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.

Why do I need visible dates on my content pages?

Visible Date Signal checks whether your pages display clear publication and update dates. AI engines have a recency bias - content without visible dates gets treated as potentially stale, even if it was published recently. Add both "Published" and "Last Updated" dates to your article template, and match them with datePublished and dateModified in your Article schema.

How is AEO different from SEO?

SEO optimizes for page rankings. AEO optimizes for AI citations - being the source AI systems reference when answering questions. SEO runs on keywords and backlinks. AEO runs on structured data, clean HTML, entity authority, and Q&A content format. They're complementary, but AEO addresses the growing share of searches that never reach traditional results.

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 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.

cydeploy.com - AEO Audit Report | 46/100

cydeploy.com

Weak AI visibility with 23 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: speakable schema.

Developer Tools & Infrastructure Security & Compliance

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%3/10+3.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%4/10+2.8

Fact & Data Density5%8/10+4.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%5/10+4.0

Content Cannibalization5%7/10+3.5

Subtotal71%+25.0

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%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%4/10+1.2

Subtotal40%+30.3

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%7/10+7.0

Sitemap Completeness5%9/10+4.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%3/10+0.9

Subtotal33%+24.9

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%2/10+0.8

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%5/10+1.5

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+13.1

Overall Score100%46/100

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 v1

Citation Avg

Coherence gate active - score capped at 60

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

5/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

5/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

4/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

5/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

6/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 46/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Canonical URL Strategy, and Duplicate Content Blocks. Priority gaps: Speakable Schema, Visible Date Signal, and Owned Data Density. Topic coherence is moderate at 5/10, capping the score at 60. Tighter topical focus would lift this ceiling.

Top priorities

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Visible Date SignalTechnical+10 pts

Owned Data DensityTrust+10 pts

#7727of 13362

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Ahead of you

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How to Improve

Current

46/100

Projected

77/100

42Total Fixes

16Quick Wins

~91hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Create /llms.txt fileConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingExtend schema to inner pagesImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsFocus blog content on core expertiseExplain how content was tested or reviewedImprove citation-ready writing qualityAdd answer-first content placementReduce extraction frictionImprove server response efficiencyReduce render-blocking resourcesReduce document weight

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.

high

low

Reduce document weight

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

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 AI43

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

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

Evidence Packaging

critical+9 pts1/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

Author & Expert Schema

critical+8 pts2/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.cydeploy.com/programsOwlThis!-Program Pg | CyDeploy

F22

content

1,070

www.cydeploy.com/programsF22

OwlThis!-Program Pg | CyDeploy

Changes since v1Last audited 30 days ago

→

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

llms.txt File

0/10

10/10

+10

Content Cannibalization

5/10

7/10

Content Depth

2/10

3/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

3/10

2/10

-1

Page Speed: Server Response

4/10

5/10

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

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 →

Criteria1/10

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 →

Criteria1/10

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 AI43

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Score Breakdown

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