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.

threshold.network - AEO Audit Report | 57/100

SUMMER 2016 threshold.network

Moderate AI visibility with 30 of 48 criteria passing. Biggest gap: schema.org structured data.

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%6/10+9.0

FAQ Sections10%6/10+6.0

Original Data10%7/10+7.0

Content Freshness7%2/10+1.4

Direct Answer Paragraphs7%10/10+7.0

Fact & Data Density5%10/10+5.0

Definition Patterns4%7/10+2.8

Query-Answer Alignment8%7/10+5.6

Content Cannibalization5%7/10+3.5

Subtotal71%+47.3

Structure5 criteria

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

Clean, Crawlable HTML10%9/10+9.0

Semantic HTML55%7/10+3.5

Table & List Extractability7%5/10+3.5

Schema Coverage3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal40%+16.0

Discovery5 criteria

llms.txt10%10/10+10.0

robots.txt for AI5%5/10+2.5

Internal Linking10%8/10+8.0

Sitemap Completeness5%7/10+3.5

RSS/Atom Feed3%0/10+0.0

Subtotal33%+24.0

Trust Signals6 criteria

Entity Authority10%5/10+5.0

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%+7.2

Overall Score100%57/100

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 →

↑6 since v1

Citation Avg

Answer Readiness

~40% weight

7/10

Content Structure

~25% weight

7/10

Trust & Authority

~15% weight

3/10

Technical Foundation

~10% weight

5/10

AI Discovery

~10% weight

5/10

Verdict

Below-average AEO readiness at 57/100 - multiple areas need attention. Key strengths include llms.txt File, Direct Answer Paragraphs, and Fact & Data Density. 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

#1668of 13362

View full rankings →

View improvement plan

How to Improve

Current

57/100

Projected

83/100

39Total Fixes

12Quick Wins

~79hEst. Effort

Quick Wins

Strengthen entity authority (NAP)Configure robots.txt for AI crawlersLink orphan pages into site navigationAdd structured tables and listsAdd ai.txt and content licensingFix canonical URL strategyAdd visible date signalsImprove citation-ready writing qualityPackage evidence for AI enginesClarify entity boundariesReduce extraction frictionReduce document weight

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

Fix canonical URL strategy

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

critical

low

Fix canonical URL strategy

critical|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

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

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

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

Creator Transparency

critical+9 pts1/10

Image Context for AI

critical+9 pts1/10

Content Freshness Signals

critical+8 pts2/10

Content Licensing & AI Permissions

critical+8 pts2/10

Unlock Full Audit Report

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

Your competitors are already optimizing for AI

Every day without action is traffic your site loses to AI-ready competitors. We fix that.

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Site Pages

URLCitationSiteIn-linksCategoryIssuesWords

www.threshold.network/blogThreshold Network: News and Product Updates

F39

blog

641

www.threshold.network/blogF39

Threshold Network: News and Product Updates

www.threshold.network/institutionalVerifiable Bitcoin Accounts - Threshold Network

D43

content

597

www.threshold.network/institutionalD43

Verifiable Bitcoin Accounts - Threshold Network

Changes since v1Last audited 29 days ago

→

View full comparison →

Criterion

Delta

Original Data & Expert Analysis

5/10

7/10

Sitemap Completeness

6/10

7/10

Direct Answer Paragraphs

4/10

10/10

Content Cannibalization

3/10

7/10

Topic Coherence

6/10

7/10

Content Depth

5/10

6/10

Creator Transparency

2/10

1/10

-1

Answer-First Placement

8/10

10/10

Evidence Packaging

4/10

5/10

Extraction Friction Score

4/10

5/10

Cross-Page Duplicate Content

5/10

10/10

Page Speed: Load Blockers

7/10

8/10

Page Speed: Page Size

6/10

5/10

-1

Owned Data Density

6/10

4/10

-2

Sentence Atomicity

6/10

8/10

Improve Citation-Ready WritingAdd Owned Data SignalsAdd Direct Answer ParagraphsPackage Evidence for AI

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.