Audit Framework

The AEO Audit Checklist: 14 Points to Score Any Website's AI Visibility

April 23, 2026 · Teehoo Martech · 16 min read

Most websites have never been audited for AI visibility. They were built for Google — optimized for keywords, backlinks, and Core Web Vitals — and they're blind to whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini can actually find and cite them.

This is the 14-point checklist we use to audit any website end to end. Each check has a weight (its contribution to the 0-100 score), a reason it matters, and the concrete fix. Use it manually, or use a tool like Teehoo Martech's free GEO Audit to run the whole thing in under 5 minutes.

24/100

Average AEO score across 6,400 local businesses we scanned — Grade F

The Score Framework

Each check earns up to its weight in points. Miss a check entirely and you earn 0; partial credit for partial implementation. Final score = sum of all 14 weights, normalized to 100.

Grade	Score range	What it means
A	85-100	Category leader. AI consistently cites you.
B	70-84	Well-positioned. Some engines cite you; optimization will close gaps.
C	50-69	Middle of the pack. Technical fundamentals in place but inconsistent.
D	30-49	Below baseline. Significant remediation required.
F	0-29	Effectively invisible. Most of the 14 checks fail.

The 14 Checks

18 pts 1

Schema.org JSON-LD — Organization / Product / LocalBusiness

Why: AI retrieval pipelines use Schema to identify who/what a page is about. Without it, AI has to infer from unstructured HTML. The single highest-impact check.

Pass criteria: Valid JSON-LD for at least Organization (or LocalBusiness for local), passes Google's Rich Results Test, includes name, url, logo, sameAs.

Fix: Add JSON-LD to the site head or footer. Start with Organization (all sites), add Product for e-commerce, LocalBusiness for physical locations, FAQPage where applicable.

12 pts 2

AI Crawler Access (robots.txt)

Why: If GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or PerplexityBot is disallowed, the respective engine can't index your content — period.

Pass criteria: robots.txt explicitly allows (or doesn't disallow) GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, CCBot.

Fix: Add User-agent: GPTBot\nAllow: / (and equivalents for other AI crawlers) to robots.txt. Remove any inherited blocks from old plugins or WordPress defaults.

10 pts 3

FAQ Content with FAQPage Schema

Why: AI loves direct Q&A format. FAQPage-schema pages become the literal cited source for category queries.

Pass criteria: A dedicated FAQ page (or FAQ section on key pages) with at least 6 Q&A pairs, wrapped in FAQPage JSON-LD.

Fix: Build a /faq page. Pull questions from support tickets, sales calls, and Google's "People Also Ask." Add FAQPage schema. Answers should be 50-200 words each — not one-liners, not essays.

10 pts 4

Cross-Platform Presence (4+ external platforms)

Why: Brands mentioned on 4+ platforms (Reddit, Wikipedia, review sites, directories, major publishers) get cited at 2.8x the rate of single-platform brands.

Pass criteria: Brand appears on 4+ distinct external platforms beyond its own site and Google Business Profile.

Fix: Audit where you appear. Common targets: Wikipedia (if notable), Reddit (organic, genuine participation), G2/Capterra (SaaS), Yelp (local), industry-specific directories. Aim for 6+ within 6 months.

8 pts 5

llms.txt at Site Root

Why: The emerging "readme for AI" standard. Tells crawlers who you are, what you do, and which URLs matter most.

Pass criteria: /llms.txt exists, is <500 lines, includes positioning + key URL list.

Fix: Create a markdown file at site root. Structure: H1 with brand name, blockquote with one-sentence positioning, "About" section, "Key Pages" list with links. Reference our ChatGPT ranking factors guide for the template.

7 pts 6

Meta Tags & Open Graph

Why: First signals AI reads when browsing your page. Weak meta = weak first impression in the model's working memory.

Pass criteria: Homepage has unique <title> (50-60 chars), <meta description> (140-160 chars), and og:title, og:description, og:type, og:image.

Fix: Audit homepage meta. Title format: "Brand — Category / Differentiator". Description: what you do and who for, in one sentence. Add og: tags to every page template.

6 pts 7

Title Tags on Key Pages

Why: AI summarization uses titles as the primary label for a page's topic. Generic titles ("Home", "About Us") signal nothing.

Pass criteria: Top 10 pages (by traffic) have unique, descriptive, keyword-aligned titles.

Fix: Rewrite any title that says "Home" or matches another page exactly. Each title should be scannable, include the category, and stand alone as a summary.

6 pts 8

Content Depth on Top Landing Pages

Why: Thin content rarely gets cited. AI biases toward comprehensive pages (2,000+ words) over listicle-style posts.

Pass criteria: Top 5 category-intent pages average >1,500 words and use H2/H3 hierarchy.

Fix: Identify top-intent pages (from search console or the categories you want to rank in). Expand thin content with real information — use cases, examples, comparisons, FAQs, tables. Don't just pad.

6 pts 9

Review Quality & Recency

Why: AI heavily weights review-aggregation sources (Amazon, Yelp, G2, Trustpilot). Fresh 4.5+ ratings outperform stale ratings at any volume.

Pass criteria: At least one major review platform with 20+ reviews, 4.5+ average, most recent within 60 days.

Fix: Identify your 2-3 key review platforms. Set up an automated ask flow: post-onboarding, post-delivery, post-renewal. Respond to all reviews (positive and negative) within 7 days.

5 pts 10

Internal Linking & Site Structure

Why: Clear hierarchy helps AI understand what the site is about. A dozen orphan pages dilutes topic signal.

