Quick Answer: A complete AEO readiness audit covers four areas: content (question-based structure, direct answers, FAQs), structured data (schema, llms.txt, AGENTS.md), technical (AI crawler accessibility, page speed, rendering), and measurement (baseline citation tracking). Run through the 25 checks below; aim to fix the highest-priority gaps within 30 days.

An AEO readiness audit gives you a clear baseline of where your site stands today and what needs to change to compete for AI citations. Run this audit before starting any AEO program — and re-run it quarterly thereafter.

Content audit (8 checks)

  1. Each key page has an H1 that names the topic clearly.
  2. Each key page opens with a direct answer summary in the first 60 words.
  3. H2 and H3 headings are written as natural-language questions.
  4. Each page has a comprehensive FAQ section with 8-12 questions.
  5. Long-form content includes tables, lists, and structured data wherever they aid extraction.
  6. Internal linking signals topical authority (related pages link to each other meaningfully).
  7. Content depth matches or exceeds the cited sources for each target query.
  8. Author bios with credentials appear on content pages where E-E-A-T matters.

Structured data audit (7 checks)

  1. Organization schema appears sitewide with full identity properties.
  2. WebSite schema with SearchAction appears sitewide.
  3. BreadcrumbList schema appears on every non-home page.
  4. Article schema appears on every blog post with author, dates, and publisher.
  5. FAQPage schema appears on every page with a FAQ section.
  6. Type-specific schema (Product, Service, LocalBusiness, etc.) appears where applicable.
  7. All schema validates cleanly in Google Rich Results Test.

AEO file audit (4 checks)

  1. llms.txt file exists at /llms.txt and includes brand description, key pages, and structure.
  2. AGENTS.md file exists at /AGENTS.md.
  3. robots.txt explicitly allows GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, anthropic-ai, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, CCBot, and Applebot-Extended.
  4. Sitewide head includes <link rel="alternate" type="text/markdown" href="/llms.txt"> and the ai-content-declaration meta tag.

Technical audit (4 checks)

  1. Pages render core content server-side or in plain HTML (no JS-only content).
  2. Page load is under 2.5 seconds on a standard connection.
  3. No bot rate-limiting or Cloudflare blocks against major AI crawlers.
  4. All key pages return clean 200 status codes.

Measurement audit (2 checks)

  1. You have a baseline AI share of voice measurement for your category.
  2. You have a baseline citation count and prompt coverage report.

What to do after the audit

Categorize gaps by impact and effort. Fix the highest-impact, lowest-effort items first — typically llms.txt deployment, FAQPage schema, AI crawler allowlists, and direct-answer summaries on top pages. These can usually be shipped within 30 days.

For a downloadable PDF version of this checklist, see our AEO Site Audit Checklist resource.