's how we audit whether your timestamps are actually machine-readable.

Beginner·5 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 →

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

Visible Date Signal: The Freshness Cue AI Checks Before Citing You

AI engines are biased toward recency. An article with no visible date is an article AI can't trust to be current. Visible Date Signal measures whether your pages show clear publication and update dates that both humans and machines can read.

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 AI38

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Score Breakdown

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