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.

What is topic coherence and why is it the heaviest AEO criterion?

Topic coherence measures how tightly your blog content clusters around related themes. It is still the single heaviest criterion in the framework. The scorer analyzes sampled pages, building term frequency maps and bigram clusters to detect thematic focus. Sites with scattered topics (AI, recipes, fitness) score low. When coherence drops below 6/10, a "coherence gate" caps your entire AEO Site Rank - no matter how perfect your technical implementation.

What is the coherence gate and how does it cap my score?

The coherence gate is a unique scoring mechanic: when your topic coherence score drops below 6/10, your entire AEO Site Rank gets capped at 35 + (coherence_score * 5). A coherence score of 3 means your maximum possible AEO Site Rank is 50, regardless of how well you score on every other criterion. Fix this by removing off-topic blog content and building intentional topic clusters around your core themes.

How does content depth affect my AEO Site Rank?

Content Depth measures average word count, heading structure, and the ratio of substantive pages to thin pages. Pages under 500 words rarely get cited by AI. The sweet spot is 1,500-3,000 words with 5+ H2 headings. Content Depth is cross-linked with Topic Coherence - deep content on scattered topics gets penalized because depth without focus doesn't build authority.

What is content cannibalization and how does it hurt AI visibility?

Content cannibalization happens when multiple pages on your site target the same topic, forcing AI to guess which one to cite. The scorer compares page titles and content similarity across your site. Fix it by consolidating competing pages into one authoritative resource with 301 redirects from the old URLs. When Topic Coherence is low, the cannibalization penalty becomes more aggressive.

quisitive.com - AEO Audit Report | 36/100

quisitive.com

Weak AI visibility with 28 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: speakable schema.

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.

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%4/10+6.0

FAQ Sections10%2/10+2.0

Original Data10%8/10+8.0

Content Freshness7%7/10+4.9

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%4/10+2.8

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%9/10+3.6

Query-Answer Alignment8%7/10+5.6

Content Cannibalization5%7/10+3.5

Subtotal71%+41.4

Structure5 criteria

Schema.org JSON-LD15%9/10+13.5

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%5/10+5.0

Semantic HTML55%3/10+1.5

Table & List Extractability7%10/10+7.0

Schema Coverage3%10/10+3.0

Subtotal40%+30.0

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%10/10+5.0

Internal Linking10%8/10+8.0

Sitemap Completeness5%10/10+5.0

RSS/Atom Feed3%7/10+2.1

Subtotal33%+30.1

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%6/10+6.0

Content Licensing4%2/10+0.8

Author & Expert Schema4%9/10+3.6

Canonical URL4%10/10+4.0

Content Velocity3%10/10+3.0

Visible Date Signals4%3/10+1.2

Subtotal29%+18.6

Overall Score100%36/100

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 →

Citation Avg

Coherence gate active - score capped at 35

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

5/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

6/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

6/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

4/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

8/10

Verdict

Critical AEO gaps at 36/100 - quisitive.com is largely invisible to AI engines. Key strengths include llms.txt File, robots.txt for AI Crawlers, and Sitemap Completeness. Priority gaps: Speakable Schema, Topic Coherence, and Image Context for AI. Topic coherence is 0/10, which caps the overall score at 35. Focusing content on core expertise areas is the single highest-impact improvement.

Top priorities

Speakable SchemaTechnical+10 pts

Topic CoherenceAnswer+10 pts

Image Context for AITechnical+10 pts

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View improvement plan

How to Improve

Current

36/100

Projected

86/100

34Total Fixes

9Quick Wins

~58hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Add question-based headingsBuild FAQ sections with schemaImplement semantic HTML5 elementsAdd ai.txt and content licensingImprove query-answer alignmentAdd visible date signalsMake content creators clearly visibleImprove server response efficiencyReduce document weight

Fix

Impact

Effort

Reduce render-blocking resources

Minimize blocking scripts and stylesheets in <head> to improve content availability for AI crawlers.

critical

medium

Reduce render-blocking resources

critical|medium

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

Ensure clean, well-structured HTML with proper meta tags, HTTPS, and parseable content for AI crawlers.

medium

low

Fix HTML structure and meta tags

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

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

Improve server response efficiency

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

high

low

Improve server response efficiency

high|low

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Top Opportunities10

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Fix It With AI38

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Score Breakdown

Criteria

Status

Potential

Score

Speakable Schema

critical+10 pts0/10

Topic Coherence

critical+10 pts0/10

Image Context for AI

critical+10 pts0/10

Owned Data Density

critical+10 pts0/10

Entity Disambiguation

critical+9 pts1/10

Comprehensive FAQ Section

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

Methodology Transparency

critical+8 pts2/10

Page Speed: Load Blockers

critical+8 pts2/10

Semantic HTML5 & Accessibility

critical+7 pts3/10

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

quisitive.com/what-is-proactive-risk-managementProactive Risk Management & Security Monitoring | Quisitive

D40

content

4,631

quisitive.com/what-is-proactive-risk-managementD40

Proactive Risk Management & Security Monitoring | Quisitive

quisitive.com/azure-resource-manager-templates-part-one-v...Azure Resource Manager Templates - Part One - VM Extensions

F37

blog

3,798

quisitive.com/azure-resource-manager-templates-part-one-v...F37

Azure Resource Manager Templates - Part One - VM Extensions

quisitive.com/how-to-secure-remote-work-environments-usin...How to Secure Remote and Hybrid Work Environments using the Zero Trust Model Part 1 | Quisitive

D45

blog

2,803

quisitive.com/how-to-secure-remote-work-environments-usin...D45

How to Secure Remote and Hybrid Work Environments using the Zero Trust Model Part 1 | Quisitive

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

Topic Coherence: The 14% Criterion That Gates Your Entire Score

Your blog covers AI, recipes, fitness, and office furniture. AI engines see a site that doesn't know what it is - and they're right. Topic Coherence is the single heaviest criterion in the AEO scoring framework, and it can cap your entire score when it's low.

Intermediate·8 min readRead guide →

Criteria0/10

Image Context for AI: Your Pictures Are Worth Zero Words Without Markup

AI can't see your images. It reads the markup around them. A product photo with alt="image1.jpg" tells AI nothing. A figure with a descriptive figcaption and 8-word alt text tells AI exactly what it's looking at - and that context feeds directly into citation decisions.

Beginner·3 min readRead guide →

Criteria1/10

Entity Disambiguation: Stop Making AI Guess What You Mean

You say "Mercury" on your homepage. The planet? The element? The banking startup? AI doesn't know - and when it can't tell, it doesn't cite. Entity disambiguation is how you draw clear lines around what your business is and isn't.

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 AI38

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Score Breakdown

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