What the AEO Score measures
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the discipline of structuring your content so that AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot — pick it as a source when generating responses. The AEO Score is a 0–100 composite that measures exactly how citation-ready your page is.
The 9 checks across 3 weighted categories
Our free AEO Score Calculator looks at the signals AI models actually use when choosing what to cite — a mix of machine-readable structured data and human-readable content patterns.
- Structured data (40 points) — JSON-LD presence, Schema.org type coverage (Organization, WebSite, Article/Product, BreadcrumbList), and FAQ or HowTo schema (the highest-leverage single signal).
- Answer-ready content (30 points) — question-style
<h2>and<h3>headings, concise 30–80 word answer paragraphs, and structured formatting like lists, tables, and definition lists. - Metadata & social (30 points) — meta description in the 120–160 character sweet spot, Open Graph tags (
og:title,og:description,og:image), and a self-referential canonical URL.
Scores map to letter grades: A (80+) is cite-worthy, B (60–79) is a solid foundation, C (40–59) has major gaps, and D (under 40) means your page is essentially invisible to AI answer engines.
AEO vs SEO vs GEO
The three acronyms get conflated. SEO optimizes for Google search rankings, AEO optimizes for AI answer citations, and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the broader umbrella that combines AEO with crawler access and brand-mention monitoring. You can think of AEO as the on-page craft of being citation-ready. Pair this tool with our LLM Friendly Score Calculator to cover the access layer too.
How to improve your AEO score
The fixes are surprisingly cheap. Most sites move from a C to a B in an afternoon and from a B to an A in about a week.
- Add Organization and WebSite schema sitewide, and Article or Product schema to every content/offering page.
- Add FAQ schemato any page with a Q&A section — if the page doesn't have one, add one. FAQs are the single most cite-worthy content format right now.
- Rewrite a few headings as questions and make sure the paragraph immediately after is a clean, standalone 30–80 word answer.
- Tighten every meta description to 120–160 characters, add Open Graph tags to every template, and set a self-referential canonical on every page.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AEO score?
An AEO score is a 0–100 measure of how well your webpage is structured to be cited by AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It evaluates structured data, answer-ready content, and metadata across nine specific checks.
How is AEO different from SEO?
SEO optimizes for ranking on a search results page. AEO optimizes for being quoted inside an AI-generated answer. The two share fundamentals, but AEO weighs schema markup, question-style headings, and concise answer paragraphs far more heavily.
What is the single most important AEO signal?
FAQ or HowTo schema. Both are explicit Q&A structures that AI engines parse and quote directly. Adding FAQ schema to a page with a Q&A section is the highest-ROI move on the entire AEO checklist.
How long does it take to improve my AEO score?
Most sites can move from a D or C to a B within a single afternoon by adding Organization schema, FAQ schema, OG tags, and canonical URLs. Reaching an A grade usually takes another week of content restructuring.
Does a high AEO score guarantee I'll be cited by ChatGPT?
No tool can guarantee citations — they depend on query specificity, your topical authority, and the model's retrieval policy. But a high AEO score is a near-prerequisite. Sites scoring below 40 are essentially never cited; sites scoring 80+ get cited disproportionately for their topical area.
Is AEO the same as GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
GEO is the broader umbrella — AEO plus crawler access plus brand-mention monitoring. AEO specifically refers to the on-page craft of being citation-ready.