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.

hiro.is - AEO Audit Report | 52/100

SUMMER 2023 hiro.is

Moderate AI visibility with 24 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: schema.org structured data.

Developer Tools & Infrastructure Developer 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.

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%5/10+7.5

FAQ Sections10%2/10+2.0

Original Data10%5/10+5.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%7/10+4.9

Fact & Data Density5%6/10+3.0

Definition Patterns4%5/10+2.0

Query-Answer Alignment8%4/10+3.2

Content Cannibalization5%10/10+5.0

Subtotal71%+34.0

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%9/10+9.0

Semantic HTML55%8/10+4.0

Table & List Extractability7%3/10+2.1

Schema Coverage3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal40%+15.1

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%10/10+5.0

Internal Linking10%8/10+8.0

Sitemap Completeness5%5/10+2.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+25.5

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%3/10+3.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%2/10+0.8

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%2/10+0.6

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+5.2

Overall Score100%52/100

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 →

↑8 since v1

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

7/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

6/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

3/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

5/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

6/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 52/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, robots.txt for AI Crawlers, and Content Cannibalization. Priority gaps: Schema.org Structured Data, RSS/Atom Feed, and Canonical URL Strategy.

Top priorities

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

RSS/Atom FeedDiscovery+10 pts

Canonical URL StrategyDiscovery+10 pts

#3893of 13362

#753of 2337 in Developer Tools & Infrastructure

Ahead of you

minded.com52

weaverobotics.com52

View full rankings →

View improvement plan

How to Improve

Current

52/100

Projected

81/100

38Total Fixes

11Quick Wins

~87hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Add question-based headingsCreate complete sitemap.xmlAdd definition-style contentAdd ai.txt and content licensingFix canonical URL strategyImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsIncrease content depth and structureMake content creators clearly visibleClarify entity boundariesReduce extraction friction

Fix

Impact

Effort

Create complete sitemap.xml

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

high

low

Create complete sitemap.xml

high|low

Fix canonical URL strategy

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

critical

low

Fix canonical URL strategy

critical|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

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

Improve server response efficiency

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

medium

low

Improve server response efficiency

medium|low

Unlock Full Improvement Plan

Top Opportunities10

Unlock Opportunities

Fix It With AI40

Unlock AI Fix Prompts

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

Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Schema.org Structured Data

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

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

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Evidence Packaging

critical+9 pts1/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Unlock Full Audit Report

See all 48 criteria with detailed findings and actionable fix recommendations.

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

hiro.is/securityHiro — Your Autonomous Security Team

F36

content

550

hiro.is/securityF36

Hiro — Your Autonomous Security Team

Changes since v1Last audited 30 days ago

→

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

llms.txt File

0/10

10/10

+10

Q&A Content Format

1/10

5/10

Entity Authority & NAP Consistency

4/10

3/10

-1

robots.txt for AI Crawlers

2/10

10/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

0/10

2/10

Original Data & Expert Analysis

3/10

5/10

Internal Linking Structure

5/10

8/10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

6/10

8/10

Sitemap Completeness

0/10

5/10

Direct Answer Paragraphs

4/10

7/10

Fact & Data Density

4/10

6/10

Content Publishing Velocity

0/10

2/10

Query-Answer Alignment

5/10

4/10

-1

Topic Coherence

5/10

10/10

Helpful Purpose Alignment

8/10

6/10

-2

Creator Transparency

1/10

4/10

Methodology Transparency

4/10

2/10

-2

Answer-First Placement

10/10

6/10

-4

Entity Disambiguation

5/10

4/10

-1

Image Context for AI

5/10

3/10

-2

Page Speed: Page Size

10/10

9/10

-1

Answer Capsule Pattern

2/10

4/10

Entity Density

8/10

10/10

Strengthen Entity Authority (NAP)Improve Question-Answer AlignmentAdd Content Freshness SignalsFocus Content on Core TopicsRestructure Content as Q&AAdd Direct Answer Paragraphs

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

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

Canonical URL Strategy

Same content, three URLs, zero canonical tags. Congratulations -you just split your authority three ways and gave AI crawlers a headache.

Intermediate·5 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

Schema Coverage Ratio

Your homepage has perfect JSON-LD. Your other 200 pages? Zero. Here's how we measure the gap -and why AI engines judge your whole domain by it.