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 does the RSS feed audit check?

The audit verifies your site has a discoverable RSS or Atom feed with proper metadata. It checks feed existence at common paths, a link tag in the HTML head, adequate item count, and pubDate per item. RSS feeds let AI indexing systems detect new content automatically without waiting for a full crawl.

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.

getsequence.io - AEO Audit Report | 59/100

getsequence.io

Moderate AI visibility with 32 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: rss/atom feed.

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%8/10+12.0

FAQ Sections10%5/10+5.0

Original Data10%10/10+10.0

Content Freshness7%5/10+3.5

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%10/10+7.0

Fact & Data Density5%8/10+4.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%7/10+5.6

Content Cannibalization5%9/10+4.5

Subtotal71%+54.4

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%5/10+7.5

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%8/10+8.0

Semantic HTML55%5/10+2.5

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%5/10+1.5

Subtotal40%+21.6

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%6/10+6.0

Sitemap Completeness5%6/10+3.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+21.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%5/10+5.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%2/10+0.8

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%2/10+0.6

Visible Date Signals4%3/10+1.2

Subtotal29%+11.6

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 →

↑9 since v1

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

7/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

7/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

4/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

5/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

6/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 59/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Original Data & Expert Analysis, and Direct Answer Paragraphs. Priority gaps: RSS/Atom Feed, Content Licensing & AI Permissions, and Speakable Schema.

Top priorities

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

Content Licensing & AI PermissionsDiscovery+10 pts

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

#1156of 13362

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View improvement plan

How to Improve

Current

59/100

Projected

84/100

38Total Fixes

13Quick Wins

~65hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Add JSON-LD structured dataStrengthen entity authority (NAP)Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersBuild FAQ sections with schemaImplement semantic HTML5 elementsAdd content freshness signalsAdd ai.txt and content licensingExtend schema to inner pagesAdd visible date signalsPackage evidence for AI enginesClarify entity boundariesReduce extraction frictionReduce render-blocking resources

Fix

Impact

Effort

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

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

Create complete sitemap.xml

Generate a comprehensive sitemap with lastmod dates for all important pages.

medium

low

Create complete sitemap.xml

medium|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

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI42

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+10 pts0/10

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Creator Transparency

critical+9 pts1/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Author & Expert Schema

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Publishing Velocity

critical+8 pts2/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Methodology Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.getsequence.io/advisorsSequence for Advisors – Automate Client Cash Flow & Boost AUM

D42

content

1,310

www.getsequence.io/advisorsD42

Sequence for Advisors – Automate Client Cash Flow & Boost AUM

www.getsequence.io/maps-gallerySee How Others Move Their Money | Sequence

F38

content

1,137

www.getsequence.io/maps-galleryF38

See How Others Move Their Money | Sequence

www.getsequence.io/case-studiesCase Studies | Sequence

F36

cases

1,002

www.getsequence.io/case-studiesF36

Case Studies | Sequence

www.getsequence.io/solutions/businessCash Flow Automation for Business Owners | Sequence

D42

blog

861

www.getsequence.io/solutions/businessD42

Cash Flow Automation for Business Owners | Sequence

www.getsequence.io/blog/manage-inconsistent-income-automa...Managing Inconsistent Income: How to Automate Variable Cash Flow

D45

blog

1,302

www.getsequence.io/blog/manage-inconsistent-income-automa...D45

Managing Inconsistent Income: How to Automate Variable Cash Flow

www.getsequence.io/blog/automate-debt-payoff-strategyHow to Automate Debt Payoff: Beyond Snowball & Avalanche

D45

blog

1,298

www.getsequence.io/blog/automate-debt-payoff-strategyD45

How to Automate Debt Payoff: Beyond Snowball & Avalanche

www.getsequence.io/blog/target-balance-financial-automationThe Invisible Accountant: How to Automate Target Bank Balances

D50

blog

1,273

www.getsequence.io/blog/target-balance-financial-automationD50

The Invisible Accountant: How to Automate Target Bank Balances

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Changes since v1Last audited 29 days ago

→

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Schema.org Structured Data

0/10

5/10

Q&A Content Format

6/10

8/10

Entity Authority & NAP Consistency

3/10

5/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

4/10

5/10

Original Data & Expert Analysis

8/10

10/10

Content Freshness Signals

2/10

5/10

Schema Coverage & Depth

0/10

5/10

Query-Answer Alignment

0/10

7/10

Content Cannibalization

7/10

9/10

Visible Date Signal

0/10

3/10

Topic Coherence

5/10

8/10

Content Depth

6/10

8/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

3/10

2/10

-1

Methodology Transparency

3/10

2/10

-1

Answer-First Placement

8/10

10/10

Extraction Friction Score

6/10

5/10

-1

Duplicate Content Blocks

5/10

7/10

Cross-Page Duplicate Content

5/10

7/10

Page Speed: Server Response

7/10

6/10

-1

Entity Density

10/10

8/10

-2

Sentence Atomicity

8/10

10/10

Package Evidence for AIAdd First-Hand Experience SignalsAdd Entity DisambiguationBuild Comprehensive FAQ SectionEnhance Author & Expert SchemaFocus Content on Core TopicsImprove Question-Answer AlignmentIncrease Content DepthAdd Content Freshness SignalsAdd Schema.org Structured Data

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

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 →

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 →

Criteria1/10

Creator Transparency: Show Who Wrote This and Why They Are Qualified

Anonymous content is untrusted content. AI engines check for author bylines, bio links, reviewer credits, and Person schema to decide whether a page comes from a credible creator. Creator Transparency measures how clearly your content identifies its authors and their qualifications.

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 AI42

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Score Breakdown

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Site Pages

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