An AEO audit is a structured review of the signals that determine whether AI engines will cite your site. Unlike a standard SEO audit, which focuses on crawlability, keyword coverage, and backlink profiles, an AEO audit focuses on machine-readable content structure, AI crawler access, and E-E-A-T signals.
Here is how to run one, either manually or with a tool like CiteRank.
Step 1: Check AI crawler access (robots.txt)
Fetch your robots.txt file (yourdomain.com/robots.txt) and check for rules blocking AI crawlers. The bots to allow: GPTBot (ChatGPT), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, and OAI-SearchBot. A single Disallow: / under User-agent: * blocks all of them.
Step 2: Audit structured data (schema markup)
Check each key page for Schema.org markup using Google's Rich Results Test or by viewing source and searching for application/ld+json. Priority types to look for: Organization (homepage), Article or BlogPosting (blog posts), FAQPage (any page with Q&A content), Person (author pages and bio sections).
Step 3: Check E-E-A-T signals
- Named authors on all content (not "The Team")
- Author bio pages with real credentials
- About page with company information and team
- Contact information (email, address, or contact form)
- Person schema linking author names to their bio pages
- External citations: links to authoritative sources in your content
Step 4: Review content structure
Check that key pages have: a single clear H1, descriptive H2/H3 subheadings (ideally phrased as questions or direct topics), paragraphs under 150 words, and at least one definition-first sentence on the page. Check word count: pages under 300 words are rarely cited.
Step 5: Review meta tags
Check title and meta description for every key page. Title should be under 60 characters and include the primary keyword. Description should be 120-160 characters and summarise the page's direct answer. Missing or duplicate meta tags signal low content quality.
Step 6: Check for llms.txt
Fetch yourdomain.com/llms.txt. If it returns a 404, create it. If it exists, review whether it accurately describes your site's key pages and topics.
Step 7: Technical checks
- HTTPS everywhere (no mixed content)
- Sitemap at /sitemap.xml, submitted to Google Search Console
- Page load time under 3 seconds (use PageSpeed Insights)
- No broken links on key pages
- Canonical tags on all pages
Automate with CiteRank
Running the above manually takes 2-3 hours per page. CiteRank automates all 9 checks and returns a scored report in under 10 seconds. It also generates a Fix Kit with copy-paste schema markup and a prioritised action plan. Use the manual checklist above to understand what matters, then use CiteRank to run audits at scale.