The AEO Audit Checklist: 34 Checks for AI Visibility | SEO AEO Specialist SEO & AEO Specialist

In short

This AEO audit checklist covers the six categories AI answer engines evaluate before citing a page: crawler access, content and answers, schema and structured data, entity recognition, freshness, and technical health. Work through all 34 checks below to self-assess, then run SEO AEO Specialist's free audit of up to 50 pages (€0) to confirm and prioritize the fixes.

SEO AEO Specialist, by Pyratz Corp, auto-checks every item here and hands you a prioritized fix list — because knowing what's wrong is only half the job. For definitions of any term, see the SEO & AEO glossary.

Group A — Crawler access (can AI engines reach you?)

A1. robots.txt allows AI search crawlers: OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot are not disallowed.
A2. You have made a deliberate decision about training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended) — allow or block on purpose, not by accident.
A3. Google-Extended is not blocking you from AI experiences unless you intend it.
A4. Key pages return HTTP 200 (not 403/404/soft-404) to crawlers.
A5. Important content is server-rendered or otherwise available without JavaScript execution.
A6. An up-to-date XML sitemap lists your key pages and is referenced in robots.txt.

Group B — Content and answers (are you answerable?)

B1. Each key page states a direct answer in the first 40–60 words.
B2. Pages use clear H1/H2/H3 headings that phrase real questions.
B3. Content uses lists, tables and short paragraphs that chunk cleanly for retrieval.
B4. Claims are backed by statistics, quotations and cited sources.
B5. You cover a topic's sub-questions comprehensively (query fan-out readiness).
B6. An FAQ section answers the real questions users ask about your topic.
B7. Content demonstrates E-E-A-T: named authors, credentials, first-hand experience.

Group C — Schema and structured data (can machines parse you?)

C1. Key pages carry valid JSON-LD structured data.
C2. FAQ pages use FAQPage schema.
C3. How-to content uses HowTo schema.
C4. Product/pricing pages use Product schema with price and availability.
C5. Articles use Article/BlogPosting schema with author and date.
C6. Your site declares Organization schema for brand entity recognition.
C7. Structured data validates with no errors in a schema testing tool.

Group D — Entity (do AI systems recognize you?)

D1. Your brand, product and key people are named consistently across all pages.
D2. Core entities are described clearly and defined once, prominently (entity salience).
D3. Your brand is referenced by authoritative third-party sources.
D4. A glossary or definitions section clarifies your domain's key terms.
D5. Internal links connect related entity and topic pages (pillar/cluster).

Group E — Freshness (is your content current?)

E1. Time-sensitive pages show a visible, accurate last-updated date.
E2. Statistics, prices and examples are current, not stale.
E3. You have a schedule to review and refresh high-value pages.
E4. Outdated pages are updated, consolidated or pruned to fight content decay.

Group F — Technical (is the foundation solid?)

F1. Each page has a correct, self-referencing or intentional canonical tag.
F2. Multi-language/region sites use correct hreflang annotations.
F3. No key page is accidentally set to noindex.
F4. Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) are within Google's "good" thresholds.
F5. Site is served over HTTPS with no mixed-content or certificate errors.

Next step

Run SEO AEO Specialist's free €0 audit (up to 50 pages) to auto-check these items, then get the €9 full report or €19/month monitoring to track and fix them over time. Prefer to learn the concepts first? Start with the AEO guide or browse the free tools.

FAQ

How many items are in the AEO audit checklist?

This checklist has 34 checks across six groups: crawler access (6), content and answers (7), schema and structured data (7), entity recognition (5), freshness (4), and technical foundations (5). Together they cover everything an AI answer engine evaluates before citing a page.

Do I need all 34 to be true to get cited?

No single item guarantees citation, and few sites pass everything at once. The checklist is a prioritization tool: crawler access (Group A) and answerable content (Group B) matter most, because an engine cannot cite a page it cannot reach or extract. SEO AEO Specialist scores each item and orders the fixes by impact.

See where you stand

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