Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the discipline of making your brand findable, readable, and quotable by AI answer engines. This checklist is ordered by leverage — the top items unlock everything below them. Each check is verifiable in minutes.
Layer 1 — Access (engines can reach you)
- robots.txt allows AI crawlers — GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended. Verify: open /robots.txt and read it.
- HTTPS everywhere — trust baseline for humans and machines.
- Fast first response — under 1.5s. Slow sites get truncated crawls.
- Server-rendered text — key content visible without JavaScript. Verify: view-source and search for your headline.
- sitemap.xml exists and is referenced in robots.txt — deep pages get discovered.
Layer 2 — Legibility (engines understand you)
- Title tag states identity — 15–70 chars: what you are, for whom.
- One clear H1 per page — plain-language identity, not a slogan.
- Meta description 50–170 chars — the summary engines often lift.
- JSON-LD: Organization — name, logo, description, sameAs.
- JSON-LD: Product / SoftwareApplication / LocalBusiness — with real prices; engines quote numbers.
- llms.txt at site root — plain-text site guide for AI systems.
- Machine-readable facts endpoint (advanced) — canonical JSON of claims, pricing, FAQs.
Layer 3 — Quotability (engines cite you)
- FAQ content with FAQPage schema — direct answers to real buyer questions.
- Comparison pages that name competitors — the pages engines cite for "X vs Y" prompts.
- First-paragraph answers — every question-targeting page answers in the first 2 sentences.
Layer 4 — Corroboration & measurement
- Presence on cited third-party sources — find the pages engines cite for your money prompts; earn placement there.
- Scheduled multi-engine tracking — weekly at minimum across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude; score mentions, rank, share of voice, citations.
Items 1–12 are one-time fixes a single afternoon can clear — and they are exactly what the AnswerScope site audit checks and the Fix Pack generates (llms.txt, facts JSON, robots rules, FAQ schema).
Key takeaways
- AEO has four layers: access → legibility → quotability → corroboration, plus continuous measurement.
- Most sites fail at layer 1 or 2 — cheap fixes with outsized impact.
- Quotability is content strategy: direct answers, honest comparisons, FAQ schema.
- Measurement closes the loop: prompt-level tracking shows which fixes moved answers.
Checklist, automated
Audit all of this in one click
The free scan runs these checks and scores your site 0–100, with named fixes for every failure.
Frequently asked questions
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
AEO is the practice of optimizing your website and brand presence so AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude — can crawl, understand, quote, and recommend you when users ask relevant questions.
What are the most important AEO fixes?
In order of leverage: allow AI crawlers in robots.txt, ensure server-rendered readable text, state your identity plainly in titles/H1s, add JSON-LD structured data (Organization, Product, FAQPage), publish llms.txt, and create direct-answer FAQ content.
Is AEO different from SEO?
They overlap (crawlability, structured data, good content) but diverge in target: SEO optimizes ranked links, AEO optimizes presence inside synthesized answers — which draw on a different citation pool and reward machine-legible facts.
How do I know if my AEO work is working?
Track a fixed set of buyer prompts across engines on a schedule and watch mention rate, mention rank, share of voice, and own-domain citations trend over time.