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 content licensing signals does the audit check?

The audit looks for machine-readable licensing metadata: CreativeWork license properties in JSON-LD, meta tags indicating reuse policy, copyright notices, ai.txt declarations, and TDM Reservation Protocol headers. Clear licensing tells AI systems whether they can quote or reference your content in their answers.

What are conditional audit criteria?

Conditional criteria are checks that only apply to certain site types. Product/Offer schema applies only to e-commerce. Hreflang only to multilingual sites. ai.txt/TDM policy only to sites with substantial original content. Speakable schema was previously conditional but is now an active scored criterion in the 48-criteria framework. The remaining conditional criteria supplement the 34 universal audit criteria.

What is query-answer alignment and how do I improve it?

Query-Answer Alignment measures how well your content's headings and phrasing match the natural language questions users ask AI engines. Generic headings like "Overview" or "Features" don't match any real queries. Rewrite them as questions users actually ask: "How Much Does Live Chat Cost?" or "How Do I Set Up AI Support?" Use your visibility report's MISS queries as a roadmap.

How does direct answer density work?

Direct Answer Density (5% weight) measures how consistently your content leads with the answer right after each heading. AI doesn't read full articles - it scans headings and grabs the first 1-2 sentences. If those sentences contain filler ("In today's fast-paced world..."), AI moves on. Lead every section with a concrete fact or answer, then elaborate. This applies to all headings, not just questions.

awakelabs.com - AEO Audit Report | 51/100

awakelabs.com

Moderate AI visibility with 24 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: content licensing & ai permissions.

Healthcare & Patient Advocacy Healthcare Technology

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%3/10+4.5

FAQ Sections10%2/10+2.0

Original Data10%6/10+6.0

Content Freshness7%5/10+3.5

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%4/10+2.8

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%0/10+0.0

Content Cannibalization5%7/10+3.5

Subtotal71%+30.1

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%9/10+9.0

Semantic HTML55%9/10+4.5

Table & List Extractability7%5/10+3.5

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+33.5

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%10/10+10.0

Sitemap Completeness5%10/10+5.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%3/10+0.9

Subtotal33%+28.4

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%8/10+8.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%5/10+2.0

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%2/10+0.6

Visible Date Signals4%3/10+1.2

Subtotal29%+15.8

Overall Score100%51/100

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 →

↑3 since v1

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

4/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

6/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

6/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

5/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 51/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Internal Linking Structure, and Sitemap Completeness. Priority gaps: Content Licensing & AI Permissions, Speakable Schema, and Query-Answer Alignment.

Top priorities

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Query-Answer AlignmentStructure+10 pts

#4945of 13362

#539of 1359 in Healthcare & Patient Advocacy

Ahead of you

bluumbio.com51

baronbaptiste.com51

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View improvement plan

How to Improve

Current

51/100

Projected

78/100

39Total Fixes

10Quick Wins

~80hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Create /llms.txt fileConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd structured tables and listsAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingAdd visible date signalsExplain how content was tested or reviewedImprove citation-ready writing qualityImprove server response efficiencyReduce render-blocking resources

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

Reduce document weight

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

critical

medium

Reduce document weight

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

Reduce render-blocking resources

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

high

low

Reduce render-blocking resources

high|low

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI40

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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

Evidence Packaging

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+9 pts1/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+8 pts2/10

Creator Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.awakelabs.com/userguideUser Guide | Awake Labs

D45

blog

3,245

www.awakelabs.com/userguideD45

User Guide | Awake Labs

www.awakelabs.com/challengesProgram List | Awake Labs

F31

content

1,071

www.awakelabs.com/challengesF31

Program List | Awake Labs

www.awakelabs.com/urgent-supportHotlines | Awake Labs

F36

content

675

www.awakelabs.com/urgent-supportF36

Hotlines | Awake Labs

www.awakelabs.com/service-providersFor Care Organizations | Awake Labs

F30

content

650

www.awakelabs.com/service-providersF30

For Care Organizations | Awake Labs

www.awakelabs.com/post/catalight-pilotCatalight Expands Pilot Study in Partnership with Awake Labs

F31

blog

829

www.awakelabs.com/post/catalight-pilotF31

Catalight Expands Pilot Study in Partnership with Awake Labs

www.awakelabs.com/post/5-ways-to-build-buy-in-for-new-tec...5 Ways to build buy-in for new technology

F31

blog

828

www.awakelabs.com/post/5-ways-to-build-buy-in-for-new-tec...F31

5 Ways to build buy-in for new technology

www.awakelabs.com/post/getting-buy-in-and-beating-burnoutThe key to getting buy-in and beating burnout

F31

blog

828

www.awakelabs.com/post/getting-buy-in-and-beating-burnoutF31

The key to getting buy-in and beating burnout

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Changes since v1Last audited 29 days ago

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Criterion

Delta

llms.txt File

0/10

10/10

+10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

7/10

9/10

Fact & Data Density

8/10

10/10

Content Depth

3/10

4/10

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

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 →

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

Query-Answer Alignment: Does Your Content Match What People Actually Ask?

You wrote a 3,000-word guide on "customer support automation." But people ask AI "how do I reduce support ticket volume?" If your content doesn't match the actual queries, AI can't connect the dots.

Beginner·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

Evidence Packaging: Why AI Trusts Some Claims and Ignores Others

A statistic without a source is a liability. A claim without attribution is invisible. We track evidence packaging across every audit and the pattern is clear - sites that cite their sources get cited by AI. Sites that state facts without attribution get skipped.

Intermediate·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 AI40

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Score Breakdown

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