Pass criteria: Every important page is within 3 clicks of the homepage. Related pages link to each other. No orphan pages in the top 20 by traffic.

Fix: Audit your site tree. Build pillar → cluster → sub-cluster linking. Kill or merge pages with no incoming links and no search traffic.

4 pts 11

Freshness Signals

Why: AI biases toward recently-updated content for time-sensitive queries. A 2024 "best X" article loses to a 2026 one.

Pass criteria: Top 10 content pages have an "Updated [month year]" timestamp within the last 12 months.

Fix: Quarterly content refresh on top 20 pages. Add new data, fix outdated claims, update the "Updated" stamp. Don't just touch the date — add real new info.

4 pts 12

Mobile Rendering & Speed

Why: AI crawlers use mobile user agents for many retrievals. Slow or broken mobile = missed citations.

Pass criteria: Mobile LCP < 2.5s, no layout shifts, all content accessible (no JS-gated content that fails without interaction).

Fix: Run a mobile Lighthouse audit. Prioritize LCP (compress hero images, defer third-party JS). Ensure no content is hidden behind "read more" buttons that require clicks AI can't perform.

2 pts 13

Canonical Tags

Why: Duplicate-URL situations confuse AI about which version to cite. Canonical tags disambiguate.

Pass criteria: Every page has a <link rel="canonical"> pointing to the authoritative version.

Fix: Add canonical tags to page templates. Point to the https://www (or non-www) version consistently. Especially critical for pages with utm parameters.

2 pts 14

XML Sitemap

Why: Helps AI crawlers discover all indexable URLs. Not a huge signal on its own but a baseline sanity check.

Pass criteria: Sitemap exists at /sitemap.xml, includes all indexable pages, referenced in robots.txt.

Fix: Generate sitemap (most CMSes do this automatically). Reference in robots.txt: Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. Check it includes your 20 most important pages.

Total possible: 100 points. Most sites we audit score 20-40 on the first pass. The good news: the top 5 checks (Schema, robots, FAQ, cross-platform, llms.txt) represent 58 points and can all be completed in 1-2 weeks of focused work.

The 30-Minute Audit Workflow

For each site, work top to bottom:

5 min — Check robots.txt + Schema. Visit yoursite.com/robots.txt. Search for GPTBot. Then view page source and grep for "@type". Score checks 1, 2, 14.
5 min — Check llms.txt + sitemap. Visit /llms.txt and /sitemap.xml. Score checks 5, 14.
5 min — Validate meta + titles. Inspect homepage and top 5 pages. Score 6, 7.
5 min — Check FAQ + content depth. Find FAQ page, inspect schema. Count words on top 3 category-intent pages. Score 3, 8.
5 min — Check cross-platform + reviews. Google the brand. Count distinct review/directory platforms in top 20 results. Check most recent review date on top platform. Score 4, 9.
5 min — Spot-check mobile + internal linking + freshness. Run mobile Lighthouse on homepage. Check footer for orphan-page signs. Check top pages for "Updated" dates. Score 10, 11, 12, 13.

Sum the points. That's your AEO score. Grade it against the table above.

Prioritizing Remediation

If you score below 50, the order of operations matters. Technical fixes first (they're one-time and high-leverage), content fixes second (they compound), platform-presence third (it takes months to build).

Phase	Weeks	Checks tackled	Expected lift
1 — Technical foundation	Weeks 1-2	#1, #2, #5, #13, #14	+25-35 points
2 — Content structure	Weeks 3-6	#3, #6, #7, #8, #10	+15-25 points
3 — Authority & presence	Weeks 7-12	#4, #9, #11	+10-20 points
4 — Ongoing	Monthly+	#11, #9, re-audit	+5/quarter

Most brands go from Grade F to Grade B in 6-8 weeks with this sequence. Grade A takes 6+ months because authority signals (Wikipedia, genuine Reddit presence, authoritative citations) can't be fast-tracked ethically.

Our own website went from 49/100 to 94/100 in 30 minutes with 5 technical fixes (read the case study). Technical debt on AEO is easier to pay off than SEO debt — the wins are concrete, the fixes are bounded.

FAQ

What is an AEO audit?

An AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) audit is a structured check of whether a website is technically, structurally, and editorially ready to be cited and recommended by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. It's analogous to an SEO audit but uses different ranking signals — structured data and direct answers matter more than backlinks and keyword density.

How long does an AEO audit take?

Manual audit: 2-4 hours per site if you know what you're doing, 6-8 if you're learning. Automated audit with a tool like Teehoo Martech: 3-5 minutes for the full 14-point scan. Most agencies use automation for monthly monitoring and manual deep-dives for quarterly reviews.

What score do I need to pass an AEO audit?

70+ is a passing grade. Sites scoring 70-84 are well-positioned for AI visibility; 85+ is category-leading. Below 50 is Grade F — the site is effectively invisible to AI. In our scan of 6,400+ local businesses, the average score was 24/100. Most websites have never been audited for AI visibility.

Which AEO audit checks have the highest impact?

By observed weight: (1) Schema.org structured data — 18 points. (2) AI crawler access in robots.txt — 12 points. (3) FAQ content with FAQPage schema — 10 points. (4) Cross-platform presence — 10 points. (5) llms.txt — 8 points. Together these five represent 58 of 100 total points.

Can I do an AEO audit for free?

Yes. Teehoo Martech offers a free GEO Audit that scores any website against all 14 checks and generates a remediation plan. No signup needed for the baseline; signup unlocks historical tracking, PDF export, and the full 90-day content growth plan.

Run the full 14-point audit on your site — free

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