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.

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.

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 happens if my site scores below 20?

A score below 20 means most fundamental AEO infrastructure is missing - no llms.txt, no relevant schema, likely blocking AI crawlers, no FAQ content. The good news is the fastest gains come from this starting point. Adding llms.txt, basic Organization schema, and unblocking AI crawlers in robots.txt can double your score in a single day.

What is llms.txt and do I need one?

llms.txt is a plain-text file at your domain root — like robots.txt — that gives AI assistants a structured summary of your website. What your business does, key content areas, how to navigate your site. It helps AI systems understand your business without crawling every page. If you want AI visibility, you need one.

hydra.so - AEO Audit Report | 25/100

WINTER 2022 hydra.so

Weak AI visibility with 12 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: llms.txt file.

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.

Not on the radarOut 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%0/10+0.0

Original Data10%0/10+0.0

Content Freshness7%0/10+0.0

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%0/10+0.0

Fact & Data Density5%0/10+0.0

Definition Patterns4%0/10+0.0

Query-Answer Alignment8%5/10+4.0

Content Cannibalization5%5/10+2.5

Subtotal71%+8.0

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%2/10+2.0

Semantic HTML55%0/10+0.0

Table & List Extractability7%0/10+0.0

Schema Coverage3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal40%+2.0

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%0/10+0.0

robots.txt for AI5%2/10+1.0

Internal Linking10%0/10+0.0

Sitemap Completeness5%0/10+0.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+1.0

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%1/10+1.0

Content Licensing4%0/10+0.0

Author & Expert Schema4%0/10+0.0

Canonical URL4%0/10+0.0

Content Velocity3%0/10+0.0

Visible Date Signals4%0/10+0.0

Subtotal29%+1.0

Overall Score100%25/100

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 →

↓20 since v1

Citation Avg

Coherence gate active - score capped at 60

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

3/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

1/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

1/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

3/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

2/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 25/100 - hydra.so is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include Duplicate Content Blocks, Page Speed: Load Blockers, and Page Speed: Page Size. Priority gaps: llms.txt File, Schema.org Structured Data, and Comprehensive FAQ Section. Topic coherence is moderate at 5/10, capping the score at 60. Tighter topical focus would lift this ceiling.

Top priorities

llms.txt FileDiscovery+10 pts

Schema.org Structured DataTrust+10 pts

Comprehensive FAQ SectionStructure+10 pts

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How to Improve

Current

25/100

Projected

78/100

42Total Fixes

14Quick Wins

~87hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Create /llms.txt fileConfigure robots.txt for AI crawlersAdd structured tables and listsAdd ai.txt and content licensingFix canonical URL strategyImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsFocus blog content on core expertiseMake pages solve the user task fasterMake content creators clearly visiblePackage evidence for AI enginesReduce extraction frictionFix duplicate content blocksReduce 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 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

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

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI45

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

llms.txt File

critical+10 pts0/10

Schema.org Structured Data

critical+10 pts0/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+10 pts0/10

Original Data & Expert Analysis

critical+10 pts0/10

Internal Linking Structure

critical+10 pts0/10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

critical+10 pts0/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+10 pts0/10

Sitemap Completeness

critical+10 pts0/10

RSS/Atom Feed

critical+10 pts0/10

Table & List Extractability

critical+10 pts0/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

Changes since v1Last audited 30 days ago

→

-20

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Clean, Crawlable HTML

8/10

2/10

-6

Entity Authority & NAP Consistency

5/10

1/10

-4

robots.txt for AI Crawlers

5/10

2/10

-3

Original Data & Expert Analysis

8/10

0/10

-8

Internal Linking Structure

7/10

0/10

-7

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

2/10

0/10

-2

Content Freshness Signals

2/10

0/10

-2

Sitemap Completeness

6/10

0/10

-6

Table & List Extractability

5/10

0/10

-5

Definition Patterns

9/10

0/10

-9

Direct Answer Paragraphs

7/10

0/10

-7

Author & Expert Schema

2/10

0/10

-2

Fact & Data Density

10/10

0/10

-10

Content Publishing Velocity

2/10

0/10

-2

Query-Answer Alignment

0/10

5/10

Content Cannibalization

10/10

5/10

-5

Content Depth

1/10

3/10

Helpful Purpose Alignment

4/10

5/10

First-Hand Experience Signals

3/10

4/10

Creator Transparency

5/10

3/10

-2

Methodology Transparency

2/10

4/10

Citation-Ready Writing Quality

10/10

0/10

-10

Answer-First Placement

0/10

3/10

Evidence Packaging

4/10

0/10

-4

Extraction Friction Score

4/10

5/10

Image Context for AI

1/10

5/10

Duplicate Content Blocks

5/10

10/10

Cross-Page Duplicate Content

10/10

5/10

-5

Page Speed: Server Response

8/10

7/10

-1

Page Speed: Load Blockers

4/10

10/10

Page Speed: Page Size

9/10

10/10

Answer Capsule Pattern

4/10

5/10

Entity Density

10/10

3/10

-7

Owned Data Density

6/10

0/10

-6

Sentence Atomicity

8/10

3/10

-5

Add Original Data & Case StudiesIncrease Fact & Data DensityAdd Direct Answer ParagraphsIncrease Entity DensityImprove Citation-Ready WritingStrengthen Entity Authority (NAP)Improve Question-Answer AlignmentAdd Answer-First PlacementFix Duplicate Content BlocksBuild Comprehensive FAQ SectionAdd Entity DisambiguationAdd Content Freshness Signals

Improve Your Score

Guides for the criteria with the most room for improvement

Criteria0/10

llms.txt -The File That Separates 63 from 34

Tidio has a 251-line llms.txt. Crisp has zero. The score gap: +29 points. This single file tells AI assistants exactly what your site does -and without it, they're guessing.

Beginner·8 min readRead guide →

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

FAQ Sections: 87 Questions Turned Our Score Into 88

Our site runs 87 FAQ items across 9 categories with FAQPage schema on every one. That's not excessive -it's how we hit 88/100. Each Q&A pair is a citation opportunity AI can extract in seconds.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

Original Data: The Content AI Can't Find Anywhere Else

AI has a trust hierarchy for sources. At the top: proprietary data and first-hand expert analysis. At the bottom: rewritten Wikipedia articles. We've watched AI preferentially cite sites with original benchmarks -even over bigger competitors.

Advanced·8 min readRead guide →

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Verdict

How to Improve

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI45

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Score Breakdown

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