Frequently asked questions
In short, AEO is defined as the practice of structuring a page so that AI answer engines can quote it. It matters because those engines read the open web through dedicated crawlers. According to each provider's documentation, OpenAI's GPTBot, Anthropic's ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, and PerplexityBot all respect robots.txt, and they lean on Schema.org structured data, the vocabulary backed by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex.
The key is that AI engines cite passages, not whole sites. Research on AI answer quality shows that pages with a clear heading hierarchy, direct definitions, named authorship, and outbound citations are quoted far more often than thin or anonymous pages. Traditional SEO gets you ranked in a list of links. AEO gets you quoted in the answer itself. The two share a technical foundation, but the signals that decide whether you are cited are different, and most SEO tools do not measure them.
That is what CiteRank measures. Paste a URL and you get a 0 to 100 readiness score, a per-engine breakdown for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, and a ranked list of the exact fixes that will move your score the most. The audit is free. If you want the work done for you, the Fix Kit generates copy-paste schema and rewritten meta tags for a one-time fee.
What is AEO - Answer Engine Optimization?
AEO is the practice of structuring your website content so that AI answer engines - including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity - choose to cite your site when answering user questions. It complements traditional SEO by targeting AI-generated answers rather than ranked link lists.
How does CiteRank score my website?
CiteRank runs 9 checks across your page's static HTML: Schema.org structured data, AI crawler access via robots.txt, content structure, E-E-A-T signals, meta tags, citation worthiness, technical readiness, conversational language, and Open Graph tags. Each check is weighted by its real-world impact on AI citation rate to produce a 0-100 score.
Is CiteRank free to use?
Yes. Running an AEO audit is completely free - no account required. The Fix Kit (a personalised AI-generated action plan with copy-paste JSON-LD and schema blocks) is available for a one-time $29 fee per report.
Which AI engines does CiteRank check?
CiteRank audits readiness for ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), and Perplexity. The checks cover crawler access for all four engines plus the structured data and content signals that influence citation across all major AI answer platforms.
What is the Fix Kit?
The Fix Kit is a personalised action plan generated from your audit results. It includes a rewritten meta title and description, FAQPage JSON-LD you can drop into your site, an Organisation schema block, a ranked list of 5 action items, and suggested conversational prompts your brand should appear in. It is generated once per report and immediately available after a $29 payment.
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