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.

expel.io - AEO Audit Report | 37/100

expel.io

Weak AI visibility with 18 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: schema.org structured data.

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.

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%2/10+2.0

Original Data10%4/10+4.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%2/10+1.4

Fact & Data Density5%7/10+3.5

Definition Patterns4%3/10+1.2

Query-Answer Alignment8%5/10+4.0

Content Cannibalization5%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+22.5

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%3/10+3.0

Semantic HTML55%0/10+0.0

Table & List Extractability7%0/10+0.0

Schema Coverage3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal40%+3.0

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%4/10+4.0

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%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%0/10+0.0

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%10/10+3.0

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+6.8

Overall Score100%37/100

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 →

↓9 since v2

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

6/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

2/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

2/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

3/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

7/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 37/100 - expel.io is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Sitemap Completeness, and Content Publishing Velocity. Priority gaps: Schema.org Structured Data, Q&A Content Format, and Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility.

Top priorities

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

Q&A Content FormatStructure+10 pts

Semantic HTML5 & AccessibilityTechnical+10 pts

#10872of 13362

#1897of 2337 in Developer Tools & Infrastructure

Ahead of you

xook.io37

inversionsemi.com37

View full rankings →

View improvement plan

How to Improve

Current

37/100

Projected

78/100

36Total Fixes

11Quick Wins

~77hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Strengthen entity authority (NAP)Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd structured tables and listsAdd direct answer paragraphsAdd ai.txt and content licensingFix canonical URL strategyImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsMake pages solve the user task fasterExplain how content was tested or reviewedImprove citation-ready writing quality

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.

critical

medium

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

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

Fix canonical URL strategy

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

critical

low

Fix canonical URL strategy

critical|low

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

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

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI41

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

41 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

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Table & List Extractability

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

Visible Date Signal

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

expel.com/cyberspeak/how-to-evaluate-cloud-security-servicesHow to evaluate cloud security services | Expel CyberSpeak Glossary

F30

blog

14,037

expel.com/cyberspeak/how-to-evaluate-cloud-security-servicesF30

How to evaluate cloud security services | Expel CyberSpeak Glossary

Changes since v2Last audited 29 days ago

→

-9

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Schema.org Structured Data

7/10

0/10

-7

Q&A Content Format

2/10

0/10

-2

Entity Authority & NAP Consistency

5/10

3/10

-2

Original Data & Expert Analysis

6/10

4/10

-2

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

3/10

0/10

-3

Content Freshness Signals

7/10

2/10

-5

Table & List Extractability

5/10

0/10

-5

Definition Patterns

7/10

3/10

-4

Direct Answer Paragraphs

4/10

2/10

-2

Author & Expert Schema

9/10

0/10

-9

Fact & Data Density

10/10

7/10

-3

Schema Coverage & Depth

10/10

0/10

-10

Query-Answer Alignment

4/10

5/10

Visible Date Signal

3/10

0/10

-3

Content Depth

8/10

7/10

-1

First-Hand Experience Signals

3/10

2/10

-1

Creator Transparency

2/10

1/10

-1

Methodology Transparency

4/10

5/10

Entity Disambiguation

1/10

0/10

-1

Image Context for AI

2/10

5/10

Answer Capsule Pattern

2/10

5/10

Entity Density

2/10

0/10

-2

Strengthen Entity Authority (NAP)Add Answer Capsule Patterns

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

Semantic HTML5: The Difference Between a Page and a Page AI Can Parse

A page built with <div> everywhere looks the same to AI as a page with no structure at all. Semantic elements -<main>, <article>, <section>, <time> -are the markup that tells AI where your content starts, what it means, and how it's organized.

Intermediate·3 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 →